HNAR-211: On-Demand Culture

This is a moment when the very idea of 'television' is undergoing a significant shift. When you can watch shows on your cell phone anywhere or on your movie-sized TV screen at home, "TV" has become a pretty all-inclusive cultural site. When you can stream original shows by Netflix, Amazon or Hulu all at once in full seasons, they are more than simply TV series as we've known them in the past. They're becoming a distinct genre all their own, whose conventions and aesthetics we're just starting to figure out." Whether we are binge-watching television shows, television has co-opted cultural conversation and provocative content. And while there used to be a time when unpopular or taboo subjects, settings or perspectives could only be found at the movies, these days there is no subject matter off limits to TV. A positive comedy about an atheist, multiracial, LGBTA, off-the-grid, anarchist free-love family would be no problem these days for any TV network The medium has evolved into the premier form of visual narrative art. This seminar will embrace the "new" context of television's dispersed screens and digital culture. The class will give a selected overview of the history of the medium, with a primary focus on the evolution of "television" from 3 broadcast networks, to a multichannel universe, to today's personally driven multi-platform, tv-everywhere experience. Specifically, we will dissect the ways that new technology has changed how television is distributed, consumed, measured and produced; and explore several ways the medium will evolve over the decade ahead. By the end of this course, students should have a strong working knowledge of how the television business evolved to its current state, and some idea of where it might head.