rs across the nation, and the network wanted to obtain viewers and ratings without compromising its brand. Much of the article reviews the collaboration and give-and-take efforts between the producers and the network to arrive at an acceptable script for each show, and this is a primary focus of LotzÆs researchùto determine how the factors necessary for commercial success affected the textual possibilities for the show. She describes how the content of the shows was negotiated and emphasizes the complexity of that interaction, given all of the factors involved.
LotzÆs research question can be expressed as ôWhat limitations on a programÆs text are imposed as a result of the conflict between a producerÆs objective to employ sensitive subject matter such as racism and a networkÆs desire to avoid topics that are too controversial to be accepted by viewers?ö Although she does not specifically identify one statement as the research question for her article, this is in essence the question she is pursuing an answer to as she conducts her research. In her own words, she explains her research thus:
I explore how the producersÆ creative goals of expanding social discussion about ethnic difference and racism challenged ideological norms mandated by a commercial media system, and how the changed competitive structure of the post-network era helped make possible textual content that would probably have been too controversial for the network era (Lotz, 23).
Lotz describes her article as having a dual focusùfirst, ôanalyzing the production process as a tool for understanding discursive and ideological features related to telling stories about gender and ethnicity,ö and second, ôexploring how the competitive dynamics of the post-network era might enable variation in discursive possibilities (Lotz, 25). Previous research that she reviews adequately and cites in the article provides a good backdrop for her own findings that t...