Television & American Culture
Television and American Culture This course explores American life in the last seven decades through an analysis of our central medium: television. Spanning a history of television from its origins in radio to today’s digital convergence via YouTube and Netflix, we will consider television's role in both representing and constituting American society through a variety of approaches, including: the economics of the television industry, television's role within American democracy, the formal attributes of various television genres, television as a site of gender and racial identity formation, television's role in everyday life, the medium's technological transformations, and television as a site of global cultural exchange.
Television and American Culture This course explores American life in the last seven decades through an analysis of our central medium: television. Spanning a history of television from its origins in radio to today’s digital convergence via YouTube and Netflix, we will consider television's role in both representing and constituting American society through a variety of approaches, including: the economics of the television industry, television's role within American democracy, the formal attributes of various television genres, television as a site of gender and racial identity formation, te …Read more
Jason is such a great prof and is very clearly passionate about the material. Grading system was a little confusing IMO but def gave students a lot of flexibility. Fair amount of essays but he is a very fair grader- if you are interested in television at all definitely take this course it's really cool!
Jason is a very understanding, personable, and passionate professor! The readings are very manageable, and while the screenings are always long, it's (usually) pretty good stuff. The only thing is that I was quite annoyed by the engagement system with Discord and whatnot, I feel like there is definitely a better way to get students to discuss screening material.
Jason is really knowledgable about the subject material and I really appreciated his system of choosing how much work you put in (even if it is kind of confusing.) The thing that frustrated me the most about the class is how he would pack the screenings to the whole three hours
I was extremely disappointed in this class. Although the title of the course is entriguing, the content taught in the class is completely useless and Mittel is a harsh grader and not forgiving to students who may not be film majors. There is consistent writing to be done in this class and screenings once a week.
Professor Mittell is an amazing teacher. It is very clear that he is super knowledgeable and passionate about television. Even though the class has a lot of reading, the lectures are much more like discussions than actual lectures. Professor Mittell's grading system is a bit complicated, but it allows students to pick and choose which assignments they want to do. Every assignment is graded pass/fail, so as long as you put some effort into the assignments, you will do fine. All of the materials for the screenings are also provided online so if you miss a screening it is not the end of the world. I would Highly recommend this class to anyone who loves television and wants to engage more with the medium.
Professor Mittell is an amazing teacher. It is very clear that he is super knowledgeable and passionate about television. Even though the class has a lot of reading, the lectures are much more like discussions than actual lectures. Professor Mittell's grading system is a bit complicated, but it allows students to pick and choose whic …Read more
Very interesting course material, learning about many things I daily experience but never really delve into. Screening were always interesting and I liked the way he structured them. Engagement activity work style lead to low-medium weekly load.