Author Description

I. Theoretical and Critical Foundations1. The Context for Criticism: Television and Society2. Foundations of Television Criticism3. Critical Approaches to Television Discourse: An Overview4. Writing Television CriticismII. Text-Centered Critical Approaches5. Semiotic/Structural CriticismA Sample Study: John Fiske's "Popularity and Ideology: A Structuralist Reading of Dr. Who"6. Genre CriticismA Sample Study: Matthew P. McAllister's "Recombinant Television Genres and Doogie Howser, M.D."7. Rhetorical CriticismTwo Sample Studies: Bonnie Dow's "Murphy Brown: Postfeminism Personified"; Sarah R. Stein's, "The 1984 Macintosh Ad: Cinematic Icons and Constitutive Rhetoric in the Launch of a New Machine"8. Narrative CriticismA Sample Study: Bruce E. Gronbeck's "The Visual and Narrative Rhetoric of Redemption: American Culture Responds to 9/11"III. Producer-Centered Approaches9. Auteur CriticismA Sample Study: Richard Campbell and Jimme L. Reeves's "Television Authors: The Case of Hugh Wilson"10. Production Context CriticismA Sample Study: Elana Levine's "Toward a Paradigm for Media Production Research: Behind the Scenes at General Hospital"11. Ideological CriticismA Sample Study: Mark P. Orbe's "Constructions of Reality on MTV's The Real World: An Analysis of the Restrictive Coding of Black Masculinity"IV. Reception-Centered Approaches12. Reader-Oriented CriticismA Sample Study: Lawrence A. Wenner's "The Dream Team, Communicative Dirt, and the Marketing of Synergy: USA Basketball and Cross-Merchandising in Television Commercials"13. Audience Ethnographic CriticismA Sample Study: Rona Tamiko Halualani and Leah R. Vande Berg's "'Asian or American': Meanings In, Through, and Around All-American Girl"14. Cultural Criticism: General ApproachesTwo Sample Studies: Heather L. Hundley's "The Naturalization of Beer in Cheers; Cathy Sandeen's "Success Defined by Television: The Value System Promoted by PM Magazine"15. Cultural Criticism: Mythic, Feminist, and Psychoanalytic ApproachesThree Sample Studies: Susan Owen's "Vampires, Postmodernity and Postfeminism: Buffy the Vampire Slayer"; Robert Westerfelhaus and Teresa A. Combs's "Criminal Investigations and Spiritual Quests: The X-Files as an Example of Hegemonic Concordance in Mass-Mediated Society"; Sonia Livingstone and Tamar Liebes's "Where Have All the Mothers Gone? Soap Opera's Replaying of the Oedipal Story"V. Ethics and the Critical Approach16. Television, Ethics, and Criticism