SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION

CMNS 220-3

Roman Onufrijchuk Fall 2004

HC Office: TBA; 604-773-5327 Harbour Centre Day

Email: roman@sfu.ca

UNDERSTANDING TELEVISION

Prerequisites: CMNS 110 or 130.

Overview: Taking TV as its focus, this course provides students with a systematic introduction to applied media criticism. Following a comprehensive examination of both critical & production vocabularies as well as organizational structures of TV-making, the course concentrates on different approaches to writing and practices of TV criticism.

Required Texts:

- Branston, Gill and Roy Stafford. The Media Student’s Book (3rd edition). Routledge, ISBN: 0-415- 25611-9.

- Vande Berg, Leah, L. A. Wenner & B. E. Gronbeck. Critical Approaches to Television (2nd edition), Houghton Mifflin, ISBN: 0-618-20674-4.

Course Requirements:

First assignment 15%

Tutorials 20%

In class closed-book midterm 25%

Critical review 30%

Final assignment 10%

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

Syllabus: Readings and Assignments

Week 1: September 8^th.

Week 2: September 15^th.

----- Readings.

Vande Berg, et al: pp. 1-64.

----- Tutorials.

- Horace Newcomb & Paul M. Hirsch. “Television as a Cultural Forum,” (pp. 561-573).

- Todd Gitlin. “Primetime Ideology: The Hegemonic Process in Television Entertainment,” (pp. 574-594).

- Charlotte Brunsdon. “What is the ‘Television’ of Television Studies?,” (pp. 609-628).

Week 3: September 22^nd.

----- Readings.

Branston & Stafford: pp. 263-384.

----- Tutorials.

- Ellen Seiter. “Making Distinctions in TV Audience Research: Case Study of a Disturbing Interview.” (pp. 495-518).

- Phil Williams. “Feeding Off the Past: The Evolution of the TV Rerun.” (pp. 52-72).

- David Barker. “Television Production Techniques as Communication,” (pp. 169-182).

• 1st Assignment due in tutorials

Week 4: September 29^th.

----- Readings.

Branston & Stafford: pp. 1-116.

----- Tutorials.

- Christopher Anderson. “Disneyland,” (pp. 17-33).

- Hal Himmelstein. “Kodak’s ‘America’: Images from the American Eden. (pp. 183-206).

- Joshua Meyrowitz. “Multiple Media Literacies,” (pp. 425-438)

Week 5: October 6^th.

----- Readings.

Branston & Stafford: pp. 116-262.

----- Tutorials.

- Daniel Dayan & Elihu Katz. “Defining Media Events: High Holidays of Mass Communication.” (pp. 401-420).

- Douglas Kellner. “Beavis & Butt-Head”: No Future for Postmodern Youth.” (pp. 319-329).

- David Marc. “What Was Broadcasting?.” (pp. 629-648).

Week 6: October 13th. In-class MIDTERM

• No readings, no tutorials.

Week 7: October 20^th.

----- Readings.

Vande Berg, et al: pp. 65-138.

----- Tutorials.

- Bernard Timberg. “The Unspoken Rules of Television Talk.” (pp. 354-366).

- Michael Skovmand. “Barbarous TV International: Syndicated Wheels of Fortune.” (pp. 367-382).

- Ib Bondebjerg. Public Discourse/Private Fascination: Hybridization in “True-Life Story Genres.” (pp. 383-400).

Week 8: October 27^th.

----- Readings.

Vande Berg, et al: pp. 139-228.

----- Tutorials.

- Charles McGrath. “The Triumph of the Prime-Time Novel.” (pp. 242-252).

Henry Jenkins III. “Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching.’ (pp. 470-494).

- John Corner. “Civic Visions: Forms of Documentary.” (pp. 207-236).

Week 9: November 3rd.

----- Readings.

Vande Berg, et al: pp. 229-328.

----- Tutorials.

- Mark Alvey. “The Independents: Rethinking the Television Studio System,” (pp. 34-52).

- Jackie Byers & Eileen R. Meehan. “Once in a Lifetime: Constructing the “Working” through Cable Narrowcasting,” (pp. 144-168).

- Justin Lewis & Sut Jhally. “The Struggle Over Media Literacy,” (pp 439-450).

Week 10: November 10^th.

----- Readings.

Vande Berg, et al: pp. 329-388.

----- Tutorials.

- Julie D’Acci. “Women Characters and ‘Real World’ Femininity,” (pp. 100-143)

- Anna McCarthy. “’The Front Row is Reserved for Scotch Drinkers’: Early Television’s Tavern Audience,” (pp. 451-469).

- David Thornburn. “Television Melodrama,” (pp. 595-608).

Week 11: November 17^th.

----- Readings.

Vande Berg et al: pp. 389-501.

----- Tutorials.

- Pat Kirkham & Beverley Skeggs. “Absolutely Fabulous, Absolutely Feminist?,” (pp. 306-318).

- Lynn Spigel. “Women’s Work,” (pp. 73-99).

- Jostein Gripsrud. “’The Cultural Debate of the Ages’: History, Culture, and Media Politics in Public Reception,” (pp. 519-556).

• CRITICAL REVIEW due in tutorials

Week 12: November 24th.

----- Readings.

Vande Berg, et al: pp. 502-517.

Branston & Stafford: pp. 385-488.

----- Tutorials.

- Herman Gray. “The Politics of Representation on Network TV,” (pp. 282-305).

- Media Effects: Marshall McLuhan, Television Culture, & the X-Files,” (pp. 253-265).

- Eric Michaels. “For a Cultural Future,” (pp. 701-716).

Week 13: December 1st. TBA.

----- Readings.

TBD.

----- Tutorials.

TBD

Course Process

A. Communication, handouts, and additional sources

- Information is often sent out by e-mail. Students must be sure to have an active SFU e-mail account as class e-mails are generated off registration lists automatically and only include SFU e-mails.

- Handouts, assignments, additional readings, exam questions and suchlike are posted on the class blog. Students are notified by e-mail when new material has been posted (see point previous). Materials are usually posted in PDF format as well as plain text. The class blog’s URL is: http://arago.cprost.sfu.ca/tv.

B. First assignment (Due in Week 3)

The first assignment will be posted on the class blog in the first week of classes.

C. Tutorial process & presentations

1. Tutorials are worth 20% of the overall grade. Of this mark:

a) 15% is allocated for the oral presentation, the two-page synopsis of your presentation prepared by you for all the other participants in the tutorial, and the discussion your presentation generates.

b) 5% for attendance and general participation.

Readings for presentations are all taken from: Television - The Critical View (6^th edition). Ed. Horace Newcomb. Oxford University Press, ISBN: 0-19-511927-4 (on reserve).

2. Presentations should run no more than 8 minutes (10 with discussion) and might be patterned on the following template:

a) Title of the article and author, perhaps a dash of context. (00:30)

b) Key point (s): 2-3, though one good one is fine too (01:00)

c) Synopsis of the author’s main arguments in the article (02:00 minutes)

d) Demonstration of article’s relationship to some element(s) of the course: Lectures, readings, previous presentations (01:30)

e) Critical assessment of author’s contribution to understanding his/her given aspect of TV; usually engaging the points you’d raised in the synopsis and/or something you’ve viewed or read elsewhere/elsewhen. (02:00)

f) Problematics, issues or questions for further research, reflection, engagement including discussion (03:00).

Note: The template is a suggestion. Articles may also be presented using the evaluative criteria suggested by Vande Berg et al.

3. Presentations are graded on:

- preparedness; the student’s command of the assigned reading,

- clarity and organization of the oral discourse,

- ability to condense the material to essential elements and show how the author develops them,

- critical reading of the article with respect to course content and the world,

- skill at extracting issues for discussion or further development,

- compliance with time frame,

- communication with audience and direction of discussion,

- tone or attitude of the presentation.

4. Supporting two page documents (2 pages or 500 words, though no more than 2 pages)

- consonance between oral presentation and supporting document – the degree to which the documentation effectively guides the audience through the presentation and can be used by its members to later recall the material covered

- use of quotes, properly cited

- respect for length requirements

- overall presentation – “look and feel”; two sides of the same sheet preferably

NOTE: Since everyone is responsible for all the tutorial readings (they will come up on exams and be expected in the footnotes of papers), as a presenter you’ll be shouldering some of the close-reading burden with your fellow students. Presentations are meant to be neither performances, punishment, nor gratuitous provocations; ideally, presentations are opportunities to teach and learn together, clarify problems, identify what’s been overlooked, and “bring the world to the course and the course to the world.”