Social Class And Television Drama In Contempora... \/\/TOP\\\\

The early twenty-first century has seen the emergence of a new style of television drama in Britain. While adopting the professional practices and production values of high-end American television it remains emphatically 'British' in content and outlook. James Chapman analyses eight of these dramas - Spooks, Foyle's War, Hustle, Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, Downton Abbey, Sherlock and Broadchurch - which have all proved popular with audiences.

Social Class and Television Drama in Contempora...

Chapman locates new British drama in its institutional and economic contexts, considers their critical and popular reception, and analyses their social politics in relation to their representations of class, gender and nationhood. And it concludes that television drama has played an integral role in both the economic and the cultural export of 'Britishness'.

Is British television drama struggling in the face of today's US-dominated streaming and box-set culture, or actually in reinvigorated rude health? That is the question explored in James Chapman's new volume which offers a series of well-researched case studies of eight of the most memorable British productions of the last twenty years in order to wave the flag for the continuing quality and relevance of UK-produced TV drama. [...] Clear and accessible, this volume will appeal to students and scholars alike as well as to the general reader curious to find out more about how British TV drama has reinvented itself in the twenty first century. -- Professor John Cook, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK

In this course we will examine how streaming media industries and cultures in Asia have been transformed by the forces of globalization and digitization in the 21st century. We will discuss how the entry of transnational streaming platforms such as Amazon, Disney Plus, and Netflix has contributed to the rapid convergence of television, film, digital and mobile media cultures in Asia and in the Asian diaspora. We will also evaluate how the growing collaboration and competition among various major and minor players in Asian streaming industries has challenged the dominance of national media systems and contested traditional representations of nationalism, gender, race, class, caste and sexuality in various film genres and TV programs. In particular, we will pay close attention to how streaming platforms have engendered new avenues for inter-Asian production, distribution and consumption of popular media forms and genres (such as multi-language Indian cinemas, K-Pop music and Turkish dramas).

This course looks at how gender was experienced, defined, and challenged through media (TV, film, music, magazines, and advertisements) by Americans in the 1960s. Readings draw broadly from US cultural history, television and film studies, cultural studies, and gender studies. We will examine texts, performers, and audiences across a wide variety of media -- television and film, literature, comics, radio, internet, live performance, and other forms. The seminar will be focused on student group discussion; there will also be written tests and brief in-class writing assignments. Screenings each week will provide illustrations and primary research sources. Students will develop final research and/or creative projects that apply historical and theoretical ideas and information learned throughout the semester.

Interactive storytelling is a form of dramatic writing, just like theater or television. What makes the medium unique is that the author does not control the story; the audience does. Creatives have only just begun to explore the storytelling possibilities of this field. In this class, you will begin to develop the skills & knowledge necessary to write for interactive mediums such as video games, digital media, VR, and augmented reality. Your final deliverable in this course - a narrative design document - will serve as a writing sample for your portfolio. A limited number of seats are open to non-majors.

From Beverley Hills 90210 to Gossip Girl and Glee, the genre of the teen drama series has added a unique and multi-faceted dynamic to the American television landscape. The popularity of this genre stems from the way in which it challenges and dramatizes the realities of its young viewers, presenting them with a fantastical reality which is defined by melodrama, materialism and excess. This quality of the genre often causes adult viewers to dismiss the teen drama series as a product of guilty pleasure television. Yet, the way it represents contemporary teenage identity and, conversely, the way in which teenage viewers respond to this representation, signals a multi-layered interpretation of what it means to exist within the complex liminal space between childhood and adulthood. How, for instance, do teenagers perceive the social and national politics of their world, both in and out of the classroom? Furthermore, how do these perceptions challenge and/or broader social and nationalistic anxieties experienced within the adult world they are on the verge of encountering? The teen drama series provides a useful framework through which to explore these questions.

Though academic work has been produced on particular teen drama series', these studies have mainly focused on these shows outside the context of their specific genre form. This seminar will seek to provide a clearer and more substantial study of this genre and its place within television studies. I welcome papers on any teen television drama, past or present, that examines this genre from multiple perspectives, such as its representation of issues pertaining to gender, class and race.

Feng's initial success at the domestic box-office cashed in on his prior success in making popular television drama serials such as A Native of Beijing in New York. Feng was also credited with masterminding, together with his colleagues at the Beijing TV, China's first long serial television drama, Yearning. The scandalous popularity of Yearning during the post-Tiananmen era is well commented upon by scholars of Chinese media and politics. Feng subsequently became involved, together with the popular Beijing novelist Wang Shuo and the US educated comedy writer/director Ying Da, in creating several sitcoms on Chinese television. The ironic application of Beijing dialect and references to China's revolutionary history made the sitcoms enormously popular. Feng's success in television dramas created a fan base for the debut of his first New Year film, Party A Party B. The humorous dialogue plus Feng's name recognition made the film an instant hit, particularly in Northern China, where the Beijing based stars and satirical jokes are more readily resonant.

The film implies that the real thieves are many of the upstarts who amassed fortunes illegally and brutally. The first segment of the film witnesses the pair scamming a new BMW limousine out of a rich man. As Wang Bo drove the car out of the heavily guarded wealthy villa, he shouted at the guard who saluted him, "Are you blind? Why don't you stop me, because I drive a BMW? Does driving a BMW make me a good person?" The ironic comment by Wang Bo and the caricaturistic portrayal of the rich man sides the filmmaker squarely with the socially disfranchised yet morally superior thieves. Some Chinese critics point out that the film speaks to the moral and existential anxiety of the privileged class, China's emerging upper middle class. The film features idealized heroes who made it outside the corrupt system and who redeemed themselves by protecting the innocent from being hurt in a corrupt society.

Between the 1940s and 2000s, commercial television had a profound and wide-ranging impact on American society and culture. It influenced the way that people think about such important social issues as race, gender, and class. It played an important role in the political process, particularly in shaping national election campaigns. TV programs and commercials have also been mentioned as major factors contributing to increased American materialism (a view that places more value on acquiring material possessions than on developing in other ways). Finally, television helped to spread American culture around the world.

Gay and lesbian characters did not appear on television until the 1970s. Several factors contributed to the introduction of homosexual characters at that time. First, the broadcast networks shifted their focus toward younger, urban viewers, who were thought to hold more accepting social views. Second, a series of rulings by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave independent production companies more control over TV programs. These independent producers tended to be more willing to address frequently debated subject matter than the networks. Finally, homosexuals began to be more visible in American society, and TV shows began to reflect that change. 041b061a72