Module Learning Objectives

After you finish this module you will be able to:

1. Contrast journalistic television criticism with academic television criticism

2. Recognize the importance of television as representation that is partially constitutive of social reality

3. Describe the process of television criticism that we will follow in this course

Key Concepts

Criticism: The practice of informed judgment through which a person understands, evaluates, and communicates to others the what, how, and why something is considered to be of quality. 

Intention: A conscious aim to obtain a specific outcome. An attributed intention occurs when it is not possible to know the exact intention of a communicator. 

Identification: When people share a common substance or property that unites them. 

Perception: The process of extracting information from the world outside us as well as from within ourselves. 

“Therefore, you should not be concerned with finding the single correct interpretation, for there may be many possible ones.”(p. 14). 

Brand identity: When specific television channels appeal to specific target audiences.

TCA: Television Critics Association, represents more than 200 journalists who write about television for print and online outlets. See http://tvcritics.org. 

Journalist television critics: Critics who write about television for newspapers and websites. 

Cultivation studies: Long-range study of heavy television viewing that concluded that viewers had a heightened sense of danger in a mean and selfish world. 

Finding a show of critical interest

We all have opinions about the television shows we watch, but television criticism is about much more than simply evaluating the merits of a particular show and deeming it ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Rather, criticism uses the close examination of a television program to explore that program’s cultural significance, creative strategies, and its place in a broader social context.

As television critics, we are part of a community of critical thinkers.  If a TV show is of interest to this community, we can enter the discussion. To explore the cultural significance of a show, we need to know what critics are talking about. It's the nature of criticism that we'll all have different viewpoints, but we also have to have a common topic... which is why certain shows get critical attention and many others are ignored. 

Example: a search of 'culturally relevant television' turned up top-ten lists from 2013... so I added 2020 to the search and came up with many year-end lists of recent shows. The lists have blurbs about the show, giving me enough information to decide if I want to give them a more serious look. 

To explore the creative strategies of a show, we need to know about how television (and other narrative, audio-visual media like film) make meaning through a range of techniques. We will be learning about visual style and narrative storytelling in the next couple of weeks. 

Example: a search of 'visually stylish television' turned up newspaper articles and blogsites with lists of recent shows that have exceptional visual style. 

To explore how a television show takes its place in a broader social context, we need to know about the various issues and debates that are going on in the social context. 

Issues and problems in the broader social context are presented in Gale in Context (library login will be required)

Find a social issue in the list that you care about and use it in combination with 'television' to search for critical commentary or lists of shows that treat the issue. 

For example, an initial search of social issue 'for profit prisons' + drama eventually yielded this article: https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/netflix-geo-group-lawsuit-messiah-1234617638/  If I had a critical interest in the issue of immigration policy and our mistreatment of asylum seekers at the border, these episodes of Messiah would be an excellent choice.  

Academic Television Criticism examples

The most important example of academic criticism for our purposes is the example of a Critical Essay here on our website. This sample essay is adapted from Chapter 10 of our textbook which reproduces the entire essay. 

How to Watch Television is a collection of essays about television shows from the perspective of various academic critics. You can read the essays in the online ebook from the SFSU library - unlimited copies are available at this link.