Remaking Television: One Day at a Time's Digital Delivery and Latina/o Cultural Specificity. (January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: del Río, Esteban; Moran, Kristin C.
• Is Part Of: Journal of communication inquiry. Volume 44:Number 1(2020:Jan.)
• Page Start: 5
• Page End: 25
• Publication Date: 2020-01
• Subjects: digital media -- television -- sexuality -- representation -- gender; Communication -- Periodicals; Questioning -- Periodicals; Inquiry (Theory of knowledge) -- Periodicals; Communication -- Périodiques; Recherche (Théorie de la connaissance) -- Périodiques; 302.205
• DOI: 10.1177/0196859918825332
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0196-8599

Abstract

New distribution models have transformed television over the past decade, and Netflix's One Day at a Time (2017–) stands out not only because it is a remake of a classic Norman Lear sitcom, but because it also foregrounds a Cuban American family. Using a radical contextual and relational approach, this study analyzes One Day at a Time from a cultural studies perspective using theoretical tools that arrive from critical Latina/o communication studies. We analyze the first season's 13 episodes to demonstrate how storytelling is modified in the context of digital streaming. In this case, we argue that One Day at a Time offers an alternative to the flattening of difference far too common in Latina/o media. Instead, the show highlights the cultural specificity of this Cuban American family as a form of broad audience appeal as it negotiates sexual identity and immigration discourses within a contemporary social framework.