TV
Theory and Criticism
HUM 696/COMM 695
Fall, 2009
Professor:
Dr. Jeffrey Jones
Office:
BAL 3012
Office Phone:
683-6267
E-mail:
Office Hours: Tuesday 3-4:45, and by appointment
Class: Wednesdays, 7:10-9:50 p.m., BAL 3009
Web site: http://www.odu.edu/al/jpjones
Course Description:
This
course is designed to introduce students to contemporary scholarship in
television studies. As the television industry has undergone radical
transformations in recent years, the first half of the course is dedicated to
coming to terms with just what defines and constitutes “television” as an
economic, political, and cultural set of practices and experiences today. The
second half of the course directs our attention to contemporary television
programming, from television news and programming addressed to women viewers,
to the broad array of channels and programming available on cable—television’s
most profitable sector. Overall, the course will introduce students to an array
of issues and critical perspectives on television as an industrial, political,
and cultural practice.
Activities and Evaluation
1. Weekly
2. Mid-Term Exam (take home): The
mid-term will answer a critical question based on the readings from the first
part of the semester. The length should
be as long as it takes to answer the question adequately. The exam will be distributed on October 14,
and is due October 21 by 7:00 p.m.
(via e-mail to Dr. Jones). Worth 30%.
3. Original Research Paper: This
is a typical graduate level research paper based on your own original research
(20-22 pages). It should be more than a
literature review of existing knowledge on the subject (though that should
certainly be included as well), and should contain a sufficient amount of
scholarly citations to demonstrate that you are in conversation with other
thinkers in the field. Like a journal
article, you should seek to advance your own argument on a subject of your
choosing. Worth 40%.
You are to submit the following as part
of the paper writing process. Failure to
submit individual components will affect the final grade:
September
30: Topic
approval (what is it you plan to study?)
October
14: Research question and methodology (what
is the specific question you will ask and try to answer in your paper and how
will you go about answering it?)
October
28: Bibliography of materials (what books,
journal articles, newspapers and magazines will you use in your paper?) [note:
simply a list, not an annotated bibliography]
November
11: Paper Outline (a rough formal outline that denotes each section of the
paper and the arguments advanced in each)
December
9: Presentation (a 10-minute summary your research question, your
data, and findings)
December
14: Final Paper (double-spaced, titled,
pages numbered, works cited page in Chicago or APA style).
4. Class Participation: As
a graduate student, it is expected that you will come to class having read the
material and prepared to discuss it. As
a once-a-week class, absences should be kept to a minimum. This grade also includes the quality of your
presentation of your original research on the last class day. Worth 10%.
Required Readings:
Amanda Lotz, The Television Will Be Revolutionized
(New York: NYU Press, 2007)
Amanda Lotz, Redesigning Women: Television after the
Network Era (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006)
Jonathan Gray, Television Entertainment (New York:
Routledge, 2008)
Sarah
Banet-Weiser, Cynthia Chris, Anthony Freitas (eds.), Cable Visions: Television Beyond Broadcasting (New York: NYU Press,
2007)
John Hartley, Television Truths (Malden, MA: Blackwell
Publishing, 2008)
Geoffrey Baym, From Cronkite to Colbert: The Evolution of
Broadcast News (Paradigm Publishers, 2009)
September 2: Class Introduction
September 9: The Industry Today
Reading: Lotz/Revolutionized,
Introduction – Chapter 4
September 16: The Industry Today
Reading: Lotz/Revolutionized,
Chapter 5 – Conclusion
September 23: Rethinking Entertainment
Television
Reading: Gray, Introduction – Chapter 3
September 30:
Rethinking Entertainment
Television
Reading: Gray,
Chs. 4-6
October 7: The Politics and Epistemology of TV
Reading:
Hartley, Chs. 1-7
October 14: The Aesthetics and Metaphysics of TV
Reading:
Hartley, Chs. 8-12
October 21: Mid-Term
Take Home Exams Due
*****Due by 7:00
p.m. via E-mail*****
October 28: Post-Network Representations
of Women
Reading:
Lotz/Women , Intro-Chapter 3
November 4: Cable Institutions and Audiences
Reading: Banet-Weiser,
Chs. 1-5
November 11: Cable Channels
Reading: Banet-Weiser,
Chs.6-11
November 18: Cable Programming
Reading:
Banet-Weiser, Chs.12-16
November 25: **NO CLASS; Thanksgiving Holiday**
Reading: Baym
December 9: Presentations of Research Projects (done
off-campus at a restaurant)
December 14: Papers Due by 12:00 noon (hard copies in person, not via e-mail)