I Fracking Hope Not

My wife and I have been renting and watching the first three seasons of the new Battlestar Galactica series that's been airing on the SciFi channel over the last few years. We watched the miniseries that began it all when that aired, but then didn't keep up with it and, by the time we got around to trying to watch any more of it, we were lost and we gave up. The jury's still out on what I think of it; we're exactly halfway through Season 2 as I write this and I'll hold off on a fuller opinion until either the series is over (it's set to end with the current season--Season 4) or I at least get caught up to Season 4. However, I did want to comment on one aspect for now:

In recent episodes, we've seen more and more portrayal of a set of media institutions and practices that have developed among the fleet of starships. It seems like the show generally has a critical view of the press. The press are continually a thorn in the side of many of the major protagonists and one of the most prominent members of the press to be featured thusfar turns out to be a Cylon (i.e. the "bad guys")--something we find out at the end of the episode in which she is introduced. Beyond whether the series portrays the press as negative or positive, though, the show certainly portrays the press as almost exactly corresponding with how media institutions, practices, roles, identities, etc. look in the United States in the early 21st century.

This is part of a larger critique of the show, in that it's pretty incredible that a society that apparently shares a common heritage as Earth, but has developed independently of Earth and Earth's many cultures and societies for a long time, looks so remarkably like contemporary Western culture (particularly American culture). Indeed, even the levels of racial and ethnic diversity (including some rather stereotyped characters, such as the black spiritual advisor to the white leader) mirror the contemporary United States. I understand that this is part of the suspension of disbelief that television typically asks of us. I understand that if the show was too different, it might not make sense to most viewers and, thus, would likely not be successful (of course, this tells us something, then, about how capitalism works). I also understand that texts are usually as much, if not more, about the time and place in which they are produced as they are about the times and places that they depict, if those differ. Yet, in this case, the similarities seem to be really heavy--seemingly too heavy -- and one of those similarities, again, is the depiction of the press. A major part of that depiction is that the kind of bickering, sensationalizing form of discussion that occurs on so much contemporary American television and talk radio appears to be dominant in the Battlestar Galactica world.

Perhaps this is part of the show's producers wanting to indict contemporary media practices in some way, in which case, then, maybe I might see some value in this, but ultimately this is a show that both explicitly and implicitly comments on the nature of humanity. Because of that, when the show depicts significant similarities between the practices, institutions, etc. of 21st century American culture and those of the fictional culture that is depicted in the series, these practices, institutions, etc. become part of the show's commentary on humanity. In the particular case of the media practices, institutions, etc., I hate to think that the form of discussion of issues that dominates contemporary American radio and television is as universal as Battlestar Galactica appears to suggest.