Television Criticism

 Prerequisites:
Consent of instructor
Description:
This course is an introduction to the close analysis and evaluation of television. Over the term of the course, we will consider a range of examples drawn from classical television series, sitcoms, dramas, news programming and contemporary reality television. Students will learn the narrative, aesthetic, and stylistic principles of television’s story-telling modes and strategies through a combination of readings, screenings, and short exercises in formal analyses. They will also be asked to familiarize themselves with examples of television criticism. The final course project will consist of a substantial written criticism of an instance of television programming together with an oral presentation. In addition to developing our skills as critics, we will be considering broad questions regarding the role of television and television criticism as components of society’s ongoing process of self-interpretation. What is television? What is the task of criticism? Who is the critic? How is criticism done? What justifies the existence of criticism? As part of our consideration of these broad questions, we will be concerned with the ways in which television is presently being transformed as it converges with other digital technologies.

Required Texts: Readings available either online or in course reader

Class attendance is required