Television Studies

Television as Literature: Castle and Detective Fiction – An Analysis

by Allyson Willoughby

Written as a final project for ENGL 106 - Introduction to the English Major; link was tweeted to Castle Creator, Andrew W. Marlowe, who replied on January 31, 2012; featured in an article in SUNY Fredonia's newspaper, The Leader, and Fredonia's Campus Report

This paper explores the reasoning behind studying televison as a form of literature in academia through several modes... more This paper explores the reasoning behind studying televison as a form of literature in academia through several modes of literary criticism and interpretation, and the difference between the existing area of television studies and the proposed study of televsion as literature. Critical analysis was applied to the ABC television series, Castle, in support of this argument. Also explored is Castle's place within the genre of detective fiction, as well as the value of the critical analysis within the fan community of the series.

From Rags to Riches, the Policing of Fashion and Identity: Governmentality and What Not To Wear

by Jessica Taylor

Co-authored with Sheri Gibbings. Published in vis-à-vis: Explorations in Anthropology. Vol 10, No 1, 2010.

Even the most casual perusal of television over the past ten years should reveal an increasing number of... more Even the most casual perusal of television over the past ten years should reveal an increasing number of self-improvement reality shows. This paper explores the Learning Channel (TLC) television show What Not to Wear (WNTW), which provides fashion advice to deviant dressers. We use Foucault's concept of governmentality to understand how WNTW engages women in their own projects of self-improvement in ways that are simultaneously disciplining and pleasing. Women who participate in the show are taught by the hosts, Stacy and Clinton, how to view themselves through the gaze of an imagined middle-class public. We suggest that WNTW tells us that outward appearances are the privileged site from which identities and self can be read. Even though the goal of the show is not to change identities, many of the women claim to experience a radical transformation. These transformations are often in the direction of a new professional and feminine identity, one maintained within the structure of the show by the continuing possibility and internalization of surveillance.

Cable TV technology for local access

by Jeff Patmore

Co-Authored with: S T Jewell, K D Stalley and R Mudhar

Cable TV networks will pass 17 million homes in the UK by early next century. Reliability has improved dramatically in... more Cable TV networks will pass 17 million homes in the UK by early next century. Reliability has improved dramatically in recent years due to the widespread introduction of fibre into the network. Possibly the biggest attraction of cable is the enormous bandwidth that is available, together with its high degree of flexibility. This flexibility can be utilised to accommodate new services such as digital TV, data and telephony.

Development of visual strategies in PvdA campaign broadcasts, 1963-1994

by Jasper Aalbers

Political broadcasts of the Social-Democrat Party in the Netherlands (PvdA) are, when the entire period from 1963 to... more Political broadcasts of the Social-Democrat Party in the Netherlands (PvdA) are, when the entire period from 1963 to 1994 is considered, of great interest. The PvdA has been a relatively stable and large political party in these forty years. They had however also to cope with the consequences of the polarization of politics in the 1970’s and the de-ideologization in the 1980’s. It is remarkable to see how these changes in political culture are reflected in the visual strategies of PvdA broadcasts over the years. In this article I will demonstrate, through a discussion of 4 broadcasts (one from each decennium), that PvdA broadcasts have come to serve as the confirmation of the image of the party as a left-wing worker’s party. This image is no longer a realistic depiction of the actual political situation however.

A Theoretical Framework for Studying Dutch Political Broadcasts

by Jasper Aalbers

In this article I propose a theoretical framework within which the political broadcast can be studied and that can... more In this article I propose a theoretical framework within which the political broadcast can be studied and that can account for the question how the political broadcast has been able to survive despite its apparent failure as a programme genre.

Caption What I'm Saying: How Television Commercials That Are Not Closed Captioned Lose Millions In Potential Revenue

by Rachel Burton

Graduate thesis for the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University

The Role of The Daily Show in Speaking Truth to Power

by Tom Tenney

Tracking Political Participation Among The Colbert Report Audiences

by Tom Tenney

A map of the television experience

by Maurice McGinley

This paper presents an analysis of the experience of television based on a definition of experience as 'understanding... more This paper presents an analysis of the experience of television based on a definition of experience as 'understanding situated in time'. Citing Heidegger's phenomenological investigations of everyday experiences, as well as tenets from Distributed Cognition, and Activity Theory, the experience of interaction with television is shown to be situated within personal and cultural contexts, which determine the meaning and therefore the quality of the experience. A diagram of television use cases representing television practices is presented, ordered according to proximity to cultural practice. The diagram and method are discussed. The method is recommended as a tool to direct user-interface design and requirements development priorities.

Watching Wildlife (review)

by Jan-Christopher Horak

Deo Meera E., Christina Chin, Jenny J. Lee, Noriko Milman, and Nancy Wang Yuen. 2008. "Missing in Action: ‘Framing’ Race on Prime Time Television." Social Justice 35:2.

by Nancy Yuen

Yuen, Nancy Wang and Cassidy J. Ray. 2009. “Post 9/11, but not Post-Racial.” Contexts, Vol. 8:2, pp. 68-70.

by Nancy Yuen

Chin, Christina, Meera E. Deo, Jenny J. Lee, Noriko Milman, and Nancy Wang Yuen. 2007. "Without a Trace: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Prime Time Television," Chapter 24 in Contemporary Asian America: A Multidisciplinary Reader. Second Edition. Edited by Min Zhou and J. V. Gatewood. New York: New York University Press.

by Nancy Yuen

Emotions Elicited by Television Violence

by Juan Carlos Revilla

The effects of TV violence have been widely studied from an experimental perspective, which, to a certain extent,... more The effects of TV violence have been widely studied from an experimental perspective, which, to a certain extent, neglects the interaction between broadcaster and recipient. This study proposes a complementary approach, which takes into account viewers’ interpretation and construction of TV messages. Social dimensions influencing emotional experiences to TV violence will be identified and analyzed, as well as the way these emotions are construed in discourse, how they are linked to attitudes, ethical dimensions and courses of action. Eight focus groups (segmented by age, gender and educational level) were the basis of a discourse analysis that reconstructed the way audiences experience TV violence. Results show the importance of a first immediate emotional mobilisation, with references to complex emotions, and a second emotional articulation of experiences regarding repetition of scenes (type, classification and assessment of broadcasts), legitimacy (or lack thereof) of violent acts, and identification (or lack thereof) with main characters. In conclusion, the double impact (immediate and deferred) of emotions generates complex narratives that lead to a single course of action characterised by responsibility and guilt, which can only be taken into account by assuming the active role of viewer.

Broadcasting of violence on Spanish television: a quantitative panorama

by Juan Carlos Revilla

A quantitative analysis of broadcasted violence by the main television (TV) channels transmitting for Madrid (Spain)... more A quantitative analysis of broadcasted violence by the main television (TV) channels transmitting for Madrid (Spain) was carried
out using a novel method that randomly selects fragments of delimited duration from TV broadcasts. The device selects acts of
aggression shown in those TV extracts, and classifies them according to their type. There was a high incidence of aggressive acts,
especially physical (particularly leading to death), in TV fiction: films, serials and promos. The device also allowed examination of
the prominence of aggression in children’s programs, as well as showing minimal variation in the number of aggressive acts over
screened time intervals. The pattern of the collected data suggests that the broadcasting of violence on TV emphasizes the
conflicting elements of social reality, reproducing it in fiction, news reports and children’s shows.

Television's Job-To-Be-Done

by Maurice McGinley

This article reviews research into why people watch television. Christensen (2003) proposes businesses are best... more This article reviews research into why people watch television. Christensen (2003) proposes businesses are best understood by looking at the way they help people address their jobs-to-be-done. If new forms of television are more likely to succeed to the extent that they do the jobs now done by traditional television; then to understand how people will use future forms of TV, we must understand how viewers use traditional TV.

The Representation of Religiosity in the Czech Televisions

by Jan Motal

published in Sacra, 2010, 2, p. 32 - 53. ISSN 1214-5351.

The article aims to analyze four periodic religious programmes in the czech television broadcasting. Results of the... more The article aims to analyze four periodic religious programmes in the czech television broadcasting. Results of the analyses are interpreted as the dichotomy in forms of religiosity representation in the broadcasting: in the case of the public service institution (Czech television) and the community
oriented television (TV Noe) the religiosity is represented explicitly, in the commercial media implicitly. The profit-oriented broadcasters understand the religious programmes as entertaining shows, Czech television aims to educate
and provides explanation, TV Noe is evangelistic. The thesis describes particular forms of religiosity in the broadcasting, focusing on the „traditional“ interpretation of the religion in the case of the Czech television and TV Noe and the alternative religiosity presented in the shows of the profit-oriented broadcasters.

Prime Time Commemoration: An Analysis of Television Broadcasts on Israel's Memorial Day for the Holocaust and the Heroism

by Eyal Zandberg

'The Shell I'm In': Illyria and Monstrous Embodiment

by Bronwen Calvert

In Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion. Ed. Mary Alice Money. London: Titan, 2012.

The Civil Rights Movement and American Television in the 1960s

by Nadeem Fayaz