Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is for you to:
Further develop your thinking about an area of television studies that interests you
Familiarize yourself with scholarly writing about television
and connect your own thoughts about and experiences with television to ideas in scholarly writing
The paper: Compose a 6 – 7 page, double-spaced paper that analyzes the argument of an essay from the field of television studies and, as a conclusion, reflects on how the essay influenced your thoughts about and experience of watching a related program.
Aim for your analysis of the essay to bring insight to the topic that the author is discussing and why understanding it in the way the author advocates matters. This analysis could involve:
identifying the essay’s thesis and explaining why it’s relevant
summarizing the overall points of the essay, the author’s goals, key examples
quoting key phrases and interpreting them
paraphrasing key points and providing interpretation
comparing the author’s conclusions to another source’s conclusions
As a conclusion (perhaps 1/3 of the paper), reflect on any ways that the essay influenced your thoughts on and/or experience of the program. You might discuss aspects of the essay that you found surprising, that you disagreed with, or that you agreed with to an extent, but would ultimately draw different conclusions from. Although your experience of the program is subjective (and it’s fine to use the first person pronoun when writing it), aim for this section as well to bring insight to the relevance that the author focuses on in the essay.
Research: You are required to significantly draw from at least scholarly source from the field of television studies that is in some way related to one of the course units: television’s production, form, systems of representation, and audience viewing practices. I recommend that you begin by browsing the recent essays in television journals like the ones below, which focus on television, and looking for an essay that interests you (you’ll need to log in through the library website for most of these):
Critical Studies in TelevisionLinks to an external site.
Flow (Links to an external site.)
Journal of popular film & television (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)
Consider these journals as well. They deal with film and other media but frequently have essays about television from which to select:
Camera Obscura (Links to an external site.)
Film Quarterly (Links to an external site.)
New Review of Film and Television Studies (Links to an external site.)
Scope: An Online Journal of Film Studies (Links to an external site.)
The Velvet Light Trap (Links to an external site.)
This is not by any means a complete list of all of the scholarly journals about television. You’re welcome to draw from any other scholarly source (including book chapters), as long as it comes from the field of television or media studies. In other words, the source should not be an essay that happens to deal with television but is part of a physics dissertation that does so in a way that is outside the scope of the class.
As you read, take note of the essay’s main points and the key television programs that it mentions.
Viewing: Watch a program related to the essay you selected. The essay may deal directly with the program. You may also select a program that is not mentioned in the essay but that is still directly relevant to its argument. As you watch, take notes on how the ideas in the essay you read inform your thoughts and experiences of the program. You’ll conclude the essay with a discussion of these thoughts and experiences.
Citations and formatting:
Each time you refer to something in the essay, include a footnote citation. Use Chicago style. Here’s an exampleLinks to an external site. of citations in Chicago.
Include a works cited page.
Double space
Craft a title that relates to the matters that you are writing about
Submit:
A pdf of the essay that you wrote about
Your essay with the works cited page at the end (no need for a title page)
Here’s all the website you may need:
Critical Studies in TelevisionLinks to an external site:https://login.oca.ucsc.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/publication/316201
flow:http://flowtv.org
Journal of popular film & television: https://login.dartmouth.edu/cas/idp/profile/SAML2/POST/SSO
Camera Obscura:
http://cameraobscura.dukejournals.org/
Film Quarterly:
http://www.filmquarterly.org/
New Review of Film and Television Studies:
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/aboutThisJournal?show=aimsScope&journalCode=rfts20
Scope: An Online Journal of Film Studies:
http://www.scope.nottingham.ac.uk/
The Velvet Light Trap:
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/230
