The Dynamics of Political Re-Branding
by: John Corner / University of Liverpool
The impact of commercial marketing techniques in the political landscape.
Category: Volume 04
Family, Fate and the Finale of Will and Grace
by: Kathleen Battles / Denison University and Wendy Hilton-Morrow / Augustana College
On the limitations and possibilities of imagining families in a non-heteronormative way in the finale of Will & Grace.
The Curious State of Live TV
by: John Tomasic / The University of Paris-Dauphine
With new technologies providing access to “realness,” the novelty of live television may be wearing off.
Lost in an Alternate Reality
by: Jason Mittell / Middlebury College
What can the online game “The Lost Experience” teach us about cross-media storytelling and expectations? Is this the future of television?
Micro-Ethnographies of the Screen: Classical Baby
by: Dan Leopard / St. Mary’s College of California
Part of screen series; discussion of media and the baby spectator, HBO’s “Classical Baby” DVD, how to raise a smart, discerning little person. Adorno; mass culture; baby’s place in it…
(TV)antipathy: A Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Television Hating, Part Two
by: David Lavery / Middle Tennesse State University
Part Two of Two–An evolving commentary on the critical tendency to love-to-hate TV.
Is New News Better Than No News?
by: Jonathan Gray / Fordham University
While traditional television news shows are stumbling in their efforts to inform and engage the public, a new crop of innovative news programs offers hope for the future of the form.
Foucault TV
by: Dana Polan / New York University
What does it mean when a Foucault text shows up in The West Wing finale, besides a “TIVo moment for critical theorists?”
Playing in the Technological Sandbox
by: Rochelle Rodrigo / Mesa Community College
On the value of “play” in the course of implementing new technologies in the classroom.
Leader of the Pack: The Charisma of The Dog Whisperer
by: Mary Desjardins / Dartmouth College
The Dog Whisperer might be telling us just as much about the gendered behavior of humans as it does how to control the behavior of our four-legged companions.
Life’s So Good When You Have a Credit Card
by: Moya Luckett / New York University
Spectacles of Youth and Entitlement on My Super Sweet Sixteen and Tiara Girls.
What’s Happening on the Soaps? And Why Should We Care?
by: Elana Levine / University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
The paradoxically expanding and shrinking world of daytime soap operas.