A Critical Forum on Media and Culture
A Critical Forum on Media and Culture
The Boob Tube
by: Heather Hendershot / Queens College CUNY
“It’s like Jell-O on springs!” Jack Lemmon declares as he ogles Marilyn Monroe’s fleshy derriere in Some Like It Hot (1959). Lemmon himself is in drag, and watching this film recently for the umpteenth time, I am struck again by its strange combination of heterosexual prurience and queer exuberance. I am also struck by Monroe’s plumpness.
Taming the Global on Italian Television
by: Michela Ardizzoni / Indiana University
The famous Dutch television producer, Endemol, will probably go down in the annals of history as a catalyst of standardized television programming across the globe.
Laguna Beach
by: Anna McCarthy / New York University
“Oh my God, didn’t Morgan get pretty?” This was a friend’s response when I asked if he’d seen Laguna Beach, a new MTV reality show billed as “the real Orange County.” He wasn’t actually commenting on a character’s looks. Rather, he was parodying its signature mode of dialogue…
Race and Reality…TV
by: L. S. Kim / University of California, Santa Cruz; UCLA
A prime-time line-up without reality television programming seems a lifetime ago.
Casting Shirley Partridge: The Reality TV Audience as Talent Scout
by: Mary Beth Haralovich / University of Arizona
Reality television is developing a new force on the creative side of television production as the TV audience joins television executives in the creation of entertainment programming.
Affective Economics 101
by: Henry Jenkins / Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Apprentice How many different ways is The Apprentice involved in branding? 1. The Brand as Protagonist: The Donald casts himself and his corporate empire as the series protagonists. In the Sept.23 episode, the Donald ascends down the escalator to a trumpet fanfare and then directs our eyes upwards to enjoy the […]
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