• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast

A philosopher, an actor, and a sci-fi writer talk about media and how we consume it.

  • About
  • Episodes
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Contact

PMP#19: Race and the Target Audience w/ Rodney Ramsey

November 13, 2019 by Mark 2 Comments

http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/partiallyexaminedlife/PMP_019_10-27-19.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

We’ve all felt at various points (maybe at most points) that some media creation has reached us by mistake, that we are not the target audience. 20th century American TV was aimed largely at a white majority, with a parallel, underfunded channel of content aimed at people of color.

So how have things changed? There still seem to be “black shows,”  but how do they fit in to a landscape where inclusiveness is a tool by which shows attempt to appeal to everyone (i.e. get all the money)? Comedian/actor/writer/producer Rodney Ramsey joins Mark, Erica, and Brian to discuss the experience of watching outside your demographic, whether identifying with characters requires physical commonalities, “black voice,” and the evolving TV landscape.

We touch on Watchmen, Atlanta, Black Panther, Insecure, Sorry to Bother You, BlacKkKlansman, Tyler Perry, Dear White People, The Chi, Black Jesus, and the black Herminone issue.

Some of the articles we considered included:

  • “What Does It Mean to ‘Sound’ Black?” by Hannah Giorgis
  • “A Racial Divide Widens on Network TV” by James Strerngold (in 1998!)
  •  “Why White People Don’t Like Black Movies” by Andre Seewood (2014) 
  •  “Moving Beyond Audience Segmentation: What Marketers Can Learn from Post-Demographic Consumerism” by Lauren McMenemy
  • “Is Black English a Dialect or a Language?” (Lexicon Valley ep. #4 by Mike Vuolo)

Follow Rodney @Rodney_Ramsey.

This episode includes bonus discussion that you can only hear by supporting the podcast at patreon.com/prettymuchpop. This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network and is curated by openculture.com.

Filed Under: Film, Politics, TV Tagged With: black shows, cross-racial viewing, entertainment podcast, film podcast, Rodney Ramsey, TV podcast

Reader Interactions

« Previous Post
PMP#18: Stephen King’s Media Empire
Next Post »
PMP#20: Improv Comedy w/ Tim Sniffen

Trackbacks

  1. PMP#106: Stand-Up Comedy in the Internet Age says:
    September 28, 2021 at 9:47 pm

    […] discusses how Internet culture has changed stand-up with three comedians: past guests Rodney Ramsey (who co-owns the Unknown Comedy Club) and Daniel Lobell (host of Modern Day Philosophers and author […]

    Reply
  2. Pretty Much Pop #106: Stand-Up Comedy in the Internet Age | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast | A Philosophy Podcast and Blog says:
    September 28, 2021 at 9:54 pm

    […] discusses how Internet culture has changed stand-up with three comedians: past guests Rodney Ramsey (who co-owns the Unknown Comedy Club) and Daniel Lobell (host of Modern Day Philosophers and author […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar


patreon

What is Pretty Much Pop?

Pretty Much Pop brings together philosophers, artists, comedians, and other smart folks to talk about media and how we consume it: TV, film, music, novels, games, comics, comedy, theater, podcasts, and more. Most of what (other) people like is pretty weird when you think about it, so thinking about it is what we do.

Get 3 shows ad-free with all bonus content from Apple Podcasts!

PEL Network

© 2023 · Pretty Much Pop