List of Figures viii

Notes on Contributors ix

Introduction 1
Janet Wasko

Part I Theoretical Overviews

1 The Development of Television Studies 15
Horace Newcomb

2 Critical Perspectives on Television from the Frankfurt School to Postmodernism 29
Doug Kellner

Part II Television/History

3 Television and History 51
Paddy Scannell

4 Our TV Heritage: Television, the Archive, and the Reasons for Preservation 67
Lynn Spigel

Part III Television/Aesthetics and Production

5 Television as a Moving Aesthetic: In Search of the Ultimate Aesthetic – The Self 103
Julianne H. Newton

6 Locating the Televisual in Golden Age Television 126
Caren Deming

7 Television Production: Who Makes American TV? 142
Jane M. Shattuc

Part IV Television/The State and Policy

8 Who Rules TV? States, Markets, and the Public Interest 157
Sylvia Harvey

9 Public Broadcasting and Democratic Culture: Consumers, Citizens, and Communards 174
Graham Murdock

10 Culture, Services, Knowledge: Television between Policy Regimes 199
Stuart Cunningham

Part V Television/Commerce

11 Television Advertising as Textual and Economic Systems 217
Matthew P. McAllister

12 Watching Television: A Political Economic Approach 238
Eileen R. Meehan

13 Keeping “Abreast” of MTV and Viacom: The Growing Power of a Media Conglomerate 256
Jack Banks

14 The Trade in Television News 270
Andrew Calabrese

Part VI Television/Programming, Content, and Genre

15 Configurations of the New Television Landscape 291
Albert Moran

16 The Study of Soap Opera 308
Christine Geraghty

17 The Shifting Terrain of American Talk Shows 324
Jane M. Shattuc

18 Television and Sports 337
Michael R. Real

19 “Where the Past Comes Alive”: Television, History, and Collective Memory 361
Gary R. Edgerton

20 “How Will You Make it on Your Own?”: Television and Feminism Since 1970 379
Bonnie J. Dow

21 Television and Race 395
Sasha Torres

Part VII Television/The Public and Audiences

22 Television, Public Spheres, and Civic Cultures 411
Peter Dahlgren

23 Television and Public Opinion 433
Justin Lewis

24 Reality TV: Performance, Authenticity, and Television Audiences 449
Annette Hill

25 A Special Audience? Children and Television 468
David Buckingham

Part VIII Television/Alternative Challenges

26 Local Community Channels: Alternatives to Corporate Media Dominance 489
DeeDee Halleck

Part IX International Television/Case Studies

27 Latin American Commercial Television: “Primitive Capitalism” 503
John Sinclair

28 Television in China: History, Political Economy, and Ideology 521
Yuezhi Zhao and Zhenzhi Guo

29 Japanese Television: Early Development and Research 540
Shunya Yoshimi

30 Change and Transformation in South African Television 558
Ruth Teer-Tomaselli

31 Television in the Arab East 580
Nabil H. Dajani

Index 602

The essays cover a myriad of topics and theories that have led to television’s current incarnation, and predict its likely future. From technology and aesthetics, television’s relationship to the state, televisual commerce, texts, representation, genre, internationalism, and audience reception and effects, A Companion to Television is an invaluable reference for understanding the significance of television in the modern and postmodern world.

“We need more accounts of television that really push at the interconnections of economy, institution and culture. This ambitious collection, often comparative and historical, hits the spot admirably.”
John Corner, University of Liverpool

“The volume comprehensively maps the terrain of television studies with an impressive line-up of authors. Each provides a state-of-the-art overview of a key topic, resulting in a stimulating diversity of historical, international, and multidisciplinary perspectives.”
Sonia Livingstone, London School of Economics

"Janet Wasko’s book provides a wealth of information, interesting analyses, and fruitful theoretical discussions."
Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television