Can Unscrewed be unskewed? Television coverage of the Internet

Abstract

This paper documents one way the Internet is presented to the public by analyzing a late–night TV talk show about the Internet called Unscrewed on the TechTV cable network. I gained the opportunity to study Unscrewed, and attempt to influence its focus, when I was invited to appear as a guest on their show after having e–mailed them a criticism of their sexist coverage of the Internet — specifically their positioning of women as pretty objects to be ogled online rather than as creative participants in online culture and as authors of a diversity of Web sites. Though I liked the program’s potential to challenge some aspects of an increasingly market–driven Internet, I was unable to unskew the sexist focus of Unscrewed precisely because market forces demanded the show remain male–centered.