Module Identifier
TF23820
Module Title
AMERICAN POPULAR TELEVISION
Academic Year
2008/2009
Co-ordinator
Dr Glen Creeber
Semester
Semester 1
Pre-Requisite
TF10420

Course Delivery

Delivery Type Delivery length / details
Lecture Lecture/Viewing 1 x 3 hours per week
Seminars / Tutorials Seminars 1 x 1 hour per week
 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment Essay  60%
Semester Exam 40%

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

  1. PARTICIPATE IN THE CRITICAL DEBATES WHICH INFORM THE STUDY OF POPULAR TELEVISION
  2. BE ABLE TO USE THE TELEVISUAL TEXT AS SUPPORT FOR THEIR PARTICIPATION WITHIN THOSE DEBATES

Brief description

This module examines American popular television as a dominant force within the discourse of contemporary television studies. Through examining some of the various theoretical debates within television studies, using American popular television shows as illustrative texts, this module focuses on developing students' abilities in textual analysis of the television text and their understanding of the relevant critical theory debates.

Content

Lecture topics and illustrative shows (subject to change):

"Must-See-TV": American network television (Friends, Seinfeld, Frasier); Ideology (ER, 24, Law and Order); Gender (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena: Warrior Princess); Ethnicity and Race (The Sopranos); Exploitation and Reality TV (Cops, Mounties, Rescue 911); Satire (The Simpsons, South Park, The Family Guy); Postmodernism (Twin Peaks, Firefly); Fandom (Star Trek); Folklore (The X-Files); American TV: globalization or colonization?

Seminar topics (subject to change):

Textual analysis; Representational analysis; television as cultural discourse; postmodernism and self-reflexivity; colonialism.

Reading List

General Text
Allen, Robert (1992 (various p) Channels of discourse, reassembled :television and contemporary criticism /edited by Robert C. Allen. Routledge Primo search Caldwell, John Thornton (c1995.) Televisuality :style, crisis, and authority in American television /John Thornton Caldwell. Rutgers University Press Primo search Creeber, Glen (2004.) Fifty key television programmes /edited by Glen Creeber. Distributed by Oxford University Press Primo search
Feuer, Jane. (1996.) Seeing through the eighties :television and Reaganism. British Film Institute Primo search Gitlin, Todd. (2000.) Inside prime time /Todd Gitlin. University of California Press Primo search

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 5