Buy Robot
by: Craig Jacobsen / Mesa Community College
The mimicking of commercial promotional forms to hawk fictional wares has become a potent tool for the creation of verisimilitude in entertainment.
A Critical Forum on Media and Culture
A Critical Forum on Media and Culture
by: Craig Jacobsen / Mesa Community College
The mimicking of commercial promotional forms to hawk fictional wares has become a potent tool for the creation of verisimilitude in entertainment.
Life on Animal Planet
By: Mark Andrejevic / University of Iowa
Animal Planet documentaries offer a disturbing mirror through which to view the pathologies of our current social reality.
Where the Boys Are: Postfeminism and the New Single Man
By: Diane Negra / Brown University
In films such as Wedding Crashers and Failure to Launch, the emergent “problem” single man offers an opportunity to think about the nature and function of postfeminist masculinities in current popular culture.
Introducing Television
By: Jonathan Gray / Fordham University
The key to any television program’s themes, characters and stylistic characteristics are often mapped out within the first few moments of every episode, in the introductory sequence.
À la carte Culture
By: John McMurria / DePaul University
What are the cultural repercussions of an à la carte cable? And does anyone in the FCC care?
Food for Thought
By: Dana Polan / New York University
The sushi’s on us: How The Sopranos is “assailing the very demographic that makes up its preferred fan base,” via our stomachs.
By: L.S. Kim / University of California, Santa Cruz
We’ve seen people trade spaces and trade spouses on television to varying degrees of success, exploitation, and humor. But is it actually possible to trade races? The new program, Black. White., puts this question to the test.
By: Moya Luckett / New York University
The debates over both Big Love and South Park suggest that religion is the most volatile issue in American culture and one that generally proves problematic for fictional representation.
By: Elana Levine / University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Even the bunnies reinforce gender hierarchies: the intellectual and emotional struggle over children’s television.
Redefining Indecency
by: John McMurria / DePaul University
Television networks fearful of steep fines and consumer backlash rush to ensure decency standards are upheld. This article looks at indecency in myriad of ways, from the Superbowl pre-game and half-time shows to the funeral of Coretta Scott King.
TiVoing Childhood
by: Jason Mittell / Middlebury College
What is television to a child who only knows TiVo?
Rating the Runway: Project Runway and New York Fashion Week
by: Moya Luckett / New York University
Project Runway is an example of how recent reality television shows rely on viewer responses to help construct the narrative. the show maintains a distinct textual presence while they advocate viewer participation, play with the idea of permeable and non-permeable textual boundaries and highlight the different ways in which we can access ‘the real world.’