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DEPARTMENT OF FILM AND TELEVISION STUDIES
BA Film Studies, Year 2, BA Film and Literature Year 3 (Option)
TELEVISION HISTORY AND CRITICISM
(FI 205)
Module Tutor: Dr Charlotte Stevens, Room A1.10
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SPRING TERM 2016
AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES
This module aims to enable your further exploration of television as an historical, critical and
theoretical object of study. The module aims to develop your skills in the critical textual
analysis of television texts, and to enable you to evaluate critically, and to mobilise, a range of
theoretical concepts and methodologies in relation to the study of television as a textual,
institutional, historical and cultural object. By the end of the module, you should be able to
offer clear and precise critical accounts of the texts, histories and theories we have studied,
both orally and in writing. For this reason, it is important that you contribute fully to seminar
discussion in an informed manner. If you find seminars difficult, please arrange to see me and
we will discuss ways of managing this important aspect of your learning.
LEARNING AND TEACHING METHODS
The module will be taught through a combination of lectures, screenings, seminars and small
group work. Substantial preparatory reading (and viewing) will be required for each week’s
sessions. It is not possible for lectures and seminars to cover every interesting and significant
aspect of the texts we will study and their institutional and cultural contexts. For this reason,
you should aim to read as broadly as possible around our topic area each week to
supplement what you are offered in the lecture. This document, and lecture handouts, will
suggest areas of further interest for you to pursue. The degree to which you have followed up
these suggestions will be evident in your assessed and examined work, and in your seminar
contributions. The lecture handout is designed as an aide-memoire, and is not intended as a
substitute for taking notes or for attendance at lectures, screenings and seminars. Sometimes
we will view the same programme twice, as you have been accustomed to doing on Film
Studies modules, but more often we will view them once only, in order to have time to see a
range of material in one week. It is, then, especially important that you take detailed notes
during television screenings. Learning to manage television viewing in a scholarly
context is a critical part of your development on this module.
This document details the screening programme, and gives detailed information on the
weekly topics, reading and further reading and viewing for the Spring. The module will be
assessed through a combination of essays and an unseen end of year examination.
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CONTENT
In the Spring Term we will be focusing on television’s interactions with our everyday lives, and
in particular considering issues of television that go beyond programmes themselves. In doing
this, we will explore topics such as channel identity, particular schedule slots, the various
locations, spaces, and uses of television, and cultural discourses around and within television
such as nostalgia and quality. We’ll ask questions about how, where and why television is
watched? What are some of the social functions of television? What is the value of television?
We will look at a range of texts, British and American, both recent and historical, and cover
areas as diverse as: football on television, quality drama, fandom studies, and television in
the pub.
TIMETABLE
All sessions in this module will take place on Fridays, between 9.00 and 4.00 in A1.25. The
timings for each week’s sessions will vary slightly from week to week, depending on the
length of our screening materials. As you will see, our televisual object of study ranges from
short paratexts to serial drama. In broad terms, though, our meetings will be as follows. If the
timetable will be very different from this, I will let you know in advance and will usually email
the timetable in any case on the day before each week’s session, so you should be careful to
check your Warwick email regularly.
Lecture 9.00-10.00; First Screening 10.15-12.00; Lunch Break 12.00-1.00; Second
Screening 1.00-2.30; Seminar 2.40-4.00.
SEMINARS
Seminars can be one of the most productive ways to learn in a university setting – they can
also be hard work when you are under-prepared for them, or when the group doesn’t foster a
collaborative, supportive attitude to each other and each other’s learning. If you are finding it
difficult to contribute to seminar discussion, please let me know as soon as possible, and I will
do what I can to facilitate your involvement. Seminars will almost always combine
discussion of the programmes screened in that week and of the reading set. Please
note: while we are likely to discuss the set reading every week, I have indicated, week
by week, where seminars will focus on detailed discussion of a specific piece of set
reading. You MUST come to seminars having done the required reading and made
notes on it in preparation for contributing to discussion.
A NOTE ON READING AND VIEWING
As you will know by now, planning ahead is essential in ensuring you have access to the key
books and articles we will be reading each week. Copies of all essential reading will either be
held in the Short Loan collection (you should photocopy key pieces of reading where
possible) or will be available in digital form through the library’s electronic resources/course
extracts pages and link, and you should check for set reading here first:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/main/electronicresources/extracts/fi/fi205
Many journals and books are available online. Remember that the set reading for the module
is intended only as a starting point for your own study. You should aim to read (and view) as
widely as possible. The library has excellent resources, including an extensive collection of
the Radio Times, TV Times and television trade journals such as Broadcast (reading this on a
weekly basis will give you a good picture of current shifts in the British television industry and
landscape). Articles on particular programmes and topics can be sought using the library’s
electronic databases, as can newspaper reviews. It is good practice, as a matter of course, to
look out reviews of television programmes in which you are interested. A key aim of the
module is to raise your critical awareness in relation to your own television viewing. You
should try to view an eclectic mix of programming, read a wide range of sources on television,
both historical and contemporary, and become aware of discourses on television which
circulate everyday in the media (in print journalism, on the internet, and indeed on television).
The following books (all in the library), will be useful throughout the module:
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Robert C. Allen and Annette Hill (eds) (2004) The Television Studies Reader, London and
New York: Routledge; Edward Buscombe (ed.) (2000) British Television: A Reader, Oxford:
Oxford University Press; John Corner (1999) Critical Ideas in Television Studies, Oxford:
Clarendon Press; Glen Creeber (ed.) (2001) The TV Genre Book, London: BFI; Glen Creeber
(ed.) Fifty Key Television Programmes, London: Arnold raises interesting issues of television
canonicity. Andrew Crisell (2002) An Introductory History of British Broadcasting (Second
Edition), London: Routledge is a good historical overview, though remember that this book
will not cover the most recent developments around the future of television in Britain, the
move to digital and debates around public service broadcasting. Look at the Ofcom website
(www.ofcom.org.uk) to follow up more recent institutional/political developments. John Ellis
(2000) Seeing Things: Television in the Age of Uncertainty, London: I.B. Tauris; Christine
Geraghty and David Lusted (eds) (1998) The Television Studies Book, London and New
York: Routledge; Michele Hilmes (2003) The Television History Book, London: BFI; Jason
Jacobs and Stephen Peacock (eds) (2013) Television Aesthetics and Style, New York:
Bloomsbury; Karen Lury (2005) Interpreting Television, London: Hodder Arnold, offers an
excellent introduction to the textual study of television. Toby Miller (2002) Television Studies,
London: BFI; Jason Mittell (2004) Genre Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in
American Culture, New York and London: Routledge. James Bennett and Nikki Strange
(2011) Television as Digital Media, Durham: Duke University Press, Jennifer Gillan (2011)
Television and New Media: Must-Click TV, London, Routledge, Paul Grainge (2011)
Ephemeral Media: Transitory Screen Culture from Television to YouTube, London: BFI, Lynn
Spigel and Jan Olssen (eds) (2004) Television After TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition,
Durham: Duke University Press and Graeme Turner and Jinna Tay (2009) Television Studies
After TV: Understanding Television in the Post-Broadcast Era, London: Routledge are some
of the recent titles which think about the digital transformation of television. You might also
look at John Caughie (2000) Television Drama: Realism, Modernism and British Culture,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, which introduces and interrogates some of the debates
around British television drama since the 1960s.
ASSESSMENT
The module will be assessed through a combination of essays and an unseen end of year
examination. As well as the long essay that you completed for Rachel last term, you will also
be set a further essay this term (due on Monday Week 2 of the Summer Term). Essays
must be submitted anonymously and in duplicate (but must be identifiable by your
student number at the top of the page).
Year 2
2 x 3000 word essays (30% each, 1 submitted in each of Autumn and Summer terms)
Unseen examination: 2 questions, 2 hours (40%, Summer term)
Year 3
1 x 1000 formative textual analysis essay, Week 5 Autumn term (if you did not take Visual
Cultures)
Either: 1 x 5000 word essay + 1 x 2 hour unseen examination (50% assessed/50%
examined)
Or: 2 x 5,000 word essays (50% each, 100% assessed)
Or: 1 x unseen examination (3 questions, 3 hours, 100% assessed)
ASSESSMENT DEADLINES
All essays must be submitted to Adam Gallimore, in the departmental office, by 12.00 on the
day of the deadline. Extensions may only be given by the Chair of Department, Dr
Alastair Phillips, in advance of the deadline. An essay submitted late without an
extension will receive a penalty of a 5% reduction of the mark per day.
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Year 2 students
First 3,000 word essay: Friday 11th December (Week 10, Autumn Term)
Second 3,000 word essay: Tuesday 3rd May (Week 2, Summer Term)
Year 3 students
Formative 1000 word textual analysis: Monday 2nd November (Week Five, Autumn Term)
First 5,000 word essay: Friday 11th December (Week 10, Autumn Term)
First or second 5,000 word essay: Tuesday 3rd May (Week 2, Summer Term)
If they wish to do so, finalists may submit 2 x 5000 word essays and take the best mark
forward. The work from the other essay may then be used in the examination.
ESSAYS
Second Essay Questions will be given out in Week 7
[Deadline: 12 noon Tuesday 3rd May (Week 2, Summer Term 2016) to Adam Gallimore
in the departmental office.] This essay is an exercise in combining research, reading and
textual analysis. If your essay includes discussion of a television programme we have not
viewed together on the module, then please append a DVD copy to your essay, or provide a
link. Please make sure that you have followed the assessment criteria guidelines in the
handbook in researching, writing and presenting your essay, and that you have attached a
cover sheet. Your essay should be anonymised and submitted in duplicate.
N.B. Please avoid using textual examples on which we have worked together in
class in your essays.
Essay Support Notes
1. Finding pre-1990 television texts
• Lecture handouts give other programme suggestions
• Consult key works such as the BFI’s Television History Book (Hilmes 2003), Television
Genre Book (Creeber 2001, 2008, 2014) and Creeber’s 50 Key Television Programmes
(Creeber, 2004)
• Look at BFI TV Classics book series
• Consult www.screenonline.org.uk/tv which gives first transmission (tx) dates. Useful for 2
below.
• Websites like www.tv-ark.org.uk and www.kaleidoscope.org.uk can be useful but are not
strictly ‘academic’ sources
• Radio Times, TV Times
2. Contextualisation
• Radio Times and TV Times
• Academic books and journal articles
• Reviews in newspapers and, for example, The Listener
IMPORTANT: Make sure you can access an appropriate, full version of your chosen
programme, ideally through the library, regional mediatheque, BFI or online archive.
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VIEWING PROGRAMME: SPRING TERM
Week 1: Public Service Broadcasting and British Television
Screening: Episodes of Doctor Who (BBC, 1963-1989, 2005 - )
Week 2: Television Channels: Ephemera and Branding
Screening: Selection of idents and interstitial materials
Please bring your own examples to the seminar.
Week 3: Sport on Television
Screening: Match of the Day (episodes from 1964, 1986, 2014), MOTD Kickabout
(CBBC, 2011 -), Extract from World of Sport (ITV retrospective from 2012)
Week 4: Television and Domesticity
Screening: Hancock’s Half Hour (BBC, 1956-1960), The Big Breakfast (C4, 19922002), Changing Rooms (BBC, 1996-2004), Gogglebox (C4, 2013 -), Nigella’s
Christmas Kitchen (BBC, 2006).
Week 5: Fandom Audiences and Cult Television
Screening: Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi Channel, 2004-2009) and a selection of
fanvids.
Week 6: Reading Week
Independent Research: Over reading week, spend time observing television
screens in public/semi-public spaces.
Week 7: Ambient Television
Screening: The Truman Show (1998, Peter Weir) plus tour of campus televisions
Week 8: Questions of Quality: UK Television Drama
Screening: Brideshead Revisited (ITV, 1981), Sherlock (BBC, 2010 -)
Week 9: Questions of Quality: US Television Drama
Screening: LOST (ABC, 2004-2010), Elementary (CBS, 2012 -)
Week 10: Television and Nostalgia
Screening: Life On Mars (BBC, 2006-7), Goodbye Granadaland (ITV, 2013), plus
sections of TV on Trial (BBC, 2005) 100 Greatest TV Moments (Tyne Tees/Channel
4, 1999) and Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe (BBC, 2006 -)
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DETAILED READING AND VIEWING PROGRAMME
WEEK ONE
Public Service Broadcasting and British Television
In this session, we will look at how conceptions and definitions of Public Service Broadcasting
have changed over time. This is another way of thinking about the ‘value’ of television, and so
will link to the work you do in weeks 8 and 9 on quality television. We will develop our
understanding of what might constitute Public Service Broadcasting beyond the oft quoted
principles of ‘inform, educate and entertain’.
Doctor Who is a useful case study here, being a long-running BBC show that has been
produced and broadcast in all but one of the last six decades. Its explicit address to a family
audience means that it has often been at the centre of debates about the relationship
between entertainment and education.
We will also look at how Doctor Who’s links to CBC, BBC America and BBC Worldwide might
affect its production and reception as an example of ‘British’ public service broadcasting.
What does PSB mean in an era of global television?
Screenings: Doctor Who (BBC, 1963-1989, 2005 - ). We will look at episodes of the show
from the first series (1963-64), the 10th series (1972-73) and from the recent reboot (2005 present).
Required Reading: Shimpach, Shaun, ‘Doctor Who: Regeneration through Time and
(Relative Dimensions in) Space’, in Shimpach, Shaun, Television in Transition: The Life and
Afterlife of the Narrative Action Hero, (Chichester, West Sussex; Malden, MA : WileyBlackwell, 2010), pp. 152-170.
Seminar: To illuminate our discussions of the public service qualities of Doctor Who, we will
look at the BBC’s charter from various points in the institution’s history. You can prepare for
this week by looking at journalism related to the debates around the license fee and the idea
of television’s “dumbing down”.
Further Reading (as always, these are a good starting point for your own further
research, but are by no means exhaustive)
On Doctor Who and PSB
• Bignell, Jonathan. ‘Space for “Quality”: Negotiating with the Daleks’. In Bignell,
Jonathan and Lacey, Stephen (eds), Popular Television Drama: Critical Perspectives,
Manchester University Press, 2005: 76-92.
• Steward, Tom. ‘Time Monsters and Space Museums’ in Critical Studies in Television
Blog [online], 25 November 2013, available at http://cstonline.tv/time-monsters-andspace-museums
• Evans, Elizabeth. Transmedia Television: Audiences, New Media, and Daily Life.
Routledge, 2011: 19-39.
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• Hills, Matt. ‘The Year of the Doctor: Celebrating the 50 , Regenerating Public Value’,
Science Fiction Film and Television, 7.2, 2014: 159-78
• Hills, Matt. Triumph of a Time Lord: Regenerating Doctor Who in the Twenty-first
Century, I.B. Tauris, 2010.
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On Public Service Broadcasting
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• Bignell, Jonathan An Introduction to Television Studies (3 edition), 19-27
• Branston, Gill. ‘Histories of British Television’ in Geraghty, Christine and Lusted,
David (eds.). The Television Studies Book. 51-62.
• Corner, John. Critical Ideas in Television Studies, 1999. 12-23
• Johnson, Catherine. Branding Television. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. 2012: 84-111
and 143-166.
• Petley, Julian. “Public Service Broadcasting in the UK” in Gomery, Douglas and
Hockley, Luke (eds.). Television Industries. London: BFI, 2006: 42-45.
• MacCabe, Colin and Olivia Stewart (eds) The BBC and public service broadcasting.
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1986.
• McDonnell, James. Public Service Broadcasting: A Reader. London; New York:
Routledge, 1991.
• Scannell, Paddy. “Public Service Broadcasting: The History of a Concept” in
Goodwin, Andrew and Whannel, Garry (eds.). Understanding Television. London:
Routledge, 1990: 11-29. An excellent and useful historical overview of PSB.
• Tracey, Michael. The Decline and Fall of Public Service Broadcasting. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1998.
WEEK TWO
Television Channels: Ephemera and Branding
This week we will not be screening full programmes, but instead will look at a selection
of idents, interstitials and other televisual ‘branding’ materials – usually the items that
appear between and around television programmes, but can no less be considered
“television” themselves. Please come to class this week with your own examples of such
materials (either on DVD/VHS or as weblinks) ready to present and prompt class discussion.
Required Reading: Johnson, Catherine, ‘Of Idents and Interstitials: Channel Branding’ in
Johnson, Cathy, Branding Television (Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2012), pp. 115
– 142.
Seminar
How do channels brand themselves? How do we know what channels are ‘like’ and who they
are ‘for’?
Further Reading
• Johnson, Catherine, ‘Why we should care who makes the BBC’s promotional
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content’, Critical Studies in Television Online (17 October 2014)
<http://cstonline.tv/why-we-should-care-about-who-makes-the-bbcs-promotionalcontent>
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Ellis, John, ‘Interstitials: How the “Bits in Between” Define the Programmes’, in Paul
Grainge (ed.), Ephemeral Media: Transitory Screen Culture from Television to
YouTube (London: BFI / Palgrave, 2011), pp. 59-69
• Brownrigg, Mark and Meech, Peter, ‘“Music is Half the Picture”: The Soundworld of
UK Television Idents’, in Paul Grainge (ed.), Ephemeral Media: Transitory Screen
Culture from Television to YouTube (London: BFI / Palgrave, 2011), pp. 70-86
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Fanthome, Christine, ‘Creating and Iconic Brand: An Account of the History,
Development, Context and Significance of Channel 4’s Idents’, Journal of Media
Practice 8(3), pp. 255-271
Grainge, Paul, ‘TV Promotion and Broadcasting Design: An Interview with Charlie
Mawer, Red Bee Media’, in Paul Grainge (ed.), Ephemeral Media: Transitory Screen
Culture from Television to YouTube (London: BFI / Palgrave, 2011), pp. 87-101
Gray, Jonathan, Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media
Paratexts (New York: New York University Press, 2010)
WEEK THREE
Sport on Television
Televised sport is a huge part of television’s live output and coverage of live sporting events
often features heavily in the highest-rated programmes in any given year. We’ll examine the
often taken-for-granted aesthetic, temporal and presentational conventions of televised sport,
as well as the ‘regularity’ and ‘everydayness’ of sporting coverage.
Screening: Match of the Day (BBC, episodes from 1964, 1986, 2014), MOTD Kickabout
(CBBC, 2011 -) Extract from World of Sport (ITV retrospective from 2012)
Required Reading: Scannell, Paddy, ‘The Moment of the Goal – On Television’ in Scannel,
Paddy Television and the Meaning of Live: An Enquiry into the Human Situation (Cambridge;
Malden: Polity, 2014), pp. 151 – 176.
Further Reading
• Whannel, Gary, Fields in vision: television sport and cultural transformation (London;
New York: Routledge, 1992) (esp ‘Chapter 6: Analysing Television Sport:
Transformations of Space and Time’, pp. 87 – 103)
• Weed, Mike, ‘The Story of an Ethnography: The Experience of Watching the 2012
World Cup in the Pub’ Soccer and Society 7:1 (January 2006), pp. 76 – 95. NB This
will also be useful for Week 7’s work on television outside the home
• Sandvoss, Cornel, A Game of Two Halves: Football, Television and Globalization.
(London; New York: Routledge, 2003)
• de Moragas Spà, Miquel et al (eds) Television in the Olympics (London: J. Libbey,
1995)
• Galily, Yair and Ilan Tamir, ‘A Match Made in Heaven?! Sport, Television, and New
Media in the Beginning of the Third Millennia’, Television & New Media 15:8
(December 2014), pp. 699-702
• Galily, Yair, ‘When the Medium Becomes “Well Done”: Sport, Television, and
Technology in the Twenty-First Century’, Television & New Media 15:8 (December
2014), pp. 717-724.
• Creedon, Pam, ‘Women, Social Media, and Sport: Global Digital Communication
Weaves a Web’, Television & New Media 15:8 (December 2014) pp. 711-716.
• Boyle, Raymond, ‘Television Sport in the Age of Screens and Content’, Television &
New Media (December 2014) pp. 746-751
• Rowe, David, ‘New Screen Action and Its Memories: The “Live” Performance of
Mediated Sport Fandom’, Television & New Media (December 2014) pp. 752-759.
• Whannel, Garry, ‘The Paradoxical Character of Live Television Sport in the TwentyFirst Century’ Television & New Media (December 2014) pp. 769-776.
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Deninger, Dennis, Sports on Television: The How and the Why Behind What You
See (London; New York: Routledge, 2012)
Morse, Margaret, ‘Talk, Talk, Talk’ Screen 26:2 (March 1985), pp. 2 – 17.
WEEK FOUR
Television and Domesticity
Television is frequently conceived of as being a domestic medium: transmitted into our
homes, watched to fit in with the routines of everyday life, with programming concerned with
the private and the personal. Obviously, there are also issues of gender, representation, and
space at stake here. In this week, we’ll examine representations and constructions of
domestic spaces in television and explore television’s address to an audience assumed to be
watching in their homes.
Screening: Hancock’s Half Hour (BBC, 1956-1960), The Big Breakfast (C4, 1992-2002),
Changing Rooms (BBC, 1996-2004), Gogglebox (C4, 2013 -), Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen
(BBC, 2006).
Required Readings:
• Spigel, Lynn, ‘Installing the Television Set: Popular Discourses on Television and
Domestic Space, 1948 - 1955’, Camera Obscura 6: 1 16 (January 1988), pp. 9-46.
(Also available in: Spigel, Lynn and Denise Mann (eds) Private Screenings:
Television and the Female Consumer. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
pp. 3-40.)
• Buonanno, Milly, ‘A Domesticated Medium’ in Buonanno, Milly, The Age of
Television: Experiences and Theories (Bristol: Intellect, 2008), pp. 13-17.
Further Reading:
• Spigel, Lynn, Make Room For TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar
America. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992) HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
• Pertierra, Anna Cristina and Graeme Turner, Locating Television: Zones of
Consumption (London; New York: Routledge, 2013)
• Morley, David, Family Television: Cultural Power and Domestic Leisure. (London;
New York: Routledge, 1988)
• Andrews, Maggie, Domesticating the Airwaves: Broadcasting, Domesticity and
Femininity (London: Continuum, 2012)
• Brown, Barry and Louise Barkhuus, ‘Changing Practices of Family Television
Watching’ in Harper, Richard (ed) The Connected Home: The Future of Domestic Life
(London: Springer, 2011), pp. 93 – 110.
• Hamill, Lynne, ‘Changing Times: Home Life and Domestic Habit’, in Harper, Richard
(ed) The Connected Home: The Future of Domestic Life (London: Springer, 2011),
pp. 29-57.
• Peter Goddard (1991) ‘Hancock’s Half Hour: A watershed in British Television
Comedy’, in John Corner (ed.) Popular Television in Britain: Studies in Cultural
History, London: BFI, pp. 75-89.
• Julia Hallam (2005) “Remembering Butterflies: the Comic Art of Housework.” in
Bignell, Jonathan and Stephen Lacey (eds) Popular Television Drama: Critical
Perspectives. Manchester: Manchester UP. pp. 34-50.
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Mary Beth Haralovich (1992) “Sit-coms and Suburbs: Positioning the 1950s
Homemaker” in Spigel, Lynn and Denise Mann (eds) Private Screenings: Television
and the Female Consumer. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 109-141.
Lury, Karen, Interpreting Television (London: Arnold: 2005), Chapter 4: ‘Space’
Charlotte Brunsdon (2005) ‘Feminism, postfeminism, Martha, Martha, and Nigella’
Cinema Journal, 44:2, 110-116.
Joanne Hollows (2003) ‘Feeling like a domestic goddess: Postfeminism and cooking’,
European Journal of Cultural Studies, 6:2, 179-202.
Gillis, Stacey and Joanne Hollows, Feminism, Domesticity and Popular Culture
(London; New York: Routledge, 2008).
Brunsdon, Charlotte, Catherine Johnson, Rachel Moseley and Helen Wheatley
(2001) “Factual Entertainment on British Television: The Midlands TV Research
Group’s 8-9 Project.” in European Journal of Cultural Studies. Vol. 4: No. 1., 29-62.
WEEK FIVE
Fandom Audiences and Cult Television
Following on from last week’s discussion of domesticity and gender, this week we turn to
domestic home video technology, and the (primarily) female media fandom audience. This
week, we will explore issues of fandom, productive audiences, and the afterlife of television
programmes through the consideration of a specific form of fan work. As a case study, we will
focus on the reboot of Battlestar Galactica, and vids made from that series.
Screenings: Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi Channel, 2004-2009), and a selection of fanvids.
Required Reading: Coppa, Francesca. ‘Women, Star Trek, and the Early Development of
Fannish Vidding.’ Transformative Works and Cultures 1 (2008), available online at
http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/44/64
Further Reading
• Abbott, Stacey (ed). The Cult TV Book. London and New York: I.B.Tauris, 2010.
• Bacon-Smith, Camille. Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of
Popular Myth. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.
• Coppa, Francesca. ‘A Fannish Taxonomy of Hotness.’ Cinema Journal 48.4 (2009):
107-113.
• Coppa, Francesca. ‘A Brief History of Media Fandom.’ Fan Fiction and Fan
Communities in the Age of the Internet. Eds. Karen Hellekson, and Kristina Busse.
Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishing, 2006. 44-60.
• Dinsmore, Uma. ‘Chaos, Order and Plastic Boxes: The Significance of Videotapes for
the People who Collect Them.’ The Television Studies Book. Eds. Christine Geraghty
and David Lusted. London: Arnold, 1998. 315-326.
• Fiske, John. ‘The Cultural Economy of Fandom.’ The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture
and Popular Media. Ed. Lisa A. Lewis. London: Routledge, 1992. 30-49.
• Gray, Ann. Video Playtime: The Gendering of a Leisure Technology. London:
Routledge, 1992.
• Gray, Jonathan. Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media
Paratexts. New York and London: New York University Press, 2010.
• Hills, Matt. Fan Cultures. New York, NY: Routledge, 2002.
• Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture.
London: Routledge, 1992.
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Lothian, Alexis. ‘Living in a Den of Thieves: Fan Video and Digital Challenges to
Ownership.’ Cinema Journal 48.4 (2009): 130-136.
Penley, Constance. ‘Brownian Motion: Women, Tactics, and Technology.’
Technoculture. Eds. Constance Penley and Andrew Ross. Minneapolis, MN:
University of Minnesota Press, 1991. 135-161.
Tulloch, John and Henry Jenkins. Science Fiction Audiences: Doctor Who, Star Trek,
and Their Fans. London: Routledge, 1995.
Turk, Tisha. ‘”Your Own Imagination”: Vidding and Vidwatching as Collaborative
Interpretation’. Film and Film Culture 5 (2010): 88–110.
Turk, Tisha, and Joshua Johnson. ‘Toward an Ecology of Vidding.’ Transformative
Works and Cultures 9 (2012): no page.
http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/326/294
WEEK SIX: READING WEEK
There will be no classes this week.
Independent Research Project: Over the course of this week, please spend some time
observing television screens in public/semi-public/non-domestics spaces. Some ideas to get
you started: pubs, doctor’s surgeries, hospitals, airports, shops, restaurants/takeaways,
queuelines for rollercoasters etc.
Make notes on where televisions are positioned, what is around them, what type of screen,
what type of programme (or other material) is being show, who has control over what is on.
Observe the behaviour of others in the space: are people watching them? If so, how are they
watching them? How are they positioned (sitting, standing)? Are they giving the television
their full attention or are they engaged in other activities?
Spend some time watching the television set(s) yourself. Reflect and make notes on how this
experience feels, and especially how it differs from watching television at home.
As well as notes, you may also want to consider drawing/sketching or photographing the
televisions in their spaces. (Ask permission first if you want to take photographs of any
people!)
Be prepared to present your findings back to the class next week.
WEEK SEVEN
Ambient Television
What about television that is watched outside the home? Despite the body of work that we will
examine in Week 5, it is also clear that there are television screens all around us as we
navigate public, semi-public and non-domestic space. We’ll explore some ways to theorise
television screening and watching that occurs outside the home by carrying out our own
research into these ‘ambient’ screening spaces.
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Screening: The Truman Show (1998, Peter Weir) plus tour of campus televisions
Required Reading: McCarthy, Anna ‘Television While You Wait’ in McCarthy, Anna, Ambient
Television: Visual Culture and Public Spaces (London; Durham: Duke University Press), pp.
195 – 223.
Seminar:
In the seminar, we will reflect on our tour and examine the representations of the nondomestic viewing spaces in The Truman Show. You will present the results of the
independent research that you did over reading week back to your colleagues and we’ll
compare notes.
Further Reading
• Weed, Mike, ‘The Story of an Ethnography: The Experience of Watching the 2012
World Cup in the Pub’ Soccer and Society 7:1 (January 2006), pp. 76-95
• Krotz, Friedrich and Susan Tyler Eastman, ‘Orientations Toward Television Outside
the Home’ Journal of Communication 49:1 (February 2006), pp. 5-27.
• Lemish, Dafna, ‘The rules of viewing television in public places’ Journal of
Broadcasting 26:4 (Winter 1982), pp. 757-781.
• Boddy, William, ‘“Is it TV Yet?” The Dislocated Screens of Television in a Mobile
Digital Culture’ in Bennett, James and Niki Strange (eds) Television as Digital Media
(Durham NC: Duke, 2011), pp. 76-104.
• Chamberlain, Daniel, ‘Scripted Spaces: Television Interfaces and the Non-Places of
Asynchronous Entertainment’ in Bennett, James and Niki Strange (eds) Television as
Digital Media (Durham NC: Duke, 2011), pp. 230-254.
• Jacobs, Jason, ‘Television, Interrupted: Pollution or Aesthetic?’ in Bennett, James
and Niki Strange (eds) Television as Digital Media (Durham NC: Duke, 2011), pp.
255-282.
• Fyfe, Nicholas R. (ed) Images of the Street: Planning, Identity and Control in Public
Space (London; New York: Routledge, 1998).
Weeks Eight and Nine
Case Study: Quality Television
Much has been written recently about ‘quality television’, and in the present moment the term
is generally used to refer to a certain type of long-form, American serial drama. However, of
course, questions of quality and television have a much longer history. We will examine
conceptions, definitions and problems of ‘quality’ across these two weeks, first focusing on
‘quality’ in the UK context, and then in the US. As a way of examining ‘quality’ in the present
moment, we will compare two recent adaptations of the same source text: the BBC’s Sherlock
and CBS’s Elementary.
WEEK EIGHT
Questions of Quality: UK Television Drama
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Screening: Brideshead Revisited (ITV, UK, 1981), Sherlock (BBC, UK, 2010 -)
Reading: Brunsdon, Charlotte, ‘Problems of Quality’, Screen 31:1 (Spring 1990), pp. 67 – 90.
Seminar:
What is ‘quality television’? What is at stake when we use labels like this? How does this
interact with other concepts such as public service broadcasting?
Further Reading
• Frith, Simon, ‘The Black Box: the value of television and the future of television
research’, Screen, 41(1), pp. 33-50.
• Geraghty, Christine Geraghty, ‘Aesthetics and quality in popular television drama’,
International Journal of Cultural Studies 6(1), pp. 25-45.
• Geraghty, Christine. Bleak House. BFI/Palgrave Macmillan, 2012: 7-18.
• Jacobs, Jason, ‘Issues of judgement and value in television studies’, International
Journal of Cultural Studies 4(4), pp. 427-447.
• Johnson, Catherine, ‘Negotiating Value and Quality in Television Historiography’ in
Wheatley (ed.), Re-Viewing Television History (London: I.B. Tauris, 2007), pp. 55-67.
• Cooke, Lez, British Television Drama: A History (London: BFI Publishing, 2003).
Chapter 5: Television Drama and Thatcherism, 1979-90, pp. 128-160.
• Caughie, John. Television Drama: Realism, Modernism, and British Culture, Oxford
University Press, 2000.
WEEK NINE
Questions of Quality: US Television Drama
Screening: LOST (ABC, US, 2004 – 2010), Elementary (CBS, US, 2012 -)
Required Reading: Cardwell, Sarah, ‘Is Quality Television Any Good?’ in McCabe, Janet
and Akass Kim (eds) Quality TV: Contemporary American Television and Beyond (London;
New York: I. B. Tauris, 2007), pp. 19 – 34.
Further Reading
• Pearson, Roberta, ‘The Writer/Producer in American Television’ in Hammond and
Mazdon (eds.), The Contemporary Television Series (Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 2005), pp. 11-26.
• Mark Jancovich and James Lyons (eds.), Quality Popular Television: Cult TV, the
Industry and Fans (London: British Film Institute, 2003)
• Creeber, Glen, ‘“Taking our personal lives seriously”: intimacy, continuity and
memory in the television drama serial’, Media Culture Society, 23(4), pp. 439-455.
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/016344301023004002)
• Newman, Michael Z. and Levine, Elana, Legitimating television: media convergence
and cultural status (Oxon: Routledge, 2012). Chapter 5: ‘Not a Soap Opera), pp. 8099. (http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2643337)
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•
•
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•
•
Creeber, Glen, Serial Television: Big Drama on the Small Screen (London: BFI,
2004).
Davies, Maire Messenger, ‘Quality and Creativity in TV: The Work of Television
Storytellers’ in Kim Akass and Janet McCabe (eds.), Quality TV: Contemporary
American Television and Beyond (London: I.B. Tauris, 2007), pp. 171-184.
Hills, Matt, ‘From the Box in the Corner to the Box Set on the Shelf: “TVIII” and the
Cultural/Textual Valorisations of DVD’, New Review of Film and Television Studies,
5(1), pp. 41-60.
Mittell, Jason, ‘The qualities of complexity: Vast versus dense seriality in
contemporary television’, in Jacobs, Jason and Peacock, Steven, Television
Aesthetics and Style (London: Bloomsbury, 2013), pp. 45-56.
Thompson, Robert J., From “Hill Street Blues” to “ER”: Television’s Second Golden
Age (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1996).
McCabe, Janet and Akass, Kim, ‘It’s not TV, it’s HBO’s original programming:
Producing quality TV’ in Leverette, Marc, Ott, Brian L. and Buckley, Cara Louise (eds)
It’s Not TV: Watching HBO in the Post-Television Era, Routledge, 2008: 83-94.
Gray, Jonathan, ‘The reviews are in: TV critics and the (pre) creation of meaning’ in
Kackman et al (eds) Flow TV: Television in the Age of Media Covergence, Routledge,
2011: 114-127.
Leverette, Marc, Ott, Brian L. and Buckley, Cara Louise (eds) It’s Not TV: Watching
HBO in the Post-Television Era, Routledge
McCabe, Janet and Akass, Kim (eds) Quality TV: Contemporary American Television
and Beyond. I.B. Tauris, 2007.
Newman, Michael and Elana Levine. Legitimating Television, 38-58 & 80-99
Pearson, Roberta. ‘The Writer/Producer in American Television’ in Hammond,
Michael and Mazdon, Lucy (eds.). The Contemporary Television Series. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh UP, 2005: 11-26.
Johnson, Catherine. ‘Tele-Branding in TVIII’ New Review of Film and Television
Studies 5: 1 (2007): 5-24.
WEEK TEN
Television and Nostalgia
Screening: Life On Mars (BBC, UK, 2006 – 7), Goodbye Granadaland (ITV, UK, 2013), plus
sections of TV on Trial (BBC, UK, 2005) 100 Greatest TV Moments (Tyne Tees/Channel 4,
UK, 1999) and Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe (BBC, UK, 2006 -)
Required Reading: Holdsworth, Amy, ‘Safe Returns: Nostalgia and Television’ in Television,
Memory and Nostalgia (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillian, 2011), pp. 96-126.
Further Reading
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Hallam, Julia, ‘Remembering Butterflies: the comic art of housework’, in J. Bignell and
S. Lacey (eds) Popular Television Drama: Critical Perspectives (Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 2005) pp. 34-50.
Holdsworth, Amy, ‘“Television Resurrections”: Television and Memory’, Cinema
Journal 47:3 (2008), pp. 137-144.
Holdsworth, Amy, Television, Memory and Nostalgia (Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillian, 2011).
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O’Sullivan, Tim, ‘Television Memories and Cultures of Viewing 1950-1965’, in John
Corner (ed.) Popular Television in Britain: Studies in Cultural History (London: BFI,
1991), pp.159-181.
O’Sullivan, Tim, ‘Researching the viewing culture: Television and the home, 19451960’ in Wheatley, Helen (ed.) Re-viewing Television History, (London: IB Tauris,
2007) pp.159-169.
Spigel, Lynn, ‘From the dark ages to the golden age: women’s memories and
television reruns’, Screen 36:1 (1995), pp. 16-33.
Spigel, Lynn, ‘Our TV Heritage: Television, the Archive, and the Reasons for
Preservation’, in Janet Wasko (ed.), A Companion to Television (Oxford: Blackwell
Publishing Ltd., 2005), pp. 67-99.
rd
Miller, Taylor Cole, ‘Flow (Still) Matters’ Antenna (23 January 2014)
<http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2014/01/23/flow-still-matters/>