Questions for Final Exam Review

Please post your questions to this thread. You can post more than 1 question, but make sure that they are specific and indicate what you don't understand about them. for example "what is the telecommunications act" is a question that can be answered by looking at the lecture slides and does not tell me what part of the telecommunication act you are confused with or need clarification on.

The History of the Present

It's always difficult to write the history of the present. However, if you were attempt to look at television today through the lenses used in this course, how would you describe it?  Take one example of a current trend in television and analyze it.  

Convergence Television (Last blog post due anytime before final exam)

Discuss how you see two of John Caldwell’s five elements of convergence television (outlined on page 46 of his essay) applying to the television you consume today. 

Webisodes and Clips (Last blog post due anytime before course final exam)

Please post a webisode or youtube video that's entertained you lately.  Don't worry about commenting much on it in introduction, but please use your 200 words to comment on a clip that another class member uploads.  Last blog post due anytime before course final exam.

Take-aways

Now that we're near the end of the semester, what have you learned or taken away from the study of Television History?  Feel free to focus on one topic or provide a short summary of various points. 

Effects of the Telecommunications Act of 1996

Discuss one or more of the major effects of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 on technology, content, or industrial policy.  Why do you think the FCC enforced more regulation on content at the same time that they ushered in less regulation on media corporations? What seems different in today's media environment concerning this/these issues? 

Every Single Week

According to Anna McCarthy, ABC’s president, Robert A Iger, said of Ellen that it “became a program about a character who was gay every single week, and… that was too much for people.”  McCarthy describes this perspective as maintaining the “fantasy of queer identity as something that can be switched on for special occasions” along with a “fear of a quotidian, ongoing lesbian life on television.”  Since Ellen’s coming out episode in 1997, a number of queer characters, generally secondary characters, have appeared on both broadcast and cable television.  Choose a program with a queer character from the 2000s that you are familiar with and examine whether or not that character’s relationship to their sexuality is truly serialized or only focused on during “special occasions,” whether to play up a particular stance on sexual identity or for eroticizing reasons.