COMN 3316 Television as Culture

Oct. 1, 2010

COMN 3316Television as CultureAgenda Getting ready to do autobiography projectLooking at use of life writing and place in Reading One.Looking at the varied levels of analysis in Reading One: Viewing/Broadcast history/Plot/Set/Production issues/Marketing etc.Reviewing the analytical tools we have used to think about television so far:Icon, iconicityPlaceBinariesTelevisions own categoriesLooking more in depth at other analytical tools offered in Spigels work: Space & the AutobiographicalReturning to look in depth at the autobiography projectPrecisQuestion Sets

My House Was On Torchwood: Media, Place and Identity By Brett MillsFrom International Journal of Cultural Studies2008

Reading OneThe article discusses the many layers connecting place and television: What are some of these?The article discusses the many layers connecting place and television: What are some of these?IdentitiesAnalysisThe article discusses the many layers connecting place and television: What are some of these?IdentitiesAnalysisModes of analysis to be used in Autobiographical Assignment : Autobiography

What is autobiography as a mode of analysisIt is a way of using your own life to do researchIt is a way of writing, in which you present your story and also analyze it.Modes of analysis to be used in Autobiographical Assignment : Categories of television studies

Article 1: categories of analysis, all areas in TV StudiesBroadcastingScheduleDistributionTechnologyCultural VariationsMarketLocalNationalInternationalAdvertisingPolicy: local, national, international Performance studies

Reading 1: Categories of analysis in TV StudiesFilming/writing/acting/production/editing/costume/set/directingVocabulary related toElements of scene and dramatic composition/enactmentTechniquesDirectionViewer/Audience Studies

HistoryTechnological historiesShow historiesMotif historiesPolicy historiesInstitutionalized histories

Modes of analysis to be used in Autobiographical Assignment : Binaries

Binary: a pair Whose meaning develops directly or indirectly in relationship to one another

Binary: a pair Whose meaning develops or is developed, directly or indirectly in relationship to one another

How are binaries used in reading 1?Modes of analysis to be used in Autobiographical Assignment : Icon

Reviewing: Icon or Iconic form An imagic mode of communicationWhich works with the imagination both individual, collective and cultural It evokes rather quickly yet deeply It works through shapes, patterns, themes, motifs, palettes, postures, grammars of rank, symbologics of valueIt works in layers of significance that are emotional plus cognitive It works through the perceptual apparatus connected to apprehension, ritual, worship, admiration, mythIt also works through perceptual apparatus that are subliminal/ connected to desire (dream apparatus)It is especially connected to cathartic modes of human function ( or we could say modes that need discharge)Icon or Iconic form (continued) It is accessible to multi-sensual forms of reappearing: visual, tactile, audio (rhythmic), aromaIt is a means of gathering and transmitting collected sets of meanings, meanings that are entangled and embedded in one another It taps into and acquires cultural potency especially for that which eludes easy definitionIt can often transmit a broad set of cultural motifs/values/ or other information while allowing them a platform for gathering and even transforming.

Icon or Iconic formIt is agile: It can be a person (Marilyn Monroe), A place (Mecca), a Musical theme (Mash), Shape (red lips) Smell (coffee) - its agility allows it to stand in for potent and important meanings yet without making rigid definitions of that meaningIt often partakes of the cultural rhythms (and thus these can decode them) For example in our culture which thinks in twos binaries will often help decode our icons)

Another takehttp://www.pedroguitton.com/phd_knowledge_center/pdf/LessonsIcons.pdf

Examples 1: gun

Example 2: Shiny Toy Guns VideoIn pairsDiscuss use of iconsDiscuss use of binariesDiscuss use of placeAccount one autobiographical piece of info about video

Part 2: White flight in Welcome to the Dream House: Popular Media and Postwar Suburbs by Lynn Spigel2001

Reading TwoIn Reading 2: How does space function asIconBinaryMeans of taking us through television studiesAutobiography?Returning to consider categories of analysis in TV StudiesReading 1

Reading 2Precis2 readings: one in the fall/winter termone in spring/winter terms

100 wordsAuthor focused.Summary of key bits (not a review, a summary)Your own words

Question Sets (we will talk again next week about good questionsWrite 10 good questions One term: the set will be for the lectureOther term: the set will be for a readingQuestions will be used in tutorials.Questions will be evaluated by both tutorial students and TA, though TA will be main and final evaluator.Question must demonstrate that asker has truly read and digested the article (or attended and digested the lecture)Questions must help students digest the material, learn from it, and find its key elements and tensions.Questions should cover basic reading, and also more sophisticated relevance of article or lecture to course.