Television Criticism

2. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4129-9105-6
Verlag: SAGE Publications, Inc

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten, Format (B × H): 185 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 425 g

Television Criticism presents an original treatment of television criticism with a foundational approach to the nature of criticism. Readers gain an understanding of the business of television and production background in creating television style and are presented with in-depth chapters on storytelling, narrative theories, and television genres. The author also includes chapters on the interaction of rhetoric and cultural studies theories, representation, and postmodernism.

This book presents new and comprehensive guidelines for analysis and criticism, and it has a sample critique of the television program Parenthood. This updated second edition reflects the changes in the ways television is viewed and the impact of the Internet on television. It explores how the Internet provides opportunities to enhance television analysis and criticism. Division into four parts (Part I: Orientation, Part II: Formal Aspects of Television, Part III: Theoretical Approaches to Television Criticism, and Part IV: Critical Applications) allows for a clear presentation of the concepts.

NEW TO THIS EDITION
• Updated pedagogy with new information about business, government, and production practices; current examples; exercises; and new photos from contemporary television programming enables readers and instructors to relate and comprehend content application.
• New sample criticism provides the reader with a detailed illustration of how critical guidelines are used to develop a critique of a complex television program.
• The addition of a glossary offers readers a convenient solution for definitions of specialized terms within the text to assist in understanding the material.

KEY FEATURES

Original guidelines for television analysis give students the tools they need to create their own critiques.
The use of narrative theories enhances the recognition that television is a story-making medium in all genres, allowing readers to think beyond fiction television.
The presentation of classical and new theories specifically adapted to the criticism of television gives the reader a better understanding of methodology.
Exercises and Suggested Readings appear at the end of each chapter to encourage critical thinking.

Autoren/Hrsg.

O'Donnell, Victoria J.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Medientheorie, Medienanalyse
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Fernsehen & Rundfunk

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I. ORIENTATION
Chapter 1. The Work of the Critic
Introduction
The Ends of Criticism
Journalistic Television Criticism
The Critical Stance
Criticism and Culture
Narrative and Contextual Reality
Critical Categories and Critical Choices
The Business of Television
The Familiar and the Unfamiliar in Television
Critical Orientation
Summary
Exercises
Suggested Readings
Chapter 2. Demystifying the Business of Television
Introduction
The Role of Advertising, Ratings, and Schedules
The Strategies of Television Advertising
Product Promotion Within Television Programs
Product Placement
Scheduling and Advertising
The Production of a Television Show
The Production Team
Summary
Exercises
Suggested Readings
PART II. FORMAL ASPECTS OF TELEVISION
Chapter 3. Television Style
Introduction
Length of Shot and Framing
Multi-Camera Production
Reaction Shots
Lighting
Production on Film Versus Digital Video
Style, Reception, and Digital Video Practices
Modes of Presentation
Television Sound and Editing
Production Styles
Art Direction
The Split Screen
Directors
Actors
Summary
Exercises
Suggested Readings
Chapter 4. Television, the Nation’s Storyteller
Introduction
Storytelling and the Human Condition
The Nature of Narrative
Narrative Theories
Narrative Structure
Intertextuality
Characters
Archetypes
Myth
Close Analysis of Narrative Structure
Summary
Exercises
Suggested Readings
Chapter 5. Television Genres
Introduction
Television Genre, Production, and Scheduling
The Rules for Classifying Genres
Genre and Television Criticism
Comedy
Talk Shows
News
Magazine Shows
Drama
Soap Opera
Science Fiction
Reality Shows
Sports
Children’s Television
Game Shows
Other Genres
Summary
Exercises
Suggested Readings
PART III. THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO TELEVISION CRITICISM
Chapter 6. Rhetoric and Culture
Introduction
Rhetoric
Cultural Studies
Summary
Exercises
Suggested Readings in Rhetoric
Suggested Readings in Cultural Studies
Chapter 7. Representation and Its Audience
Introduction
What Is Representation?
Television Representation
Interpreting Representation
Reception of Televisual Images
Symbols
The Illusion of Reality
The Need for Images
Representation of the “Other”
Advice for Television Critics
Representation and Collective Memory
Summary
Exercises
Suggested Readings
Chapter 8. Postmodernism
Introduction
Postmodernism Defined
Postmodern Television
MTV
Postmodern Theories
Summary
Exercises
Suggested Readings
PART IV. CRITICAL APPLICATIONS
Chapter 9. Guidelines for Television Criticism
Introduction
Critical Orientation
Story and Genre
Organization
Demographics
Context
The Look of the Program and Its Codes
Analysis
Judgment
Writing Television Criticism
Summary
Chapter 10. Sample Criticism of a Television Program: Parenthood
Introduction
Thesis
Purpose
Description of Parenthood
Production Information
Description of the Episode
Questions for Analysis
Analysis and Interpretation
Summary
Glossary
References
Index
About the Author

Über Autor(innen)

O'Donnell, Victoria J.
Victoria O'Donnell (Ph.D., the Pennsylvania State University) is Professor Emeritus at Montana State University-Bozeman. She teaches a seminar on television criticism for the School of Film and Photography at Montana State University. She has published on topics concerning persuasion, the social effects of media, women in film and television, British politics, Nazi propaganda, collective memory, cultural studies theory, and science fiction films of the 1950s. She is also the author (with June Kable) of Persuasion: An Interactive-Dependency Approac, Propaganda and Persuasion (with Garth Jowett), and Speech Communication. She’s co-edited (with Garth Jowett) Readings in Propaganda and Persuasion. She made a film, Women, War, and Work: Shaping Space for Productivity in the Shipyards During World War II, for PBS, has written television scripts for environmental films, and has done voice-overs. She served on several journal editorial boards, is the recipient of numerous research grants and teaching awards, has been a private consultant, a Danforth Foundation Associate, a Summer Scholar of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and has taught in Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Wales.

Victoria O'Donnell (Ph.D., the Pennsylvania State University) is Professor Emeritus at Montana State University-Bozeman. She teaches a seminar on television criticism for the School of Film and Photography at Montana State University. She has published on topics concerning persuasion, the social effects of media, women in film and television, British politics, Nazi propaganda, collective memory, cultural studies theory, and science fiction films of the 1950s. She is also the author (with June Kable) of Persuasion: An Interactive-Dependency Approac, Propaganda and Persuasion (with Garth Jowett), and Speech Communication. She’s co-edited (with Garth Jowett) Readings in Propaganda and Persuasion. She made a film, Women, War, and Work: Shaping Space for Productivity in the Shipyards During World War II, for PBS, has written television scripts for environmental films, and has done voice-overs. She served on several journal editorial boards, is the recipient of numerous research grants and teaching awards, has been a private consultant, a Danforth Foundation Associate, a Summer Scholar of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and has taught in Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Wales.