Television: Critical Methods and Applications

Televisionis developed for the television criticism course in media studies and communication studies curricula, explaining how television programs and commercials are made, and how they function as producers of meaning. Author Jeremy Butler demonstrates the ways in which cinematography and videography, acting, lighting, set design, editing, and sound combine to produce meanings that viewers take away from their television experience. This popular text teaches students to read between the lines, encouraging them to incorporate critical thinking into their own television viewing. Televisionprovides essential critical and historical context, explaining how various critical methods have been applied to the medium, such as genre study, ideological criticism, and cultural studies. Hundreds of illustrations from familiar television programs introduce the reader to the varied ways in which television goes about telling stories, presenting news, and selling products.. Highlights of this fourth edition include: new organization to reflect current approach to teaching television discussions of technology integrated throughout a wide variety of examples, including recent television shows expanded discussion of cultural issues a companion website with links to video web sites to support examples in the text, color frame grabs, and materials for instructors With its distinctive approach to examining television, this text is appropriate for courses in television studies, media criticism, and general critical studies.

Jeremy G. Butler is Professor of Telecommunication and Film at the University of Alabama. He has taught television, film, and new media courses since 1980 and is active in online educational resources for television and film studies.