In this thesis, we examined the portrayal of family forms in American television drama series with a family theme. The thesis includes an introduction to various family forms and the changes that have occurred in family life from the 1960s forward. We also examine the role of the family as an ideological state apparatus. The characteristics of the American family, the development of child protection services in America, and the ideology of American families are also presented. We presented the characteristics of American drama series with the family theme, along with the impact that series have on viewers and the role of media and television series as an ideological state apparatus. Through the analysis of four selected drama series, we demonstrated which values are most commonly represented in television series and found that despite the variability of certain values the main ideology in the series remains the same. We also found that the portrayal of social issues is rare in the series.
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