Televisuality

John T. Caldwell is a Distinguished Research Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of California–Los Angeles. He is the author of Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film and Television (2008), and the director of Freak Street to Goa, Rancho California (por favor) , and Land Hacks , which have been featured in Amsterdam, Paris, and Berlin, and at the Margaret Mead and Sundance Film Festivals. He was awarded the “Outstanding Pedagogy Award” by the Society of Cinema and Media Studies in 2018. 

Contents

Preface           

Part I The Problem of the Image

1          Excessive Style: The Crisis of Network Television

2          Unwanted Houseguests and Altered States: A Short History of Aesthetic Posturing           

3          Modes of Production: The Televisual Apparatus      

Part II The Aesthetic Economy of Televisuality

4          Boutique: Designer Television/Auteurist Spin Doctoring    

5          Franchiser: Digital Packaging/Industrial-Strength Semiotics           

6          Loss Leader: Event Status Programming/Exhibitionist History       

7          Trash TV: Thrift-Shop Video/More Is More 

8          Tabloid TV: Styled Live/Ontological Stripmall        

Part III Cultural Aspects of Televisuality

9          Televisual Audience: Interactive Pizza         

10        Televisual Economy: Recessionary Aesthetics         

11        Televisual Politics: Negotiating Race in the L.A. Rebellion 

Postscript: Intellectual Culture, Image, and Iconoclasm       

Acknowledgments

Notes  

Bibliography  

Index