Routledge Focus on Television Studies – serie

This book explores how the television industry is adapting its production culture and professional practises of scheduling to an increasingly non-linear television paradigm, a testing ground where different communicative tools are tried out in a volatile industry.Based on four case studies the book argues that a new television paradigm is being produced from within the multiplatform television organisations themselves in order to adapt to changing viewer habits and the tensions between digital and broadcast television. Drawing on a unique genre and production studies approach that cuts across the humanities and sociology in television studies, chapters cover in-depth studies of:• The communicative changes to the on-air schedule as a televisual text phenomenon in the digital era, and how the conceptualisations of the audience are changing in scheduling and curation for multiplatform portfolios• The changing production culture of scheduling in companies for their multiplatform portfolios• The dilemmas of curation in multiplatform portfolios.Situated at the intersection of the humanities and sociology in media production studies, this book will be of key interest to scholars and students of television studies, media production studies and cultural studies and to researchers and media professionals and management in the television industry.

This book presents an examination of the television series Nurse Jackie, making connections between the representational processes and the audience consumption of the series. A key point of reference is the political and performative potential of Nurse Jackie with regards to its progressive representation of prescription drug addiction and its relationship to the concept of quality television. It deconstructs Nurse Jackie ’s discursive potential, involving intersections with contemporary notions of genre, heroism, celebrity, therapy and feminism. At the same time this book foregrounds the self-refl exive educational potential of the series, largely enabled by the scriptwriters and the leading actor Edie Falco.

This book seeks to interrogate the representation of Black women in television. Cheers explores how the increase of Black women in media ownership and creative executive roles (producers, showrunners, directors and writers) in the last 30 years affected the fundamental cultural shift in Black women’s representation on television, which in turn parallels the political, social, economic and cultural advancements of Black women in America from 1950 to 2016. She also examines Black women as a diverse television audience, discussing how they interact and respond to the constantly evolving television representation of their image and likeness, looking specifically at how social media is used as a tool of audience engagement.

This book explores the new theoretical and political questions raised by food TV’s digital transformation.Bringing together analyses of food media texts and platform infrastructures—from streaming and catch-up TV to YouTube and Facebook food videos—it shows how new textual conventions, algorithmic practices, and market logics have redrawn the boundaries of food TV and altered the cultural place of food, and food media, in a digital era. With case studies of new and rerun television and emerging online genres, Digital Food TV considers what food television means at the current moment—a time when on-screen digital content is rapidly proliferating and televisual platforms and technologies are undergoing significant change.This book will appeal to students and scholars of food studies, television studies, and digital media studies.

This book explores the new theoretical and political questions raised by food TV’s digital transformation.Bringing together analyses of food media texts and platform infrastructures—from streaming and catch-up TV to YouTube and Facebook food videos—it shows how new textual conventions, algorithmic practices, and market logics have redrawn the boundaries of food TV and altered the cultural place of food, and food media, in a digital era. With case studies of new and rerun television and emerging online genres, Digital Food TV considers what food television means at the current moment—a time when on-screen digital content is rapidly proliferating and televisual platforms and technologies are undergoing significant change.This book will appeal to students and scholars of food studies, television studies, and digital media studies.

This book explores how the television industry is adapting its production culture and professional practises of scheduling to an increasingly non-linear television paradigm, a testing ground where different communicative tools are tried out in a volatile industry.Based on four case studies the book argues that a new television paradigm is being produced from within the multiplatform television organisations themselves in order to adapt to changing viewer habits and the tensions between digital and broadcast television. Drawing on a unique genre and production studies approach that cuts across the humanities and sociology in television studies, chapters cover in-depth studies of:• The communicative changes to the on-air schedule as a televisual text phenomenon in the digital era, and how the conceptualisations of the audience are changing in scheduling and curation for multiplatform portfolios• The changing production culture of scheduling in companies for their multiplatform portfolios• The dilemmas of curation in multiplatform portfolios.Situated at the intersection of the humanities and sociology in media production studies, this book will be of key interest to scholars and students of television studies, media production studies and cultural studies and to researchers and media professionals and management in the television industry.

This book scrutinizes the relationship between contemporary TV shows and space, focusing on the ways in which these shows use and narrate specific spatial structures, namely, spaces far away from traditional metropolises.Beginning with the observation that many shows are set in specific spatial settings, referred to in the book as “nonplace territories” – e.g., North Jersey, New Mexico, or rural and suburban Western Germany – the author argues that the link between such nonplace territories and shows such as The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, or Dark is so intense because the narrative structure functions similarly to these territories: flat, decentralized, without any sense of structure or stable hierarchy. The book takes three different perspectives: first, it looks at the rationale for combining TV shows and nonplace territories from the viewpoint of narrative strategy. It then thinks through what these strategies mean for practicing architects. Finally, it approaches the arguments made before from a “user” perspective: what does this narrative mirroring of social-spatial reality in places such as Albuquerque or Jersey City mean for people living in these places?This new approach to architecture and space on screen will interest scholars and students of television studies, screen architecture, media and architectural theory, and popular culture.

This book scrutinizes the relationship between contemporary TV shows and space, focusing on the ways in which these shows use and narrate specific spatial structures, namely, spaces far away from traditional metropolises.Beginning with the observation that many shows are set in specific spatial settings, referred to in the book as “nonplace territories” – e.g., North Jersey, New Mexico, or rural and suburban Western Germany – the author argues that the link between such nonplace territories and shows such as The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, or Dark is so intense because the narrative structure functions similarly to these territories: flat, decentralized, without any sense of structure or stable hierarchy. The book takes three different perspectives: first, it looks at the rationale for combining TV shows and nonplace territories from the viewpoint of narrative strategy. It then thinks through what these strategies mean for practicing architects. Finally, it approaches the arguments made before from a “user” perspective: what does this narrative mirroring of social-spatial reality in places such as Albuquerque or Jersey City mean for people living in these places?This new approach to architecture and space on screen will interest scholars and students of television studies, screen architecture, media and architectural theory, and popular culture.

Social Media Television and Distributional Aesthetics explores this distinct fictional form that merges the genres, structures and affordances of television with those of social media and what it entails for contemporary television and media culture and for our experience of new and old media in everyday life.Centred around five key case studies – Skam, Lik meg, Dead Girls Detective Agency, Content and Eva.Stories – this book offers insight into how different social media platforms facilitate distinct aesthetics and content; transnational aspects of social media television; and how different production cultures and industries operate in its production. This analysis extrapolated out into broader principles and theoretical arguments that will help scholars working on a wide variety of questions of television and social media, digitalization, technology, convergence, media aesthetics, production cultures, audience cultures and globalization in the future. Developing new theoretical perspectives to understand what social media television is and can be and creating new methodological frameworks to analyze television and new media as an aesthetic experience, the author proposes distributional aesthetic as the main analytical framework arguing that distribution can be understood as an aesthetic form defined as a situated aesthetic experience in time and space.This book will be relevant for scholars, instructors, students and practitioners working within television studies, social media studies, media aesthetics, and visual and digital culture.

Social Media Television and Distributional Aesthetics explores this distinct fictional form that merges the genres, structures and affordances of television with those of social media and what it entails for contemporary television and media culture and for our experience of new and old media in everyday life.Centred around five key case studies – Skam, Lik meg, Dead Girls Detective Agency, Content and Eva.Stories – this book offers insight into how different social media platforms facilitate distinct aesthetics and content; transnational aspects of social media television; and how different production cultures and industries operate in its production. This analysis extrapolated out into broader principles and theoretical arguments that will help scholars working on a wide variety of questions of television and social media, digitalization, technology, convergence, media aesthetics, production cultures, audience cultures and globalization in the future. Developing new theoretical perspectives to understand what social media television is and can be and creating new methodological frameworks to analyze television and new media as an aesthetic experience, the author proposes distributional aesthetic as the main analytical framework arguing that distribution can be understood as an aesthetic form defined as a situated aesthetic experience in time and space.This book will be relevant for scholars, instructors, students and practitioners working within television studies, social media studies, media aesthetics, and visual and digital culture.

This book proposes the ‘signature role TV star’ as a new theoretical category of stardom by evaluating Adam West as a quintessential example of this type of figure.West was best known for playing the titular role in the 1960s television series Batman. After Batman was cancelled, West was unable to develop a lasting career as a mainstream leading man, meaning that his signature role remained the defining aspect of his public image. In various ways, West demonstrated that the strong link with a signature televisual role can generate new inflections over time, meaning that he embodies both the advantages and disadvantages of this form of stardom. The analysis of West as an archetypal signature role TV star is accomplished within a star studies theoretical framework that focuses on his onscreen roles, his promotional and publicity appearances and criticism and commentary materials about him. The signature role TV star category proposed in this book can be utilised to illuminate the significance of other television stars who have been overlooked by scholars.This book will have relevance for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Film Studies, Television Studies, Media and Communication Studies, Cultural Studies, Visual Studies and Comics Studies.

This book proposes the ‘signature role TV star’ as a new theoretical category of stardom by evaluating Adam West as a quintessential example of this type of figure.West was best known for playing the titular role in the 1960s television series Batman. After Batman was cancelled, West was unable to develop a lasting career as a mainstream leading man, meaning that his signature role remained the defining aspect of his public image. In various ways, West demonstrated that the strong link with a signature televisual role can generate new inflections over time, meaning that he embodies both the advantages and disadvantages of this form of stardom. The analysis of West as an archetypal signature role TV star is accomplished within a star studies theoretical framework that focuses on his onscreen roles, his promotional and publicity appearances and criticism and commentary materials about him. The signature role TV star category proposed in this book can be utilised to illuminate the significance of other television stars who have been overlooked by scholars.This book will have relevance for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Film Studies, Television Studies, Media and Communication Studies, Cultural Studies, Visual Studies and Comics Studies.

The Intersectional Athlete Body on Reality TV examines the treatment of women, non-White and queer participants on MTV’s The Challenge, a physical competition lauded as ‘America’s fifth sport’, interrogating the treatment of the intersectional body within the reality TV landscape and the influence of professional sports culture.Positing that participants’ success hinges more on identity than on skill and talent, the author unpacks and cross-examines the misogyny, racism and homophobia ingrained in The Challenge culture, and positions the analysis within the context of the hyperconservative politics of the Trump era. Drawing on freak discourse and sports media, the book positions The Challenge as a rich contextual site to explore the contention intersectional bodies that are subjected to spaces where differences increasingly matter, critically evaluating how MTV navigated differing political views to maintain audience numbers while at the same time claiming to support Black Lives Matter (BLM), #MeToo and LGBTQIA+ rights.This in-depth and intricate study will interest students and researchers working in Reality TV studies, Gender studies and Race and Sexuality studies.

The Intersectional Athlete Body on Reality TV examines the treatment of women, non-White and queer participants on MTV’s The Challenge, a physical competition lauded as ‘America’s fifth sport’, interrogating the treatment of the intersectional body within the reality TV landscape and the influence of professional sports culture.Positing that participants’ success hinges more on identity than on skill and talent, the author unpacks and cross-examines the misogyny, racism and homophobia ingrained in The Challenge culture, and positions the analysis within the context of the hyperconservative politics of the Trump era. Drawing on freak discourse and sports media, the book positions The Challenge as a rich contextual site to explore the contention intersectional bodies that are subjected to spaces where differences increasingly matter, critically evaluating how MTV navigated differing political views to maintain audience numbers while at the same time claiming to support Black Lives Matter (BLM), #MeToo and LGBTQIA+ rights.This in-depth and intricate study will interest students and researchers working in Reality TV studies, Gender studies and Race and Sexuality studies.

Secret Identities and Double Lives on Tween TV in introduces readers to the concepts of tweenhood and television (TV) tropes by providing historical and theoretical contexts and reviewing the history of TV targeted to tweens.Through a qualitative analysis of various live-action sitcoms, this book explores the popularity of programming featuring characters leading secret lives and targeted to tweens. By unpacking various theoretical explanations of this distinct period of life and examining them through the critical lens of the content of these tween TV shows that feature secret identities, the book offers a unique understanding of the tween experience woven in the nexus of power, morality, friendship, romance, family life and self-identity.This book’s analysis and understanding would benefit children’s media scholars and researchers, students of media studies, communication studies, cultural studies, adolescent studies, and child development.

Secret Identities and Double Lives on Tween TV in introduces readers to the concepts of tweenhood and television (TV) tropes by providing historical and theoretical contexts and reviewing the history of TV targeted to tweens.Through a qualitative analysis of various live-action sitcoms, this book explores the popularity of programming featuring characters leading secret lives and targeted to tweens. By unpacking various theoretical explanations of this distinct period of life and examining them through the critical lens of the content of these tween TV shows that feature secret identities, the book offers a unique understanding of the tween experience woven in the nexus of power, morality, friendship, romance, family life and self-identity.This book’s analysis and understanding would benefit children’s media scholars and researchers, students of media studies, communication studies, cultural studies, adolescent studies, and child development.

This book examines how BBC Television’s embrace of new executive voices, digital technology, and independent production companies in the early 2000s gave rise to a new era of innovation in comedy, aesthetically and culturally.Drawing on exclusive interviews with key industry figures, this book traces these corporate innovations, with a focus on the shift from traditional analogue pathways to digital platforms. The author explores how BBC Three’s launch, alongside iPlayer streaming and YouTube integration, enabled a new generation of creators to develop aesthetically experimental series that expressed diverse British identities for younger audiences. Demonstrating how new corporate thinking and digital platforms democratized comedy creation, moving beyond establishment gatekeepers to showcase working‑class, immigrant, and minority voices, this comprehensive analysis reveals how these changes made BBC comedy more inclusive and representative of contemporary British society while maintaining its public service mission.This book will interest researchers and students in media and cultural studies, including television, digital media, comedy, celebrity, creative industries, and issues of identity and immigration.

This book seeks to interrogate the representation of Black women in television. Cheers explores how the increase of Black women in media ownership and creative executive roles (producers, showrunners, directors and writers) in the last 30 years affected the fundamental cultural shift in Black women’s representation on television, which in turn parallels the political, social, economic and cultural advancements of Black women in America from 1950 to 2016. She also examines Black women as a diverse television audience, discussing how they interact and respond to the constantly evolving television representation of their image and likeness, looking specifically at how social media is used as a tool of audience engagement.