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Week 7: Television as Text

Explore the key concepts that shape television as a visual medium, including semiotics, signs, codes, conventions, narrative, and pleasure. Discover how these concepts influence the genre of TV crime drama and the transition from network to cable broadcasting.

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Week 7: Television as Text

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  1. Week 7: Television as Text

  2. Important Concepts for TV as Text • Semiotics • Signs • Codes • Conventions • Narrative • Polysemy • Pleasure • Flow → a “central television experience” according to Raymond Williams

  3. Television and Genre • Etymology • Latin: genus – related to term for giving birth • French: genre – type or kind • Greek: genre – categories of literature (drama, comedy, etc)

  4. TV Crime Drama • The “cop show” • The “police procedural” • The “crime drama” • Examples: • Dragnet (1951-1959, 1967-1970) • Hill Street Blues (1981-1987) • Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-1999) • NYPD Blue (1993-2005) • CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000-2015)

  5. Network Era

  6. Multichannel Transition • Narrative focus shifts from catching criminals to the daily lives of “ordinary” cops • Acquire a degree of cultural legitimacy • Denser episodes • More serious subject matters

  7. NYPD Blue (ABC, 1993-2005)

  8. NYPD Blue (ABC, 1993-2005)

  9. Broadcast Crime Dramain the Post-Network Era • High-concept television • Simple storylines • Distinct visual style • Franchising • Moral certainty • Limited view of criminal justice system

  10. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS, 2000-2015)

  11. Cable Crime Dramain the Post-Network Era • Different economic model • Protagonists are no longer exclusively agents or psuedo-agents of the state • Anti-heroic characters • Serialized narratives

  12. The Shield (FX, 2002-2008)

  13. The Shield (FX, 2002-2008)

  14. Television and Intertextuality • Intertextuality – refers to the ways in which the meaning of a particular text is shaped by other texts • Term coined by literary theorist Julia Kristeva (1967) • In television studies, intertextuality has a long history • Williams (1974): “flow” • Fiske (1988): “vertical” and “horizontal” intertextualities • Thompson (1997): highbrow allusions in TV's second golden age • More recently, intertextuality in cable drama is understood as a means to appeal to elite audiences

  15. Existentialism and The Sopranos (part one)

  16. Existentialism and The Sopranos (part two)

  17. Existentialism and The Sopranos (part three)

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