|
|
| |
GENERAL SITES
-
ScreenSite.
The single most useful academic film and television studies site.
Includes links for production, history, audience analysis, and
much more.
- TV Guide
magazine. Useful commercial site for tracking trends in
TV watching.
-
CineMedia: Television. Billed as the largest media site
on the net, CineMedia's television section is indeed a vast resource
on all aspects of TV.
- I
Saw it On TV: A Guide to Broadcast and Cable Programming Sources.
A very useful resource for finding anything that has ever appeared
on TV, from shows to movies to commercials.
- E-server:
Film and Television Articles Online. More than sixty articles.
- Vanderbilt
University TV News Archive. Key resource for anyone
examining the past and present of TV news programming. Includes
a database with
written summaries of news broadcasts, and on-demand video copies
of broadcasts.
- Nationalities,
Sexualities, and Global TV. Course and web project from
University of Maryland.
- Classic
TV. Good resource on TV shows from the 1950s onward.
In addition to show information, the site includes access
to theme
songs, fashions and other TV-related materials.
- MZTV Museum.
Fun site with lovely pictures of classic radios and television
sets; lends itself to a semiotic analysis of how changing aesthetic
styles in TV sets might reflect cultural changes.
- tv.com.
Previously tv tome, an excellent source for information on most any show,
including tv listings, show summaries, episode guides, casting
information, news, videos, images, reviews and a fan forum.
- reality blurred.
A reality TV news digest with news on all reality TV since 2000.
- MediaFiends.
Another reality TV news site with a reality TV schedule
and links to other sources.
- Queery s TVGayGuide.
Sort of the queer TV Guide, with a daily schedule of television
programming (as well as movies) with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer
characters or topics related to queer issues.
- After Ellen.
A site with news and reviews on queer women in television and other media.
-
Jump the Shark.
This site looks at TV shows and the moment in which they jumped the shark, or hit their peak then went
downhill. It also has information on current shows.
[ BACK
TO TOP ]
ONLINE ARTICLES
- Ally
McBeal's Younger Sisters. Jane Rosenzweig argues that
television's women are getting less mature while its girls
are getting more so.
- Can
TV Improve Us? Television is a powerful medium: can
it be used for good?
-
Conventions
of Television News. Article by John Hartley briefly introducing
analysis of the way formats and other conventions shape the content
of television news programs.
- The
Ellen Event. Money-grubbing pageantry, or progressive
political action? Elayne Rapping thinks it was the latter, and
then some.
-
"Fables
and Endless Genealogies:" Soap Opera and Women's Culture.
Argues that soap operas are the most recent instance in a long
tradition of 'orality' among women, and that the
disdain we hold for soap operas is also common to this tradition.
- FAIR:
Channel One. Several articles from the non-profit organization
FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting), analyzing the actual
"news" content of the Channel One broadcasts which many
school kids are required to watch.
-
Homoeroticism
or Male Intimacy? A case study from current American television, Joey
and Chandler from Friends.
- More
(Male) Power: Humor and Gender in Home Improvement.
Analyzes the show through its use of humor/satire, specifically
as it plays into the perceptions of male and female power. A pdf
version of this article is available at the author's site.
- Notes
on the Construction of Reality in TV News Programmes. Is
TV news really objective? Should it be?
- Trashy
or Transgressive? "Reality TV" and the Politics of Social
Control. Charts some of the objections to one of the latest
trends in television programming, and finally asks the question,
"What's new?"
- The
Trouble with Teletubbies. In airing The Teletubbies,
the authors argue, PBS has stepped over an important line: from
catering to an existing market (such as with Sesame Street
or Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood) to creating a new one, namely,
one-year old children.
- TV’s
Last Taboo. “With ‘reality TV’ still in
vogue, why shouldn’t networks let a little reality creep
into contraceptive advertising?”
[ BACK
TO TOP ]
SAMPLE PROGRAM SITES, Current and Historical
Some "Official" sites, and some examples of the often much more interesting sites made by "Fans"
- Adult Swim. Includes shows such as
The Boondocks, Sealab 2021, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Cowboy Beebop, Family Guy and
various other adult cartoons and anime shows.
- The
Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
- The
Adventures of Pete and Pete.
- Alias.
- All
My Children.
-
American Idol.
-
Animaniacs.
-
Babylon
5.
- Barney
and Friends.
- Batman,
the Animated Series.
- Battlestar
Galactica
- Beakman’s
World.
- Beavis
and Butthead.
- Beverly
Hills, 90210.
-
Blackadder.
- Blake's
7.
- The
Bold and the Beautiful.
-
Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
-
Cheers.
- Clarissa
Explains It All.
- Colbert Report.
- Computer
Chronicles.
LI>Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
- Days
of Our Lives.
- Desperate Housewives.
- Doctor
Who.
- Dr.
Quinn, Medicine Woman.
-
Duckman.
- Earth
2.
- The
East Village: A CyberSoap Opera.In addition to photographs
and audio and video clips, this soap allows you to join the "cyber
clique" of a favorite character (after registering, of course).
Once in a "clique," you will receive “secret email”
from that character that gives you information not in the story
line. Chat rooms are also available.
- Fawlty
Towers.
- Firefly.
- Forever
Knight.
-
Friends.
- General
Hospital.
- Gilligan’s
Island.
- Herman’s
Head.
-
Highlander.
- Hitchhiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy.
- Home
Improvement.
-
Jeopardy.
- The
Kids in the Hall.
- La
Femme Nikita.
- Late
Night with Conan O’Brian.
- The
Late Show with David Letterman.
- Lois
and Clark.
- Lost.
- Lost
in Space.
-
MacGyver.
- Mad
About You.
- Magnum,
P.I.
- Married
with Children.
- M.A.S.H.
- Max
Headroom.
- Melrose
Place.
- Mighty
Morphin’ Power Rangers.
- Monty
Python’s Flying Circus.
- The
Muppet Show.
- My
So-Called Life.
- Mystery
Science Theater 3000 (MST3K).
- The
Nanny.
- Northern
Exposure.
- NYPD
Blue.
- One
Life to Live.
- Oprah Winfrey
- Party
of Five.
- Picket
Fences.
- The
Price Is Right.
- The
Prisoner.
- Quantum
Leap.
-
Quartermass.
- Reboot.
A very imaginative computer-generated cartoon adventure inside
the mainframe of a computer.
- Red
Dwarf.
- Remington
Steele.
- Ren
‘n’ Stimpy.
- The
Rockford Files.
- Rosie
O’Donnell Show.
- The
Rush Limbaugh Show.
- Saturday
Night Live.
- Saved
by the Bell.
- The Scene. A free internet show (downloadable throught their site) about "The Scene," the world of internet movie pirating.
- School House Rock.
-
Seinfeld.
- The Simpsons.
- Sliders.
- Space
Precinct.
- Star
Trek.
- Star
Trek: Deep Space Nine (STDS9).
- Star
Trek: The Next Generation (STTNG).
- Star
Trek: Voyager (STV).
- Tiny
Toons Adventures.
- The
Tonight Show.
- TV
Nation.
- The
Twilight Zone.
- Twin
Peaks.
- Unsolved
Mysteries.
- Wild
Wild West.
- The
X-Files.
- Xena:
Warrior Princess.
- The
Young and the Restles.s
- The
Young Ones.
[ BACK
TO TOP ]
NETWORK SITES
[ BACK
TO TOP ]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[Few topics
on popular culture can be adequately researched on the web alone.
These reading suggestions are designed as beginning points for further
offline study.]
 |
|
|
Allen, Robert C. Speaking of Soap Operas. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1985. |
| |
Excellent study of the production and consumption of daytime
soap operas. |
|
|
Ang, Ien. Living Room Wars: Rethinking Media Audiences for
a Postmodern World. London: Routledge, 1996. |
| |
Excellent collection of essays exploring various difficulties
and possibilities in analyzing the responses of popular culture
audiences. |
|
|
Doty, Alexander. Making Things Perfectly Queer: Interpreting
Mass Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. |
| |
Witty re-reading of popular figures from Jack Benny to Laverne
and Shirley as having a “queer” subtext. |
|
|
Gamson, Joshua. Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and
Sexual Nonconformity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. |
| |
The best book on the strange and wondrous phenomenon of Jerry
Springer-style “tabloid” talk shows. |
|
|
Gray, Herman. Watching Race: Television and the Struggle
for "Blackness." Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995. |
| |
Brilliant interpretation of the evolution of representations
of African Americans in television news and fiction programming,
from the 1980s to the present. |
|
|
Hamamoto, Darrell Y. Monitored Peril: Asian Americans and
the Politics of TV Representation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994. |
| |
Wide-ranging study that includes issues of internment, and the
war in Southeast Asia, in addition to ongoing, everyday stereotypes
of TV orientalism. |
|
|
Jhally, Sut and Justin Lewis. Enlightened Racism: The
Cosby Show, Audiences, and the Myth of the American Dream.
Boulder: Westview Press, 1992.
|
| |
Combines audience surveys and textual analysis to look at how
confusions of race and class in the US are reflected in and
reinforced by Cosby’s mid-80s show. |
|
|
Kaplan, E. Ann. Rocking Around the Clock: Music Television,
Postmodernism and Consumer Culture. New York: Methuen, 1987. |
| |
Sophisticated analysis of the relations among MTV videos, consumer
culture, and the psychodynamics of identity formation in youth.
|
|
|
Lewis, Lisa. Gender Politics and MTV. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990. |
| |
Takes an audience-ethnographic approach that sees Madonna and
similar figures as empowering to girls and young women. |
|
|
Marc, David. Comic Visions: Television Comedy and American
Culture. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989. |
| |
Generally regarded as the best overall book on the sit-com.
|
Walters, Suzanna Danuta. All the Rage: The Story of Gay Visibility in America.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. |
| |
An excellent book looking primarily at gay
visibility in television but in all forms of media up to its publication in 2001. |
|
[ BACK
TO TOP ]
|
|
