SW 623 - Television Genres

Credits: 4 credits
How can we define television today? Is television dead or in a new “golden age”? Can both statements be true? How can we account for both change and continuity of the business and art of television after the introduction of “new media” technologies from cable to the Internet? This course focuses on theories of televisual change and explores the production, financing, storytelling, representation, audiences, and distribution of Post-Network and Platform Television. The goal of this course is a deeper understanding of the complexity and dynamic nature of a media business and cultural form in transition, especially as it relates to television genres. Television is arguably America’s most powerful medium, foundational to America’s socio-economic and cultural development since the post-WWII era. This course examines the transition from the Network Era, an era of tightly regulated and controlled mass culture, to the Post-Network and Platforms or Portals Era, an era of audience and content fragmentation. The history and evolution of television genres (sitcom, drama, reality) provides a lens through which to examine technological, industrial, and audience practices in the Post-Network and Platform Television era. This seminar encourages students to question how changes in television technology, production, distribution, and reception practices affects genre, programming, and the politics of television.