The course will interrogate advanced topics in Television Studies, drawn from a variety of geographical areas, historical periods, analytical approaches and theoretical frameworks. Study will contrast contemporary paradigms, practices and methods at the cutting edge of the field with more foundational critical explorations of the televisual medium.

10 weeks, 3 hours lectures/seminars (30 teaching hours in total)

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Short essay - 40%, maximum 2,000 words, to be submitted halfway through the course.

Long essay - 60%, maximum 3,000 words, to be submitted at the end of the semester.

The course aims to:

■ Explore the concept of television specificity in relation to key movements in the development of Television Studies (e.g. genres, modes of address, forms of engagement and representational issues)  

■ Provide opportunities for exploring the historical development of television as a medium (e.g. technological, geographical, social and industrial developments)

■ Cultivate the critical skills needed to analyse and critique televisual texts (e.g. close reading, critical analysis, modes of spectatorship and relations of viewing)

■ Analyse the interrelatedness of theoretical, historical and critical approaches to Television Studies

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Analyse key contributions to the development of Television Studies, with reference to relevant televisual texts

■ Outline key historical developments of television as a medium, supported by relevant evidential sources

■ Apply appropriate critical skills and research methodologies in critiquing and analysing televisual texts

■ Conduct guided research in Television Studies and communicate their findings orally and in writing within appropriate academic forms

■ Construct coherent, lucid and accurate written and verbal responses to key questions within the field of Television Studies

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.