Film & Digital Media 20B
TELEVISION CULTURE AND SOCIETY
Winter 2004
Professor L.S.KIM
Class Schedule: Tuesday and Thursday, 10:00 -11:45 a.m. in the Media Theatre
Office Hours: Tuesday 2-3 p.m., Thursday 12-1:30 p.m., and by appointment
Office: Communications Building 127  (831) 459-5543  lskim@ucsc.edu
Teaching Assistants: Catalina Forttes, Jin Suh Jirn, Lesleigh Owen, Sirida Srisombati, Andy Wang,
Mary Weaver, Kris Weller, Greg Youmans
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COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will give you an introduction to Television Studies. It is a required course for Film &
Digital Media majors, and students from other departments are welcome, space permitting. The
focus of the course is on visual texts as forms of mythmaking: How are stories – societal myths –
told, sustained, and possibly challenged through television? Moreover, you will be asked to
consider how different forms of television and technology affect forms of knowledge and ways of
thinking. The course is structured into two categories: There will be an emphasis on industrial
history in order to give you a background to television and its related media; this quarter will also
be devoted to critical cultural studies and analysis of television and society. The goal of this course
is to prepare you for intermediate and advanced level television classes. But whether or not you are
a FDM major, you will gain critical skills that can be applied to your work both within and beyond
academic subjects as television permeates life and culture in significant ways – ways that we will
discover together in this course.
REQUIRED READING:
Campbell, Richard. Media & Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication. Third Edition.
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing.
Course Reader
These are available at Bay Tree Bookstore.
ASSIGNMENTS/EVALUATION:
Attendance and Participation
First Paper (Week 4)
Mid-term Exam (Week 6)
Second Paper (Week 9)
Final Exam
. . . 15%
. . . 10%
. . . 20%
. . . 25%
. . . 30%
Engagement in the class is key to its success, and lectures and discussions will assume your
familiarity with concepts presented in the readings. Many of the television programs and clips that
will be screened in lecture, will not be available elsewhere, therefore, attendance is required. An
absence must be excused in advance, or appropriate documentation (i.e., a medical note) must be
provided. More than 3 absences from section will result in a non-passing grade for the course.
CLASS OUTLINE:
Week 1
T 6/Jan./04
Introduction
Viewing: Color Adjustment (1992) by Marlon Riggs
Th 8/Jan./04 Why Study Television? Ideology and Images
Reading: CAMPBELL, Chapter 1; Ways of Seeing, 1
Viewing: The Awful Truth (1998-1999)
Week 2
T 13/Jan./04 Early Television; Television as Cultural Form
Reading: Patricia Mellenkamp, “Situation Comedy, Feminism, and Freud:
Discourses of Gracie and Lucy”; CAMPBELL, Chapter 4
Viewing: The Goldbergs (1949-1954), Beulah (1950-1953), I Love Lucy (1951-61)
Th 15/Jan./04 What We Do For Ratings
Reading: Chapter 14
Viewing: Network (1976) directed by Sidney Lumet
 Class will begin at 9:45 a.m. to accommodate the film’s length
Week 3
T 20/Jan./04 Feminism and Television
Reading: Real Images, “Ideology”; Ways of Seeing, 3
Viewing: The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977), Ally McBeal (1997-2002),
bell hooks: Cultural Criticism & Transformation (1997) directed by Sut Jhally
Th 22/Jan./04 Close Analysis
Reading: Jeremy Butler, “Sample Analysis”; Denise Kervin, “Gender Ideology in
Television Commercials”
Viewing: Wonder Woman (1976-1979), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-present),
Alias (2001-present)
Week 4
*FIRST PAPER DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS*
T 27/Jan./04 Narrative and Genre
Reading: CAMPBELL, Chapter 5 and Chapter 6
Viewing: Sex and the City (1998-present), Oz (1997-2003), American Dreams
(2002-present)
Th 29/Jan./04 Television News; Media/ting Spectacle
Reading: Gaye Tuchman, “Representation and the News Narrative: The Web of
Facticity”; Chistopher P. Campbell, “Common Sense, Myth, News and Realism”
Viewing: O.J. Simpson: A Study in Black and White (2002), Live From Baghdad
(2002)
Week 5
T 3/Feb./04
Race and Representation
Reading: Donald Bogle, “Black Beginnings: from Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The Birth
of a Nation”; Sue K. Jewell, “The Social Significance of Cultural Imagery” and
“Symbols of African American Womanhood”; Aniko Bodrogkhozy, “‘Is This What
You Mean by Color TV?’: Race, Gender, and Contested Meanings in NBC’s Julia”
Viewing: Julia (1968-1971), All in the Family (1971-1991), Good Times (1974-79)
Th 5/Feb./04
Reading: Brian Locke, “Here Comes the Judge: The Dancing Itos and the Televisual
Construction of the Enemy Asian Male”; Annie Nakao, “Asian ‘Ally’ character puts
stereotypes to test”
Viewing: The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (1969-72), The Green Hornet (1966-67),
All American Girl (1994-1995), I’m The One That I Want (2000) by Margaret Cho
and Karen Taussig
Week 6
Impact and Effects of Storytelling
T 10/Feb./04 Reading: CAMPBELL, Chapter 7 and Chapter 15
Viewing: The Electronic Storyteller (1997) directed by Sut Jhally
Th 12/Feb./04
*MIDTERM EXAM*
Week 7
T 17/Feb./04 Reaganism and Television; “Family Values”
Reading: Herman Gray, “Reaganism and the Sign of Blackness”; Jimmie Reeves,
“Re-Covering Racism: Crack Mothers, Reaganism, and the Network News”
Viewing: The Jeffersons (1975-1985), The Cosby Show (1984-1992), The Fresh
Prince of Bel Air (1990-1996)
Th 19/Feb./04 Whiteness; Capitalism and Class
Reading: George Lipsitz, “The Possessive Investment in Whiteness”;
Kathleen K. Rowe, “Roseanne: Unruly Woman as Domestic Goddess”
Viewing: Happy Days (1974-84); Little House on the Prairie (1974-1983),
Roseanne (1988-1997)
Week 8
T 24/Feb./04 Music Television
Reading: bell hooks, “Madonna: Plantation Mistress or Soul Sister?”; Tricia Rose,
“Fear of a Black Planet: Rap Music and Black Cultural Politics in the 1990s”
Viewing: Say It Loud (2001), The Real World (1992-present)
Th 26/Feb./04 Hetero/Homosexuality on Television
Reading: MuÑoz, “Pedro Zamora’s Real World of Counterpublicity”
Viewing: Soap (1979-1981), Will & Grace (1998-present), The Daily Show
with Jon Stewart (2000-present), The George Lopez Show (2002-present)
Week 9
T 2/Mar./04
*SECOND PAPER DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS*
Guest Lectures by our TAs
Th 4/Mar./04 Reading: CAMPBELL, Chapter 13
Viewing: Bamboozled (2001) directed by Spike Lee
Week 10
T 9/Mar./04
Advertising and Economics
Reading: CAMPBELL, Chapter 11, Ways of Seeing, 7
Viewing: The Myth of the Liberal Media (1997) with Noam Chomsky and
Edward Herman, The Ad and the Ego (1996)
Th 11/Mar./04 Alternative Television; Reality Television
Reading: Aaron Doyle, “ ‘Cops’: Television as Policing Reality”;
CAMPBELL, Chapter 2
Viewing: In Living Color (1990-1994), TV NATION (1994-1995), Clips from reality
television programs
Week 11
*FINAL EXAM: Monday, 15 March 2004, 12 – 3 p.m.*
Note: If there are any students with disabilities who have special circumstances regarding examtaking or other concerns, please feel free to discuss them with me. Also, copies of the course books
and the Course Reader will be placed on reserve at McHenry Library so if any of you have special
financial needs or hardships, you can have access to the required texts.