Agenda Setting

For anyone curious about the impact that TV can have in raising awareness or setting the agenda for public conversation, there was an interesting series of TV shows that certainly had that effect recently...

• An older episode of House that showed on USA focused on a young couple that were actually half-siblings, due to the father of both kids having an affair. They grew up neighbors, fell in love, and then discovered over the course of the show that they were related.

• Private Practice had an episode where a young couple were half-siblings, without realizing it. They wanted to have the woman's tubes tied, so that they could stay together - they decided they weren't raised as brother and sister, so that'd be okay. Eventually it comes out that the guy actually knew they were brother and sister, at which point the woman decides staying together is a bad idea.

• Boston Legal featured a new episode that included a young couple who were both conceived when their mothers made use of the same sperm bank. The question arose about whether or not they might have the same father. (I won't spoil it.)

As I talked about these episodes in class with my first-year students, one of the students asked if this was something that was a big deal, something that has been happening a lot lately. I have no idea if it has been, but I can certainly see where anyone seeing all three of these TV shows in the span of about a week could think so.

There's not much more to it than that right now, but episodes like that are putting a number of important issues front and center - from genetic testing to the rights of children conceived via sperm banks - that hopefully can serve as educational if done accurately.