The way that Wellesley College students engage with media, specifically popular television, is the focus of this project. We set out to learn about how students from the 1950s, when the acclaimed TV show I Love Lucy was making an impact, and students today, during HBO’s Euphoria’s cultural reign, interact with these shows beyond the simple act of watching. Does the Wellesley College campus act as a public sphere and if so, what does it look like? Are there smaller public spheres that coexist on campus, or are students engaging with the show in more intimate, private spheres?
The Past & I Love Lucy
Image courtesy of IMDb.
We wanted to use a TV show that might have had a similar cultural impact on campus in the 1950s as Euphoria has today as our case study for the past, and I Love Lucy was the first to come to mind.
We looked at The Wellesley News to discover how students in the past engaged with this popular television show, hoping that students might have written about shows they had seen and enjoyed, or advertised get togethers with friends to watch. We quickly realized that this paper was not often frequented with television or even film reviews and opinion pieces.
Here are some of the articles we found regarding the popular media of the time:
Images courtesy of the Wellesley Archives
- November 19, 1970 edition
- student film reviews
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- an advertisement of the History Department film series
- October 1, 1970 edition
- a promotion of films being screened by the Film Society
- October 8, 1953 edition
- an advertisement of films screened off-campus that week in Boston
- March 5, 1970 edition
- a film review from a student who traveled off-campus to a screening at the Orson Welles Cinema in Cambridge
The public discussion of films at Wellesley College in the past was not nonexistent, but scarce. Because the Archives does not have the type of personal communication we were looking for regarding students discussing the popular media of the day does not mean that it does not exist.
The Present & Euphoria
Image courtesy of IMDb.
HBO’s Euphoria is a perfect case study for how students on campus today interact with popular media because of its strong cultural impact. We were able to collect data about viewing habits of current Wellesley students who are fans because it is a show that is currently running. We conducted interviews with students involved in throwing a Euphoria themed party on campus, as well as distributed a Google form asking questions about how Euphoria fans engage with the show.
Here are our findings:
Out of 27 respondents to our Google form:
- 85.2% had seen at least one season of Euphoria
- A majority of respondents (71%) reported watching the show for a certain celebrity
- Out of those who admitted to watching for a celebrity, 75% cited Zendaya as their main reason for watching the show
- 48% of respondents reported hearing about Euphoria through social media, with an additional 24% reporting a mix of both online posts and in-person conversations
- When asked about how they engage with Euphoria outside of watching, 82% report engaging in online content pertaining to Euphoria, with only 18% saying that they discuss it strictly in in-person settings with friends
- Additionally, 38% of people stated that they have been to a Euphoria-themed party.
- When asked if they would still watch Euphoria if it weren’t as popular, only 2 out of 26 respondents (7.7%) said that the show’s popularity would not at all affect their interactions with it
- 46% of respondents admitted that without the show’s popularity, they would most likely have not started watching
- 30.8% of respondents also expressed concerns about seeing spoilers via social media and a desire to understand social media posts about the show as a reason for their dedicated viewership
After gaining an understanding of how Wellesley students interact with Euphoria, we interviewed Katharine Tracy and Rosemary Kiessling, who hosted a Euphoria–themed party in February, while the show’s second season was airing weekly episodes on HBO Max. We wanted insight on their interactions with the show as well as party attendee’s responses to the theme. They expressed the following:
- When asked what inspired them to host a party that was Euphoria themed in particular, Katharine and Rosemary cited the show’s large popularity on campus as the factor that led them to decide on this theme. They also wanted a costume party, and said that Euphoria‘s style was something that they thought people would dress up for.
- When asked how they incorporated the show’s themes into the party, they stated that incorporating the lighting was important to them. They wanted colored lighting that matched the purple and pinkish whimsical hues of the show’s cinematography. They also created a party playlist incorporating songs from the show’s soundtrack and encouraged people to dress up like characters from the show.
- Katharine and Rosemary noted that a party themed after another show may have struggled to achieve the same turnout, with Katharine stating, “I’m trying to think of other shows that have captured our (Wellesley students’) attention as much as Euphoria”. Rosemary added that, “I feel like it (Euphoria) is made for a party. Maybe if there was another show that was so themed around party culture that was also super popular [we could have a successful party for it].”
- Both Katharine and Rosemary admit that their costumes were not necessarily references to specific characters or outfits, but a general idea. Katharine cited the Twitter and TikTok trend of “Euphoria high”, in which people dress in Euphoria-inspired outfits to jokingly point out the hyper-stylized and sexual nature of the show’s “average” high schoolers’ outfits.
- Katharine admits that while many dressed up, people were more so there to party than to actually watch/discuss the show. She says, “A lot of people that we talked to in the weeks before were like ‘Oh, I don’t watch it, but like, I look like this character’ or ‘I like how this character looks, I’ll dress like them’”. She does note that, through Euphoria’s impact on social media platforms, people could follow the theme and dress accordingly even without having seen the show, “I think a lot of people’s idea of the show is informed by content they see on TikTok or Instagram or whatever.”