Television: Critical Methods and Applications

by Butler; Jeremy G.

• ISBN13: 9780415883283
• ISBN10: 0415883288
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-11-17
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Televisionis developed for the television criticism course in media studies and communication studies curricula, explaining how television programs and commercials are made, and how they function as producers of meaning. Author Jeremy Butler demonstrates the ways in which cinematography and videography, acting, lighting, set design, editing, and sound combine to produce meanings that viewers take away from their television experience. This popular text teaches students to read between the lines, encouraging them to incorporate critical thinking into their own television viewing. Televisionprovides essential critical and historical context, explaining how various critical methods have been applied to the medium, such as genre study, ideological criticism, and cultural studies. Hundreds of illustrations from familiar television programs introduce the reader to the varied ways in which television goes about telling stories, presenting news, and selling products.. Highlights of this fourth edition include: new organization to reflect current approach to teaching television discussions of technology integrated throughout a wide variety of examples, including recent television shows expanded discussion of cultural issues a companion website with links to video web sites to support examples in the text, color frame grabs, and materials for instructors With its distinctive approach to examining television, this text is appropriate for courses in television studies, media criticism, and general critical studies.

Author Biography

Jeremy G. Butler is Professor of Telecommunication and Film at the University of Alabama. He has taught television, film, and new media courses since 1980 and is active in online educational resources for television and film studies.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Television Structures and Systems	p. 1
An Introduction to Television Structures and Systems: Ebb and Flow in the Postnetwork Era	p. 3
Television's Not-So-Distant Past: The Network Era	p. 4
Polysemy, Heterogeneity, Contradiction	p. 6
Interruption and Sequence	p. 12
Segmentation	p. 13
Halting the Flow: Television in the Postnetwork Era	p. 13
Summary	p. 17
Further Readings	p. 18
Narrative Structure: Television Stories	p. 21
The Theatrical Film	p. 22
The Television Series	p. 33
The Television Serial	p. 41
Transmedia Storytelling	p. 48
Summary	p. 51
Further Readings	p. 51
Building Narrative: Character, Actor, Star	p. 55
Building Characters	p. 57
Building Performances	p. 65
The Star System?	p. 80
Summary	p. 92
Further Readings	p. 92
Beyond and Beside Narrative Structure	p. 97
Television's Reality	p. 98
Television's Reality: Forms and Modes	p. 101
Television's Reality: Genres	p. 113
Summary	p. 142
Further Readings	p. 142
. The Television Commercial	p. 149
U.S. TV's Economic Structure	p. 150
The Polysemy of Commodities	p. 159
The Persuasive Style of Commercials	p. 176
Summary: "Capitalism in Action"	p. 204
Further Readings	p. 205
Television Style: Image and Sound	p. 209
An Introduction to Television Style: Modes of Production	p. 211
Single-Camera Mode of Production	p. 213
Multiple-Camera Mode of Production	p. 218
Hybrid Modes of Production	p. 222
Summary	p. 224
Further Readings	p. 224
Style and Setting: Mise-en-Scene	p. 227
Set Design	p. 227
Costume Design	p. 240
Lighting Design	p. 240
Actor Movement	p. 248
Summary	p. 249
Further Readings	p. 250
Style and the Camera: Videography and Cinematography	p. 253
Basic Optics: The Camera Lens	p. 254
Image Definition and Resolution	p. 261
Color and Black-and-White	p. 269
Framing	p. 270
In-Camera Visual Effects	p. 288
Summary	p. 290
Further Readings	p. 291
Style and Editing	p. 293
The Single-Camera Mode of Production	p. 293
The Multiple-Camera Mode of Production	p. 314
Continuity Editing and Hybrid Modes of Production	p. 319
Summary	p. 321
Further Readings	p. 322
Style and Sound	p. 325
Types of Television Sound	p. 326
Purposes of Sound on Television	p. 335
Acoustic Properties and Sound Technology	p. 341
Space, Time, and Narrative	p. 350
Summary	p. 353
Further Readings	p. 354
Television Studies	p. 357
An Introduction to Television Studies	p. 359
Critical Research and Television	p. 360
Further Readings	p. 363
Textual Analysis	p. 367
Television Authorship	p. 367
Style and Stylistics	p. 370
Genre Study	p. 375
Semiotics	p. 381
Summary	p. 390
Further Readings	p. 391
Discourse and Identity	p. 395
Ideological Criticism and Cultural Studies	p. 395
The Discourse of the Industry I: Production Studies	p. 403
The Discourse of the Industry II: Political Economy	p. 406
Discourse and Identity I: Gender	p. 410
Discourse and Identity II: Queer Theory	p. 416
Discourse and Identity III: Race and Ethnicity	p. 418
Summary	p. 421
Further Readings	p. 422
Sample Analyses and Exercises	p. 429
Mass Communication Research	p. 435
Glossary	p. 445
Index	p. 473
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.