Essay Topics
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Paper 1
Paper #1
Due: T 9.20, in class
4-5 pages

Reading Television:

Beginning with Storey's overview of various approaches to "decoding" television, you are going to be writing a short analysis of a televisual document, i.e. a TV show. Rather than adopting one of the methods Storey outlines wholesale (for that would take a tremendous amount of time and research), I want to you to begin exploring the various possibilities of the discourse of television studies--how can you adopt his discussion on a small scale? How can you continue it in a much more focused and brief way?

In order to accomplish this, you will be writing on one episode of one television show available in the library (on vhs and dvd, to make re-watching easier--if you are unsure about what show to write about, browse/ ask around). Utilizing the concepts introduced by Hall, Ang, Fiske, et al, you will discuss this show as a cultural object, as something that is social and political and economic. What you choose to focus your discussion on is entirely up to you; however, I encourage you to keep your argument specific (the role of gender as it defines a specific character/scene/relationship in The Prisoner, the politics of space travel in a specific moment in Star Trek, the difficult relationship between public and private social spaces in Freaks and Geeks, etc...) and be prepared to introduce it in class before your paper is due. Specificity is everything here.

Obviously, you could quickly become mired in an excess of research, both critical and historical. So while I do expect you to do research (at least two or three sources other than Storey, focusing mostly on information about the show and its financial/cultural economy), I don't want you to focus too much on the research aspect of this project... you need to see this is a both a close reading and a cultural assessment of a particular bit of television. You will be reading a show through the lens of cultural studies and, in this close reading of a television show, you will also be doing a close reading on a specific aspect of the culture that created it.

As always, if you have any problems or questions whatsoever, do not hesitate to come see in my office hours, make an appointment, or talk to me after class.