On Television syllabus

Course Description

This course begins with the assumption that television is a complex cultural and technological form whose significance and effects cannot be explained in one fell swoop—either with a simple denunciation (e.g., “TV rots your brain”), or, conversely, with uncritical celebration (“I want my MTV!”).  Rather, this class will explore the different ways television has been conceptualized, theorized, and analyzed by media scholars as, alternatively, an industry and a pervasive cultural institution, a mode of entertainment and an object of regulatory policy, a site of textual (i.e., meaning) production and as a new “interactive” media form.

We will begin the semester with a consideration of what it means to study TV from a “critical” perspective, examining in particular the various historical, technological, and political developments that have shaped the U.S. television industry.  We will then consider TV’s relationship to a host of broader social practices and institutions, including the U.S. broadcasting system, consumer capitalism, multinational corporations, audiences, laborers, new technologies, and other forms of media and popular culture.

Required Readings

All required books for this course are available at the U of M Bookstore located in Coffman Union.  They include:

• Robert C. Allen, Ed., Channels of Discourse, Reassembled (2^nd Edition)

• Eileen Meehan, Why TV is Not Our Fault:  Television Programming,

Viewers, and Who’s Really in Control (2005)

• Lynn Spigel, Make Room For TV:  Television and the Family in Postwar

America (1992)

• Sut Jhally and Justin Lewis, Enlightened Racism:  The Cosby Show,

Audiences, and the Myth of the American Dream (2002)

Note: If the bookstore runs out of these titles, it is the student’s responsibility to gain access to the readings.  All titles are available through the UMN library system, as well as through online book vendors.  Additionally, a number of reading assignments will be available by CD-ROM.  These readings are marked CR on the class schedule.

This course is reading intensive.  It is therefore imperative that you come to class having completed the assigned readings beforehand, ready to discuss the material.  Your grade for the course will depend heavily on your engagement with the readings.

Also, certain class sessions include recommended readings that are designed to supplement the primary reading material for a given week.  Although these readings are not required, they will provide you an expanded knowledge base that will enrich your understanding of key concepts, ideas, and debates.  Occasionally, I will draw upon the recommended readings during in-class sessions.

Course Requirements

Grade Breakdown:

10%                Attendance/Participation

10%                Reading Discussion Questions

30%                Reading Response Assignments

30%                Exams

20%                Paper

ATTENDANCE/PARTICIPATION (10 pts.)

Attendance and participation is required.  I will take attendance regularly.  More than three unexcused absences will result in the loss of 5 points towards your final grade; more than four unexcused absences will result in failing the course. Also, participation during class discussions is necessary and essential.  To do well in the class, you must not only show up, but also engage and contribute to group discussions.

READING DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (10 pts.)

In addition to being reading intensive, this class is largely discussion based.  In order to facilitate in-class discussions, students are required to come up with a total of ten discussion questions throughout the semester, each based on a particular assigned reading for a given class period.  Because much of the material for the course will be new to many of you, much time will be spent clarifying unfamiliar concepts, ideas, and arguments.  Discussion questions are designed to allow students the opportunity to become better familiarized with key terms and ideas, as well as to get directly involved in the trajectory of the course.  Each discussion question will be presented during class, and is worth 1 point (@ 10 pts. total).

READING RESPONSE ASSIGNMENTS (30 pts.)

Throughout the semester, there will be a total of twenty graded reading response assignments, each worth 2 points.  Students are required to complete fifteen of twenty reader responses over the course of the semester.  This means that students may miss a total of five reader responses and still receive full credit.  Students also have the opportunity to receive extra credit by completing and turning in additional reader response assignments beyond the required number of fifteen.  For each additional reader response, students will receive one extra credit towards their final grade (for a total of five possible extra credit points). Reading responses must be typed (or neatly handwritten) on a separate sheet of paper.  They are due at the beginning of class on the assigned date.  I will NOT accept reading responses via email.  Class sessions marked ** indicate a reader response is due for that day.  Reader Responses are included on the class CD-ROM.

EXAMS (30 pts.)

There will be two exams during the semester:  (1) a midterm, and (2) a final essay examination.  Each exam will be worth 15 points, and will test students’ understanding of key concepts and ideas taken from course material.

TELEVISION IDEOLOGY CRITIQUE PAPER (20 pts.)

During the second half of the semester, students will be asked to complete one major writing assignment:  a 5-7 page essay which undertakes an ideological analysis of a single television program.  More details will be forthcoming throughout the semester.  The essay will be due at the beginning of class on 11/24.  Topics must be approved by me no later than 11/17.

Week 1: Introduction

Wed. (9/3):  Introduction to the course

Week 2:  TV as an Object of Study

Mon. (9/8):  What is TV studies? **RR#1

• Robert C. Allen, “Frequently Asked Questions”  CR
• Lynn Spigel, “Introduction” to Television After TV (recommended) CR

Wed. (9/10):  Methods for studying TV **RR#2

• Robert C. Allen, “More Talk About TV” in Channels of Discourse
• James Hay, “Afterword” in Channels of Discourse

(Clips:  The Daily Show; Series 7:  The Contenders)

Weeks 3 & 4:  TV as an Industry

Mon. (9/15):  Who decides what’s on TV? **RR#3

• Eileen Meehan, Why TV is Not Our Fault:  Television Programming, Viewers, and Who’s Really in Control, pp. 1-52

Wed. (9/17): Peddling the audience **RR#4

• Vicki Mayer, “Soft-Core in TV Time:  The Political Economy of a Cultural Trend” CR

(Clip:  Merchants of Cool )

Mon. (9/22): TV as a commercial institution **RR#5

• Meehan, Why TV is Not Our Fault, pp. 53-123

(Clip: The X-Files)

Wed. (9/24):  Conglomerate entertainment **RR#6

• John Caldwell, “Convergence Television” CR

(Screening:  Metalocalypse)

Week 5:  TV as Broadcast Technology

Mon. (9/29):  Television flow **RR#7

• Raymond Williams, “The Technology and the Society” and “Programming:  Distribution and Flow” CR

Wed. (10/1):  Broadcast television **RR#8

• Gripsrud, “Television, Broadcasting, Flow:  Key Metaphors in TV Theory”
• Boddy, “The Rhetoric and Economic Roots of the American Broadcasting Industry” CR

Week 6:  TV as a Domestic Medium

Mon. (10/6):  Broadcasting to the (ideal) family

• Spigel, Make Room for TV, pp. 1-72
• Cohen, “The Emergence of the Consumers Republic” (recommended) CR

Wed. (10/8):  TV and domestic labor **RR#9

• Spigel, Make Room for TV, pp. 73-98
• Modleski, “The Rhythms of Reception:  Daytime Television and Women’s Work” CR

(Screening:  I Love Lucy and Young and the Restless)

Week 7:  TV as a Global Medium

Mon. (10/13):  Planet TV

• Herman and McChesney, “The Rise of the Global Media” CR
• Sparks, “The Global, the Local and the Public Sphere” CR

(Screening: BBC World News; Control Room)

Wed. (10/15):  Disseminating planet TV **RR#10

• Tomlinson, “Media Imperialism” CR
• Fiske, “Act Globally, Think Locally” CR

(Screening:  Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern)

Mon. (10/20):  MIDTERM EXAM

Week 8-9:  TV as a Textual System

Wed. (10/22):  Textual analysis

• Seiter, “Semiotics, Structuralism, and Television” in Channels of Discourse
• Kozloff, “Narrative Theory” in Channels of Discourse

(Clip:  Dexter)

Mon. (10/27):  TV and ideology critique **RR#11

• Budd, Craig & Steinman, “Signification, Discourse, and Ideology” CR

• Nealon and Searls-Giroux, “Ideology” CR
• White, “Ideological Analysis and Television” in Channels of Discourse (recommended)

(Clips: TV commercials; The Bachelor)

Wed. (10/29):  Genre analysis

• Mittell, “A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory” CR
• Greene, Ch. 9, 10, & 11 Politics and the American Television Comedy CR

(Screening: South Park)

Weeks 10-12:  TV and the Politics of Representation

Mon. (11/3):  Feminist criticism **RR#12

• D’Acci, “Gender, Representation, and Television”
• Griffiths, “Gender and Stereotyping”
• Kaplan, “Feminist Criticism and Television” in Channels of Discourse

(Clip:  Desperate Housewives)

Wed. (11/5):  Feminist criticism (cont’d) **RR#13

• Douglas, “I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar” & “The Rise of the Bionic Bimbo” CR

(Clip:  Charlie’s Angels)

Mon. (11/10):  Queer TV **RR#14

• Jones, “Gender and Queerness”
• Ron Becker, “Gay-Themed Television and the Slumpy Class:  The Affordable, Multicultural Politics of the Gay Nineties” CR

(Clips:  Seinfeld; Will and Grace)

Wed. (11/12):  Race and class **RR#15

• Jhally and Lewis, Enlightened Racism, pp. 1-56

(Screening:  The Cosby Show)

Mon. (11/17):  Race and class (cont’d) **RR#16

• Jhally and Lewis, Enlightened Racism, pp. 57-129
• Jhally and Lewis, Enlightened Racism, pp. 130-144 (recommended)

(Clip:  The Wire)

Wed. (11/19):  Representing diversity **RR#17

• Banet-Weiser, “Consuming Race on Nickelodeon” CR

(Screening:  Dora the Explorer)

Week 13-14:  TV as a Slice of “Reality”

Mon. (11/24):  The emergence of reality TV

• Raphael, “The Political Economic Origins of Reali-TV” CR
• Turner, “The Mass Production of Celebrity:  Celetoids’, Reality TV and the ‘Demotic Turn’” CR

(Screening:  New York Goes to Hollywood)

IDEOLOGY CRITIQUE PAPER DUE (11/24)

Wed. (11/26): Real/ity work

• Hendershot, “Belabored Reality:  Making It Work on The Simple Life and Project Runway” CR

(Clips:  The Simple Life; Project Runway)

Mon. (12/1): Reality TV as a guide to better living **RR#18

• Ouellette and Hay, “Charity TV:  Privatizing Care, Mobilizing Compassion”

• Ouellette and Hay, “Introduction” (recommended) CR

(Screening:  Extreme Makeover:  Home Edition)

Wed. (12/3):  Reality TV and self-help citizenship **RR#19

• Ouellette and Hay, “Makeover TV:  Labors of Reinvention” CR

(Clip:  America’s Next Top Model)

Week 15: TV as an Interactive Space

Mon. (12/8):  What’s your favorite brand of television?

• Lotz, “Understanding Television at the Beginning of the Post-Network Era”
• Jaramillo, “The Family Racket:  AOL Time Warner, HBO, The Sopranos, and the Construction of a Quality Brand” CR

(Clip:  The Sopranos)

Wed. (12/10):  iTelevision **RR#20

• Jenkins, “Buying Into American Idol:  How We Are Being Sold on Reality Television” CR
• Andrejevic, “iMedia:  The Case of Interactive TV” CR

(Clips:  American Idol and/or So You Think You Can Dance)

FINAL EXAM TBA