Kategoria BISAC: Performing Arts >> Television - History & Criticism

Before "The X-Files" there was "Star Trek." Unrivaled in the fanaticism and devotion of its fans, it was easily the most cerebral show of its age. "Star Trek" brought a literary sophistication to the raw material of science fiction and confounded all the formulas of television.

The Meaning of Star Trek captures the essence of this timeless television masterpiece by examining it in the context of literary and social history, anthropology, myth, and religion: how it grew from the tradition of great science fiction writing; how the history of the show's Federation reconfigures our own; how its...

How does television function within society? Why have both its programmes and its audiences been so widely denigrated? Taking inspiration from Richard Hoggarts classic study The Uses of Literacy, John Hartleys new book is a lucid defence of the place of television in our lives, and of the usefulness of television studies.
Hartley re-conceptualizes television as a transmodern medium, capable of reuniting government, education and media, and of creating a new kind of cultural teaching which facilitates communication across social and geographical boundaries. He provides a historical...

How does television function within society? Why have both its programmes and its audiences been so widely denigrated? Taking inspiration from Richard Hoggarts classic study The Uses of Literacy, John Hartleys new book is a lucid defence of the place of television in our lives, and of the usefulness of television studies.
Hartley re-conceptualizes television as a transmodern medium, capable of reuniting government, education and media, and of creating a new kind of cultural teaching which facilitates communication across social and geographical boundaries. He provides a historical...

TV Living presents the findings of the BFI Audience Tracking Study in which 500 participants completed detailed questionnaire-diaries on their lives, their television watching, and the relationship between the two over a five year period.
Gauntlett and Hill use this extensive data to explore some of the most fundamental questions in media and cultural studies, focusing on issues of gender, identity, the impact of new technologies, and life changes. Opening up new areas of debate, the study sheds new light on audiences and their responses to issues such as sex and violence on...

This study considers how television is and can be a vehicle for well-informed citizenship in a fragmented modern society. Grouped into thematic sections, contributors first examine how common knowledge is assumed and produced across the huge social, cultural and geographical gulfs that characterize modern society, and investigate the role of television as the primary medium for the production and dissemination of knowledge. Later contributions concentrate on specific TV genres such as news, documentary, political discussions, and popular science programmes, considering the changing ways in...

This study considers how television is and can be a vehicle for well-informed citizenship in a fragmented modern society. Grouped into thematic sections, contributors first examine how common knowledge is assumed and produced across the huge social, cultural and geographical gulfs that characterize modern society, and investigate the role of television as the primary medium for the production and dissemination of knowledge. Later contributions concentrate on specific TV genres such as news, documentary, political discussions, and popular science programmes, considering the changing ways in...

From re-runs of classics like The Avengers or Starsky and Hutch, to series influenced by the genre like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the action series is enjoying a revival at the centre of prime-time TV. Yet relatively little attention has been paid to the specific history, nature and appeal of the action series, and its place in popular culture, past and present. This work explores the historical development of this TV genre from its genesis in the 1950s, its place within the history of television institutions and systems of production, its relationship to other genres, and its position within...

In September 1960 a television show emerged from the mists of prehistoric time to take its place as the mother of all animated sitcoms. The Flintstones spawned dozens of imitations, just as, two decades later, The Simpsons sparked a renaissance of prime-time animation.

This text exposes the tensions between state policies of broadcasting regulation and practices of civil society in the Asian region which is struggling with its incorporation into a new globalized, electronic information and entertainment world. Philip Kitley critically compares Western principles of broadcasting, civil society and cultural regulation with alternative Asian practices of regulation and organization.

Using our favourite Springfield family as a case study, Watching with The Simpsons examines the textual and social role of parody in offering critical commentary on other television programs and genres.

Jonathan Gray brings together textual theory, discussions of television and the public sphere, and ideas of parody and comedy. Including primary audience research, it focuses on how The Simpsons has been able to talk back to three of television s key genres - the sitcom, adverts and the news - and on how it holds the potential to short-circuit these genre s...

Using our favourite Springfield family as a case study, Watching with The Simpsons examines the textual and social role of parody in offering critical commentary on other television programs and genres.

Jonathan Gray brings together textual theory, discussions of television and the public sphere, and ideas of parody and comedy. Including primary audience research, it focuses on how The Simpsons has been able to talk back to three of television s key genres - the sitcom, adverts and the news - and on how it holds the potential to short-circuit these genre s...

Television Studies: The Key Concepts is the definitive reference guide to an area of rapidly expanding academic interest. Among those aspects of television studies covered in this comprehensive and up-to-date guide are:

• theoretical perspectives which have shaped the study of television - Marxism; semiology; feminism
• concepts which have shaped the study of television - narrative; representation; bias
• television genres - soap opera; news; science fiction
• methods used for understanding television - content analysis; audience research
• relevant social,...

Examining the role of dramatized narratives in Russian television, this book stresses the ways in which the Russian government under Putin use primetime television to express a new understanding of what it means to be Russian, answering key questions of national identity for modern Russians in dealing with their recent history: 'What really happened to us?' and, accordingly, 'Why?'

The book covers important issues in Russian television today, including:

• the reworking of new 'national' on-screen heroes
• its relationship with classic literature
• the...

Richard Nixon hammed it up on Laugh-In, Bill Clinton hung out on MTV, and talk shows are now regular stops on the campaign trail. Television doesn't just affect politics - it is politics. In The Sound Bite Society, Jeffrey Scheuer argues that the rise of television is responsible for the decline of the American left. Political argument was simplified to quick, telegraphic sound bites as it shifted to television, and the more simplistic it became, the more the rules of engagement favoured the right wing. Television's visual and rhetoric conventions are biased towards simplicity, Scheuer...

Genre and Television proposes a new understanding of television genres as cultural categories, offering a set of in-depth historical and critical examinations to explore five key aspects of television genre: history, industry, audience, text, and genre mixing. Drawing on well-known television programs from Dragnet to The Simpsons, this book provides a new model of genre historiography and illustrates how genres are at work within nearly every facet of television-from policy decisions to production techniques to audience practices. Ultimately, the book...

Genre and Television proposes a new understanding of television genres as cultural categories, offering a set of in-depth historical and critical examinations to explore five key aspects of television genre: history, industry, audience, text, and genre mixing. Drawing on well-known television programs from Dragnet to The Simpsons, this book provides a new model of genre historiography and illustrates how genres are at work within nearly every facet of television-from policy decisions to production techniques to audience practices. Ultimately, the book...

This book offers a history of Japanese television audiences and the popular media culture that television helped to spawn. In a comparatively short period, the television industry helped to reconstruct not only postwar Japanese popular culture, but also the Japanese social and political landscape. During the early years of television, Japanese of all backgrounds, from politicians to mothers, debated the effects on society. The public discourse surrounding the growth of television revealed its role in forming the identity of postwar Japanese during the era of high-speed growth (1955 - 1973)...

Launched in 1980, cable network Black Entertainment Television (BET) has helped make blackness visible and profitable at levels never seen prior in the TV industry. In 2000, BET was sold by founder Robert L. Johnson, a former cable lobbyist, to media giant Viacom for 2.33 billion dollars.

This book explores the legacy of BET: what the network has provided to the larger US television economy, and, more specifically, to its target African-American demographic. The book examines whether the company has fulfilled its stated goals and implied obligation to African-American communities....

Launched in 1980, cable network Black Entertainment Television (BET) has helped make blackness visible and profitable at levels never seen prior in the TV industry. In 2000, BET was sold by founder Robert L. Johnson, a former cable lobbyist, to media giant Viacom for 2.33 billion dollars.

This book explores the legacy of BET: what the network has provided to the larger US television economy, and, more specifically, to its target African-American demographic. The book examines whether the company has fulfilled its stated goals and implied obligation to African-American communities....

True Stories of Law & Order reveals the fascinating and shocking facts behind 25 of the hit show's most popular episodes - from the incredible account of how a woman's repressed memory leads to the solving of a 30-year-old cold case to the high-profile investigation of tranvestite millionaire Robert Durst. And just like in Law & Order, the actual crime is just the beginning, as you follow these cases from the initial stages of the investigation through the trial and up to the often controversial verdicts.

Part of the reason millions of fans tune in to Law & Order is the...