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Print Price: $134.99

Format:
Paperback
480 pp.
6 tables, 7" x 9"

ISBN-13:
9780195446876

Copyright Year:
2013

Imprint: OUP Canada


The Television Reader

Critical Perspectives in Canadian and US Television Studies

Tanner Mirrlees and Joseph Kispal-Kovacs




Filled with exciting, contemporary readings from top Canadian and American scholars, this comprehensive overview of critical perspectives in television studies tunes students in to the many economic, social, political, and technological influences that shape television production and consumption on both sides of the border.

Readership : Second- and third-year undergraduate students in Introduction to Television Studies courses.

Reviews

  • "This text is the best example I've seen of combining Canadian and American perspectives. . . . It accurately shows the complex interplay between the two nations."
    -- Kevin Schut, Trinity Western University

  • "This text covers Canadian and US material in a fair and balanced fashion and does not fall into a pattern of nationalist fervour. . . . I especially appreciate the fact that it includes an analysis of specific shows as well as broad theoretical and technical studies."
    -- Stan Beeler, University of Northern British Columbia

Preface
List of Contributors
Introduction: Making Critical TV Studies 'Visible'
Part I: Theorizing Television
1. Tanner Mirrlees and Joseph Kispal-Kovacs: Critical Approaches to the Study of 'TV': An Introduction
Discussion Questions and Suggestions for Further Reading
Part II: History and Characteristics of TV Broadcasting in Canada and the United States: A Political-Economy
Introduction: A Political Economy of TV Broadcasting in Canada and the United States
2. Mark Goodman and Mark Gring: The Radio Act of 1927: Progressive Ideology, Epistemology, and Praxis
3. Lynn Spigel: Women's Work
4. Marc Raboy: Canada
5. Paul Attallah: A Usable History for the Study of Television
Discussion Questions and Suggestions for Further Reading
Part III: TV Genre: Contexts and Textual Analysis
Introduction
1. Sitcoms
6. Dean Defino: From Trailer Trash to Trailer Park Boys
7. Sandra Cañas: Little Mosque on the Prairie: Examining Multicultural Spaces of Nation and Religion
2. Science Fiction
8. Mark McCutcheon: Downloading Doppelgängers: New Media Anxieties and Transnational Ironies in Battlestar Galactica
3. Cop/Crime shows
9. Gray Cavender and Sarah K. Deutsch: CSI and Moral Authority: The Police and Science
10. Marsha Kinder: Rewriting Baltimore: The Emotive Power of Systemics, Seriality, and the City
4. Reality-TV
11. Sue Collins: Making the Most of 15 Minutes: Reality TV's Dispensable Celebrity
12. Doris Baltruschat: Reality TV Formats: The Case of Canadian Idol
5. News Production and News Parody
13. Zoë Druick: Laughing at Authority or Authorized Laughter? : Canadian News Parodies
14. Geoffrey Baym: The Daily Show: Discursive Integration and Reinvention of Political Journalism
6. TV War
15. Lynn Spigel: Entertainment Wars: Television Culture after 9/11
16. Elspeth Van Veeren: Interrogating 24: Making Sense of US Counterterrorism in the Global War on Terrorism
7. TV Sports
17. Daniel Mason: 'Get the Puck Outta Here!': Media Transnationalism and Canadian Identity
18. Joseph Kispal-Kovacs: Some Notes on Televised Team Sports in North America
Discussion Questions and Suggestions for Further Reading
Part IV: Emerging Trends in TV Studies: Interactive Audiences, Advertising, Globalization, and Post-Network TV
Introduction
1. Commercialism: Audience Commodities, Interactive Audiences, and Advertising
19. Eileen R. Meehan: Understanding How the Popular Becomes Popular: The Role of Political Economy in the Study of Popular Communication
20. Lucas Hilderbrand: YouTube: Where Cultural Memory and Copyright Converge
21. Mark Andrejevic: Watching Television without Pity: The Productivity of Online Fans
22. Matthew P. McAllister and J. Matt Giglio: The Commodity Flow of U.S. Children's Television
2. Global Television: Media Imperialism and Media Globalization
23. Silvio Waisbord: McTV: Understanding the Global Popularity of Television Formats
24. Elana Levine: National Television, Global Market: Canada's Degrassi: The Next Generation
25. Jonathan Gray: Imagining America: The Simpsons Go Global
26. Serra Tinic: Walking a Tightrope: The Global Cultural Economy of Canadian Television
3. Post-Network TV
27. Tanner Mirrlees: The Future of Television: Revolution Paused, Media Conglomeration Continued
Discussion Questions and Suggestions for Further Reading
Glossary

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

Tanner Mirrlees is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities communication program at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. His areas of research include the political economy of the media, U.S. foreign policy and the media, and the politics of new media technology. He has been published in international journals and is in the process of completing two books. Tanner was awarded the Governor General's Gold Medal in 2008.

Joseph Kispal-Kovacs is a full-time instructor in the Department of Film and the Department of Humanities at York University. Since 1997, he has been the course director and instructor for York's course on Film, Television, and Society. He has written two books on film and television and has published articles in collections from the University of Toronto Press and the journal Border/Lines.

Television and American Culture - Jason Mittell
Television - Edited by Horace Newcomb
Visual Communication and Culture - Edited by Jonathan Finn
Film in Canada - Edited by Jim Leach
How to Read a Film - James Monaco
Film Theory and Criticism - Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen

Special Features

  • Articles about both Canadian and American TV histories, industries, policies, texts, and viewers offer students a unique comparative and binational perspective on North American television.
  • Twenty-five previously published articles by experts in the field, as well as two original essays and an introduction written by the editors, make this an authoritative guide to the study of television.
  • Introduces students to classical and contemporary theory, offering them an array of perspectives they can draw on to form their own critical views.
  • Contemporary topics that are relevant to students, such as YouTube, reality TV, copyright, post-network era, and post-9/11 TV.
  • Deconstructs many popular television programs-such as Canadian Idol, 24, Little Mosque on the Prairie, The Simpsons, CSI, Trailer Park Boys, Degrassi: The Next Generation, and more-to reveal how television not only reflects our world but also plays an active role in constructing and shaping it.
  • Coverage of current and emerging trends -- such as commercialism, globalization, and post-network TV -- offer cutting-edge insight.
  • Articles on the political economy of the television industry offer students a behind-the-scenes look at the political and economic forces that influence what appears on TV.