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Introduction to an article on television
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A more ritual analysis of the genre is provided by the author of publications such as Television: The Critical View and TV: The Most Popular Art: Horace Newcomb. Newcomb suggests that the genre is basic in nature; it is limited in its capability of ambivalence, development and challenge to the spectator’s values. Like Grote, he is concerned with the genre’s apparent inability to diverge from or expand its “rigid structure” – consisting in the transparent, reassuring problem-and-solution formula – where the “only movement is toward the alleviation of the complication and the reduction of confusion” (Newcomb, 1974). Newcomb then turns his attention to the subgenre of “domestic comedy”, where the program focuses on a person rather than a situation.
The story A Television Drama, by Jane Rule is an exciting story about an unusual event, which the main character, Carolee Mitchell, experiences the end of. The story is about her quiet street becoming unusually busy with police officers, and how the man who is being chased by these officers ends up being outside her front door. Through the point of view of the story, the characterization and character change of Carolee Mitchell, and the setting of the story, A Television Drama is an exciting read. The story conveys how important it is to be aware of ones surroundings, and what is happening around oneself through these elements.
This essay will discuss how national attitudes towards the working-class and the impoverished are represented in American Television. The purpose of this paper is to comprehend that television shows are not solely designed to entertain consumers but also contain a hidden agenda whose task is to protect certain ideological perspectives and therefore constant framing strategies take place. The paper will commence the analysis by discussing how males and females are represented in the television show Friday Night Lights, secondly it will look at the
Popular culture is the artistic and creative expression in entertainment and style that appeals to society as whole. It includes music, film, sports, painting, sculpture, and even photography. It can be diffused in many ways, but one of the most powerful and effective ways to address society is through film and television. Broadcasting, radio and television are the primary means by which information and entertainment are delivered to the public in virtually every nation around the world, and they have become a crucial instrument of modern social and political organization. Most of today’s television programming genres are derived from earlier media such as stage, cinema and radio. In the area of comedy, sitcoms have proven the most durable and popular of American broadcasting genres. The sitcom’s success depends on the audience’s familiarity with the habitual characters and the situations
Younger generations and the more vulnerable in society can be influenced in avoiding peer pressure, but for the individuals filled with wisdom, the shows can reflect based on American modern society. Everybody Loves Raymond and Full House are great shows who faces similar life obstacles a typical person living in the US has today. As a result, most modern family comedy sit-coms are reflecting our society’s generations and the more vulnerable. Based on the success of early family sit coms, American’s adapted to a fast pace lifestyle with the help of modern
This essay will examine my thoughts and those of David Sterrit on the critically acclaimed television show The Honeymooners. First, I will talk about the Honeymooners and it’s setting in postwar America. Secondly, the social and cultural issues the series portrayed. Next, would be the psychological perspective and the aesthetics of the show. Finally, the essay would conclude with my thoughts on how the Honeymooners were impacted by these aspects, but also how the show managed to leave a legacy in television today.
... as a society, we are still allowing, even encouraging, the reproduction of the patriarchy through our choice of entertainment. We are allowing ourselves to be socialized into old-fashioned, out-of-date roles. While sitcoms make us laugh and provide us an escape from our troubles, they may be creating problems all their own – problems that, as a society, we cannot easily escape from. Certainly, that is no laughing matter.
Nelson, R. (2009). Modernism and Postmodernism in Television Drama. In: Creeber, G Televisions: An Introduction to Studying Televsion. 2nd ed. London: British Film Institute . p.90.
(1) Wittgenstein once said, “A typical America film, naive and silly, can for all its silliness and even by means of it— be instructive . . . I have often learnt from a silly American film.” (Wittgenstein 57e). He is pointing out that the humor, and the means of humor, in some films can be a tool of instruction. The ability of film to cause a reaction like laughter is of philosophical interest. While Wittgenstein’s comment is itself playful and dense, it directs our attention to a philosophical aspect of some films. Understood in a wider scope, I believe the comment is a terse philosophy of film. Understood in an even wider scope, we can see it as a terse theory of philosophical method.
Jones, Jeffrey P. Entertaining Politics: Satiric Television and Political Engagement. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010. Print.
Originally published in Cinema Journal 40, No. 3, Spring 2001, Jason Mittell’s “A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory” conceives of television genre as a cultural category rather than merely a textual component. In the decade since the original publishing of the article, television has evolved out of the multi-channel era and into the post-network era. In this new television landscape, genres are no longer a fixed entity1, and there is great academic potential in the in the study of television genres. The text, Thinking Outside the Box: A Contemporary Television Genre Reader, aims to explore and analyze genre in the current television landscape, and the Mittell article, republished in the book, serves as an entry point to such scholarship.
Any act of conscious communication always true, in varying degrees, two fundamental objectives. One is to inform, instruct and describe, and the other is to entertain or occupy. The products of the mass communication industry made that mandate the particularity that are targeted to a wide receiver, whose acceptance is intended to conquer. The intent of the act is expressed with the term broadcast (spread through mass media), which once meant to sow broadcast the farmland. The cinema, especially the US, is the great communication industry of the twentieth century. Although in recent decades seems to have given primacy to television, the information, education and entertainment on Western culture influence is undeniable.
Bigsby, C. W. E. Drama as Cultural Sign: American Dramatic Criticism, 1945-1978. American Quarterly. Vol. 30 (1978), pp. 331-357.
From the mid-50s on there has been an increase in original TV drama with a broader appeal. The preference for original drama was a reaction to the theatre’s preoccupation with middle-class concerns. So the ‘angry young men’ playwrights were established. They wrote about ‘real’ issues, about ‘problems faced by the members of a broader audience in their daily lives’. This can be seen in the 1960s, with the arrival of innovative dramas such as Cathy Come Home and Talking to a Stranger. In the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s programmers were taking risks allowing new talent space to grow, but now TV drama tends to be more genre-based.
Gauntlett, D. Hill, A. BFI (1999) TV Living: Television, Culture, and Everyday Life, p. 263 London: Routledge.
Author Donald Davis from the University of Georgia looks specifically at the demographics of portrayals of women characters in television in the 4 decades starting with the 1960s ending in the 1990s. As the journal furthers, it directly mentions the way women in television start to stray away from the typical role as the homemaker and add some substantial qualities to their characters. This journal also touches on the Cultivation Theory, mentioning the way television teaches children how to act, immigrants how to integrate into society, stereotyping among society.