Authors: Robert C. Allen, Annette Hill (Editor), Richard Collins
ISBN-13: 9780415283236, ISBN-10: 041528323X
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Routledge
Date Published: December 2003
Edition: (Non-applicable)
The Television Studies Reader brings together key writings in the growing field of television studies, providing an invaluable overview of the development of the field, and addressing issues of industry, genre, audiences, production and ownership, and representation.
The Reader charts the ways in which television and television studies are being redefined to include new and "alternative" forms and technologies such as cable television, direct satellite/digital broadcasting, home video, video art, video/digital applications on the internet, interactive TV, video surveillance, and converging media. It explores the recent boom in reality TV and includes discussions of television programs and practices from around the world. The Reader comprises 44 foundational and cutting-edge articles from an international cast of contributors, situating the study of television in relation both to its global reach and to the many and varied local contexts of its production and reception, and laying out a wide array of approaches to the study of the changing phenomenon of television around the world. The essays are organized in seven themed sections:
• Institutions of Television
• Spaces of Television
• Modes of Television
• Making Television
• Social Representation on Television
• Watching Television
• Transforming Television Key features include a comprehensive bibliography and a list of further reading.
Notes on Contributors | ||
Acknowledgements | ||
Frequently Asked Questions: A General Introduction to the Reader | 1 | |
Pt. 1 | Institutions of Television | |
Introduction to part one | 27 | |
1 | 'Ises' and 'Oughts': Public Service Broadcasting in Europe | 33 |
2 | Moving Beyond the "Vast Wasteland": Cultural Policy and Television in the United States | 52 |
3 | Protecting the Citizen, Protecting Society | 66 |
4 | Australia's Television Culture | 79 |
5 | Telefeminism: How Lifetime Got its Groove, 1984-1997 | 92 |
Pt. 2 | Spaces of Television | |
Introduction to part two | 105 | |
6 | Hollywood Planet: Global Media and the Competitive Advantage of Narrative Transparency | 111 |
7 | Geolinguistic Region as Global Space: the Case of Latin America | 130 |
8 | The Global, the Local and the Public Sphere | 139 |
9 | Popular Media as Public 'Sphericules' for Diasporic Communities | 151 |
Pt. 3 | Modes of Television | |
Introduction to part three | 163 | |
10 | A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory | 171 |
11 | Live Television Is Still Alive: On Television as an Unfulfilled | 182 |
12 | Codes and Conventions of Dramadoc and Docudrama | 196 |
13 | News as Performance: The Image as Event | 209 |
14 | Adworlds | 226 |
15 | Making Sense of Soaps | 242 |
16 | The Pie and the Crust: Television Program Formats | 258 |
Pt. 4 | Making Television | |
Introduction to part four | 267 | |
17 | Television Production | 275 |
18 | Modes of Production: The Televisual Apparatus | 293 |
19 | Big Brother Australia: Performing the 'Real' Twenty-Four-Seven | 311 |
20 | Studio Discussions | 322 |
21 | Media Pilgrims: On the Set of Coronation Street | 332 |
22 | Public Access/Private Confession: Home Video as (Queer) Community Television | 343 |
23 | Hausa Dramas and the Rise of Video Culture in Nigeria | 354 |
Pt. 5 | Social Representation on Television | |
Introduction to part five | 367 | |
24 | Television, Representation and Gender | 373 |
25 | Primetime TV in the Gay Nineties: Network Television, Quality Audiences and Gay Politics | 389 |
26 | Welcome Home?: CBS, PAX-TV, and "Heartland" Values in a Neo-Network Era | 404 |
27 | Broadcasting and the Construction of the National Family | 418 |
28 | 'The Biggest Show in the World': Race and the Global Popularity of The Cosby Show | 442 |
Pt. 6 | Watching Television | |
Introduction to part six | 457 | |
29 | Qualitative Audience Research | 461 |
30 | In the Worst Possible Taste: Children, Television and Cultural Value | 479 |
31 | Television While You Wait | 494 |
32 | Defining Cult-TV: Texts, Inter-texts and Fan Audiences | 509 |
33 | Democratainment | 524 |
Pt. 7 | Transforming Television | |
Introduction to part seven | 535 | |
34 | Reality TV in the Digital Era: A Paradox in Visual Culture? | 543 |
35 | Camcorder Cults | 557 |
36 | Living on Dawson's Creek: Teen Viewers, Cultural Convergence and Television Overflow | 569 |
37 | Postmodern Virtualities | 581 |
38 | Social Relationships and Identity Online and Offline | 596 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | 615 | |
Index | 625 |