Thesis
"I'm looking for Jack Bauer at that time": 24, torture, & getting your hands dirty in the name of ideology
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2008
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/103309
Abstract
The popular and critically acclaimed television show 24 has, since its debut in October 2001, paralleled the course of the Bush administration, dealing with the same volatile issues as the politicians and national security agents in "real life" have had to contend with. One prominent issue is torture, which is the focus of this study, and is an area that has led to 24 be the subject of much media scrutiny. This thesis takes a critical stance, informed heavily by critical theory and cultural studies work on ideology, in its analysis of 24. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the show's fourth season is deployed in order to examine the dominant ideologies that 24 portrays in relation to torture. This study determined that the show utilizes the controversial "ticking time bomb" theory, as chiefly espoused by Alan Dershowitz, whereby torture is normalized as an ethical course of action as a means of halting a major terrorist threat and saving innocent lives. This is supported by four prominent themes that illuminate this: ignorance of the law, the need to "get your hands dirty," the expendability of human life, and devotion to a cause. This study also suggests, informed by a postmodernist stance that the boundaries between fiction and reality have been increasingly eroded, that communication research needs to address fictional television formats in the post-9/11 era, given the disparity of research in this area as compared to research on traditional news media.
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Details
- Title
- "I'm looking for Jack Bauer at that time"
- Creators
- Ryan J. Thomas
- Contributors
- Elizabeth Blanks Hindman (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Edward R. Murrow College of Communication
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525160801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis