Television Studies

Television is often casually dismissed as mindless entertainment, but it is also a powerful cultural form that shapes how people see the world. This course will focus on critical “readings” of television’s past and present forms as well as its influence on literature, film, music, and digital media. Students will watch influential TV shows, examine different TV genres (sitcoms, talk shows, news programming and “reality” TV), read representative scripts and teleplays, and study the evolution of the medium of television from its early beginnings up to its current integration with other forms of digital communication.