1. 3520 TV Theory Lecture 1: The field of TV theory

2. Starting to theorise television: great beliefs in impact Pinnacle of the mass society Initial great beliefs in impact Time-space compression Penetrating everyday life A vast wasteland, the plug-in drug, the great leveller

3. Impact, re-arranged A need to explain the unique properties of the medium A need to explain why it looks the way it does: production A need to explain the effect: reception A need to explain the wider impact on society, culture, mentality

4. The scope of the field of TV theory Textual vs. contextual: what is being investigated here? Essential vs. processual: does the medium determine? Abstract vs. concrete: what is the test of scientific examination?

5. Theory before institutionalisation of TV theory Medium theory: TV as shaper/misshaper of our knowledge of the world (McLuhan, Ong, Boorstin) Critical theory: broadcasting as arch-example of the modern cultural industries (Adorno/Horkheimer) Theories of effect: the formation of modern mass audiences (Lazarsfeld, Merton)

6. Institutionalisation of TV theory, 1970s 1960s/70s: rise of film and mass communication studies/educations Birmingham cultural studies: Williams, Hall US academic study of TV as an institution: Newcomb, Gitlin Today: semi-institutionalised Some common themes, some internal referencing, but a sprawling field

7. Theories of representation Main proponents: British cultural studies, critical theory Basic issue: what gets represented on TV, and to whose advantage? Example: Williams on TV as the medium of advanced captialism Procedure: Structuralist/semiotic textual analysis, homologies with societys basic structures

8. Theories of representation II Marxist conflict view of society, hermeneutics of suspicion Problematic issue I: Level of theoretical explanation Problematic issue II: Texts as expressions of society vs. texts as means of processing society (Ellis)

9. Medium theory Proponents: American medium theorists (Meyrowitz, Altheide); postmodern theorists (Baudrillard, Kittler) Basic issue: what are the essential, innate properties of the medium? Example: TV as a middle region medium (Meyrowitz) Procedure: medium analysis/illustration to uncover how causes effects in society

10. Medium theory II Teleision as cause, TV as shaper of sense experience: McLuhan TV as shaper of civilization: Ong, Meyrowitz Problematic issue I: Level of theoretical explanation Problematic issue II: Technological determinism

11. Theories of institution Teleision as cause, Main proponents: production studies, political economy Basic issue: How is TV shaped by its institutional contexts? Example: Increasing US competition produces the televisual style (Caldwell)

12. Theories of institution II Teleision as cause, TV as embedded in production, organisation, and policy contexts Tendences toward national specificity vs. transnationalisation Problematic issue I: determination vs. autonomy Problematic issue II: Institutional factors vs. wider societal factors (Scannell)