Television as culture/as communication/as inquiry

Lecture 1, Sept 9, 2011

AgendaOpening ActivitiesMini Lecture: Intro to Television

StudiesReview of SyllabusDiscuss: tutorials (TSF)

Opening Activities:

What is the biggest television “event” of this (2011) summer/fall….

1 possibility

Lloyd Robertson sign off?Its coverage by CBC?

2nd possibility:

Switch from analogue to digital in Canada?

3rd possibility:

CTV two?

What is CTVtwo?

4th possibility:

10th Anniversary of 911?

Terror as spectacleAD 1AD 2

5th possibility:

AMC comes to an endClip 1

Clip 2Clip 3

Our course is a mix of several disciplinary strands

Disciplines have to achieve “legitimacy” in universities

Television studies was not considered legitimate area to study until recently.

Why?

Our course is a mix of several disciplinary strands

Disciplines have to achieve “legitimacy” in universities

Television studies was not considered legitimate area to study until recently.

Why?

Popular culture was not considered an area of studyPieces of technology where not studied for their cultural influence

by any one except archeologists: Separation between disciplines, meant that anthropology was ascendant in this area they studied “OLD stuff” television was NEW!

How did this change?

Following WWII: Impetus to improve the world, lead to therise of need to study current cultures, not ancient ones: this lled to the use of archeological/anthropological lenses to studycurrent culture:

Critical theory movement: Adorno: Frankfurt SchoolRise of Sociology: Study of Technology: EllulRise of Marketing/Statistic Analysis: Neilsen PollsRise of Technology Studies (Philosophical) HeideggerRise of Advertising Industry alongside Psychology

Rise of Interdisciplinary work in this area

Pioneers in television studies

Study of the Image: Goethe, Benjamin, Rise of Art HistoryStudy of sound: Walter J. Ong: AdornoStudy of Culture: Stuart Hall, et allStudy of the relationship of these to culture: Marshall McLuhan, Raymond WilliamsStudy of Film: Bergman: Filmmaker – Film study intertwine

Situating an area of study in a culture that was infected with two ideas: One: the separation of disciplines

Two: the importance of text and numerical analysis for

legitmating university study – must be translated into “high culture”.

High Culture not popular cultureStudy of the Film: Estoteric study –highly textual to justify itselfUsually located in literature department: By default: Television Studies rose as a field in many literature departments: very textually oriented, using textual analysisIt took a long time for the study of the image and of the technology to infiltrate this fortress, and for those doing this initial work to find their resources in other disciplinary areas especially that related to image

This was in part due to technology: accessing archives of image – andpresenting these – very difficult in televised/cinematic form; impossible in paper formDigital changes this: but not as fast as one would think

Digital technology enables the archiving and reproduction of

1.Images2.Sound3. Video

Which is now transforming the field of television studies from its formal roots.The filed however trying to justify itself in the university environs so it is still very textual Very dependent on its roots in literary studies and textualized versions of cultural/film/communication studies.

Our focus:

Will be multidisciplinary: drawing on fields of anthropology, sociology, political science, film studies, visual culture, image studies, audience studies, material culture in addition to emphasizing

Critical technology studies/Communication studies/Media Studies: What is critical technology studies?

Syllabus