SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION

CMNS 220-3

UNDERSTANDING TELEVISION

Course Description:

The phenomenon of television has been one of the defining social, political and cultural features of the 20th century. Understanding television has therefore been a key objective in the social sciences and humanities. Although critics are certainly not agreed on all points, most acknowledge that television has had a profound effect on domestic and public spheres as well as on our personal and collective senses of time. In short, it has contributed in fundamental ways to experiences of ourselves and our society. In this course, we will explore the origins and development of television as a mass medium; the variety of critical responses it has generated; and the use viewers have made of it. We will end with a look ahead at television’s future. The semester will be divided into four sections:

Part I: Television: Technology and Cultural Form
Part II: Television as a Cultural Force
Part III: Negotiating Meaning
Part IV: Television’s Second Century

Prerequisite:

CMNS 110 or 130

Required readings:

Course package available at the bookstore.

Evaluation:

Schedule of lectures and readings:

PART I: TELEVISION: TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURAL FORM

Week 1 Introduction to the Study of Television

Reading: J. Gripsrud, “Television, Broadcasting, Flow: Key Metaphors in TV Theory”

Video: The Iraqi Campaign

Week 2 Mass society, mass media

Reading: L. Spigel, “Women’s Work”; T. Bennett, “Theories of the Media, Theories of Society”

Week 3 Regulation and control

Reading: S. Lowery and M. DeFleur, “Research as a Basis for Understanding Mass Communication”; R. Pike, “Canadian Broadcasting: Its Past and Its Possible Future”

Week 4 The Medium is the Message

Reading: M. McLuhan, “Television: The Timid Giant”; M. McLuhan and L. Forsdale, “Technology and the Human Dimension”

Video: McLuhan: the Man and his Message

PART II: TELEVISION AS A CULTURAL FORCE

Week 5 Politics of representation I: Race

Reading: H. Gray, “The Politics of Representation in Network Television”; J. Caldwell, “Televisual Politics”

Video: Colour Adjustment

Week 6 Politics of representation II: Gender and Genre

Reading: J. Fiske, “Gendered television: femininity” and “Gendered television: masculinity”; F. Feuer, “Averting the Male Gaze”

Video: Dreamworlds II

Week 7 Society of the Spectacle

Reading: J. M. Shattuc, “The Oprahification of America”; S. Anderson, “History TV and Popular Memory”

Week 8 Mid-term test (one hour)

PART III: NEGOTIATING MEANING

Encoding and Decoding

Reading: S. Hall, “The Television Discourse—Encoding and Decoding”; D. Morley, “Television and Gender”; M. Gillespie, “Cool Bodies: TV ad talk” Week 9 Famous for 15 Minutes: Celebrities and fan culture

Reading: H. Jenkins III, “Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching”; L. Grossberg, “MTV: Swinging on the (Postmodern) Star”

PART IV: TELEVISION’S SECOND CENTURY

Week 10 Alternative TV

Reading: E. Freedman, “Producing (Queer) Communities: Public Access Cable TV in the USA”; B. Gunter and R. Viney, “Religion on television: audiences and general attitudes: Who Watches and Why?”

Week 11 Reality/Television

Reading: D. Dayan and E. Katz, “Defining Media Events: High Holidays of Mass Communication”; J. Dovey, “Firestarters—Re-viewing Reality TV”

Term paper due

Week 12 Watching Television Change

Reading: R. Babe, “Convergence and the New Technologies”

Final exam study guide to be distributed in class

The School expects that the grades awarded in this course will bear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices with respect to both levels and distribution of grades. In addition, the School will follow Policy T10.02 with respect to “Intellectual Honesty” and “Academic Discipline” (see the current Calendar, General Regulations section).