“The Game (of Genre) is Afoot, or Will Ferrell ‘a-starting’” In my course on academic film criticism, I critique popular reviewing as a “say nothing” enterprise; the practice often reduces to “the film was good [or bad].” The problem with such evaluative criticism is that without a methodology for determining what good or bad might ...
“Perchance to Dream, Televisually” One of the last major trends in American television, before it ceased to exist, was the rise of quality programming on Home Box Office. Started in the early 1970s as a way of delivering television to rural areas, by the late 1990s, HBO was creating the most sophisticated television in both ...
“MacArthur Ashe, or Women Who Wear Glasses Sometimes Hit Great Passes” One of the foundational areas of inquiry in mass communications research is the “media event,” a public spectacle covered on live television, garnering huge viewership. Mass exposure to the media event fundamentally transforms the real world into a narrative experience shared across identity positions ...
