Book Review: How to Watch Television, edited by Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell
In: Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Jg. 91 (2014-02-18), S. 186-188
Online
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Zugriff:
How to Watch Television. Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell, eds. New York: New York University Press, 2013. 405 pp. $29 pbk.Just as there is an owner's manual for operating one's TV, Jason Mittell and Ethan Thompson believe, so should there be instructions for viewing its content. As profes- sors both (faculty in communications and media studies at Middlebury and Texas AM social identity and cul- tural politics; democracy, nation, and the public interest; industrial practices and struc- tures; medium, technology, and everyday life.Each essay selects a relatively narrow aspect of a program to problematize without forsaking commentary on the show's message or the overall impact of the series. In some cases, a single episode is considered. Such is the case with M*A*S*H whose provocative faux-documentary style "Interview" episode was atypical in form but a dense and accurate illustration of the series' sentiment and content. Overall, the authors pull out unexpected hooks from the texts at hand. I Love Lucy is analyzed here not for its aesthetic of cultural innovations but for pioneering labor and produc- tion practices, namely, the role of writer-producer in early television. "It's Fun to Eat: Forgotten Television" stands out as the one essay that focuses on an obscure, ephemeral program (a cooking show hosted by a blind, Latina host) and raises issues about the TV historian's challenges. The Dick Van Dyke Show essay analyzes an episode as a representation of how postwar sitcoms present queer memes, highlighting their importance to queer and TV history.The editors sought and achieved scholarly yet accessible analyses (the reprinted M*A*S*H essay is unique in its journalistic style), and despite dozens of authors, there is a comfortable flow in tone. Different approaches to critiquing and writing-not always neutral-make for a dynamic reading experience. "The Cosby Show: Representing Race," which addresses the now historical Reagan-era politics and culture, is a polemical first- person anecdote about how the show presented "the illusion of race" and a post-racial fantasy in stark contrast to concurrent real-life events of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. …
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Book Review: How to Watch Television, edited by Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell
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Autor/in / Beteiligte Person: | Collins, Kathleen M. T. |
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Zeitschrift: | Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Jg. 91 (2014-02-18), S. 186-188 |
Veröffentlichung: | SAGE Publications, 2014 |
Medientyp: | unknown |
ISSN: | 2161-430X (print) ; 1077-6990 (print) |
DOI: | 10.1177/1077699013519906 |
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