Courses at NYU » Juan Monroy » Multichannel Television

Multichannel Television

The advent of technological innovations in the distribution of television have significantly impacted the role television has played in the US since the era of network dominance in the 1960s and 1970s. This course will examine multichannel television not only as a technological development but also as an agent for television aesthetics, for the economics of global media industries, and for the dynamic relationship between television, culture, and politics in the US.

Fall 2006

Department of Cinema Studies
H72.0511
New York University
Wednesdays, 6:00 – 10:00 PM
721 Broadway, Room 651

Instructor

Juan Monroy

Mailbox: 721 Broadway, 6th Floor
Internet: juanomatic@nyu.edu; http://www.nyu.edu/courses/monroy/

Texts

Megan Mullen. The Rise of Cable Programming in the United States: Revolution or Evolution? Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003. ISBN 0292752733

The Rise of Cable Programming is available at the NYU Main Bookstore, 18 Washington Place, for $22.95. A copy of this book is also on reserve at Bobst Library. It may be possible to find used copies.

Additional readings are available as PDF documents on Blackboard (see Course Website and Blackboard below).

Course Website and Blackboard

This course will make heavy use of Blackboard. Please be sure to check it regularly for course announcements, assignment guidelines, required and optional readings, supplemental screenings, presentations from lectures, and your own personal gradebook and attendance records. You may also use Blackboard to submit assignments electronically (see "Submitting Assignments Electronically" below).

To access Blackboard, point your browser to http://classes.nyu.edu, and log in using your NYU Net ID and password. You will find our course under "Courses You Are Taking."

Stay Informed

To stay current on the economics of multichannel television you should subscribe to NATPE Daily Lead.

In addition, you should regularly research the following industry trades, using ProQuest or Lexis Nexis:

Multichannel News
Broadcasting and Cable
C21 Media

Variety
Hollywood Reporter

Wall Street Journal
New York Times
Los Angeles Times

Office Hours

Please feel free to stop by my weekly office hours on Wednesday, 2:00–4:00 PM, in the Tisch Common Room (721 Broadway, Ground Floor). If this time does not work for you, please speak with or email me to make an appointment.

Requirements

Weekly attendance

Attendance at all class session is of vast importance, and thus there are no "excused" absences. Our sessions involve intensive group discussion of assigned readings and in-class screenings, which can only occur in class.

If you miss more than two class sessions, those absences will count against your final grade. Missing more than 30 minutes of class, either due to late arrival or early departure will count as one absence.

If you experience a medical, family, or financial catastrophe during the semester, immediately contact your academic advisor, Ventura Castro at Cinema Studies, and me so we can all work together in helping you complete your work through an exceptionally difficult time. Note: coursework for other classes, including film shoots or other crew production work, does not qualify as "exceptionally difficult" circumstances.

Reading

Complete each week's readings before our class session. The lectures will cover material that assumes you have completed that week's assigned readings. I invite you to re-read certain chapters or articles after the class to reinforce the lecture and screenings from our sessions.

Writing

All written work must be submitted on time. Late work will not be accepted, except for "exceptionally difficult" circumstances outlined above. You must also complete every assignment in order to receive a grade for this class.

In addition, all written work must be formatted according to Guidelines for Written Work. In general, your writing must be clear, professional in tone, elaborate any point you make, prove all original assertions, and cite your source for any information that is not "common knowledge." Please print your paper and proofread it for grammar and typographic errors before submitting it. Excessive errors will result in a lower grade. Also, please do not submit assignments via email attachments (see Submitting Files Electronically below).

I police plagiarism vigilantly. Any student who hands in work not their own will receive a failing grade for the course.

Assignments

Timeline of Historical Events

» Due: September 20, 4:00 PM

On Blackboard, you will find thirty important events in US and World history that have impacted US television programming, the broadcast industries, and American culture. Arrange those events on a timeline and submit that timeline.

Ungraded Historical Narrative

» Due: September 27, 4:00 PM

Select one of the events listed on the Timeline Assignment page. Write a four-hundred word summary of that event and its relevance for the US television industries.

You must consult at least six independent sources. Three must be primary sources and three must be secondary sources. None of these can be standalone Internet sources.

You must cite any sources according to the specifications of the Modern Language Association or the Chicago Manual of Style.

This assignment will not receive a grade. Instead, I will offer comments on your writing and your research methods. However, you must complete this assignment in order to receive a grade for this class.

Midterm Exam

» October 25

In the eighth week, you will take an in-class midterm exam. It will consist of three parts. The first part will ask you to identify terms and describe their greater relationship to network and multichannel television. The second part is a series of short essay questions, asking you to discuss a number of issues in the television industries. The third part is a long essay, where you will compose well-argued essay on a matrix of factors affecting television programming in a multichannel environment. In the weeks prior to the exam, I will distribute some possibilities for the long essay.

I will post study questions each week on Blackboard to help you prepare.

Research Paper Proposal and Bibliography

» Due: November 1, 4:00 PM

Your final paper will examine an historical case study occurring after 1970 in multichannel television within an aesthetic, cultural, or industrial framework. You should avoid topics occuring after 2001.

You will do a substantial amount of outside historical research to complete this paper. You should select your final paper topic and discuss it with me as soon as possible but no later than Week 7.

As you work on your final paper, you will prepare a two-page proposal of your research paper. It should also include a "barebones" outline with the topics you will address. Your proposal should include a bibliography with a minimum of twelve independent primary and secondary sources, none of which can be standalone Internet sources. I will return it within a week to provide comments and suggestions.

Group Presentations on Media Conglomeration

» November 29

No later than November 1, five groups of students will form and be assigned a media conglomerate, such as Time Warner, Disney, Viacom, News Corp, and NBC Universal.

On November29, each group will make a twenty-minute multimedia presentation with on each conglomerate's media and entertainment holdings. Those holdings should include content properties, broadcast and cable television networks, broadcast and satellite radio, cable MSOs, direct broadcast satellites, Internet portals, telecommunications providers, and partnerships with other media producers, distributors, and exhibitors.

Research Paper

» Due: December 18, 12:00 PM

At the end of the semester, you will submit a 2500-word report of the research you completed on your historical case study. Your analysis must examine your case study within an aesthetic, cultural or industrial framework. (Remember, you case study must have occurred between 1970 and 2001.)

Some possible topics for your case study include:

technology and television economics
race representation in cable television
multichannel television and a social movement
media conglomerate
quality television and branding
format programming for global television markets
cable news and political coverage
technology of television outside of the home
television style and cable network branding

Sending Electronic Files

Unless I have given you specific permission, please send no email attachments. Receiving email attachments can threaten the storage capacity of my email account.

To submit your assignments electronically, please use the Complete Assignment feature in Blackboard. If you wish to send other files, please use the Drop Box feature in Blackboard and alert me by email that you have done so.

In addition, avoid sending files in proprietary formats such as Microsoft Word or Powerpoint. Instead, please use an open format such as Portable Document Format (PDF). For more information see, We Can Put an End to Word Attachments.

Evaluation

Assignment	Weight	Due Date
Historical Timeline	15%	September 20
Historical Narrative	0%	September 27
Midterm Exam	30%	October 25
Research Outline	10%	November 1
Group Presentation	15%	November 29
Research Paper	30%	December 18

You must submit every assignment on-time in order to receive a grade for this course. If you do not, you risk receiving a failing grade.

Regular attendance means simply that: you must regularly attend this class. Your attendance your final grade will be reduced or increased as follows:

Times in Class   	
---------------  x  Final Grade
      12

Course Schedule

Sep 06 » Introduction to Multichannel Television

Readings: Megan Mullen, The Rise of Cable Programming in the United States, "Cable History and Television Theory," 1–28.
Reference: Susan Tyler Eastman and Douglas A. Ferguson, "Cable System and Satellite Programming," Media Programming: Strategies and Practices, 7th ed. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 2006. 242–267.

Sep 13 » Local and Global: CATV and Satellite

Readings: Megan Mullen, The Rise of Cable Programming in the United States, "Community Antenna Television, 1948–1968," 29–63.; Lisa Parks, "Satellite Spectacular: Our World and the Fantasy of Global Presence," Cultures in Orbit: Satellites and the Televisual. Durham: Duke University Press, 2005. 21–45.; Brian Winston, "The Satellite Era," Media Technology and Society: A History: From Telegraph to the Internet New York: Routledge, 1998. 295–304
Outside Screening: Excerpt from Our World on CBC
In-Class Screenings: Excerpt from Our World (1967); Behind the Scenes of the Telstar Satellite (1962)

Sep 20 » Blue Sky

Readings: Megan Mullen, The Rise of Cable Programming in the United States, "New Directions for Cable, 1968–1975," 64–93.; Thomas Streeter, "Blue Skies and Strange Bedfellows: The Discourse of Cable Television," The Revolution Wasn't Televised: Sixties Television and Social Conflict. Ed. Lynn Spigel and Michael Curtin. New York: Routledge, 1997. 221–244.
In-Class Screenings: TVTV: The World's Largest TV Studio (TVTV, 1972); VTR: Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV, 1975); TV Party (Monday Wednesday Friday Video Club, 1985)

Sep 27 » Pay to Play

Readings: Megan Mullen, The Rise of Cable Programming in the United States, "The Rise of Satellite Cable, 1975–1980," 94–127.; Michele Hilmes, "Pay Television: Breaking the Broadcast Bottleneck," in Hollywood in the Age of Television, ed. Tino Balio. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990. 297–318.
In-Class Screenings: Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (Alexandra Cassavetes, 2004)

Oct 04 » Cable TV is Still TV

Readings: Megan Mullen, The Rise of Cable Programming in the United States, Chapter 5, "Broadcast Television's Resource Starved Imitator, 1980–1995, Part 1," 128–153.
In-Class Screenings: Broadcast Network and CNN Coverage of November 1988 Election Returns (1988)

Oct 11 » Televisuality and Other Innovations of the 1980s

Readings: Megan Mullen, The Rise of Cable Programming in the United States, "A Scheduling and Programming Innovator, 1980–1995, Part 2," 154–184.; John T. Caldwell. "Excessive Style: The Crisis of Network Television." Televisuality: Style, Crisis, and Authority in American Television. New Brunswick, N.J., 1995. 3–31.
In-Class Screenings: Video Weavings (Stephen Beck, 1976); Five-Minute Romp Through the IP (Dan Sandin, 1973); Triangle in Front of Square in Front of Circle... (Dan Sandin, 1973); Video-Taping (Ernie Gusella, 1974); Exquisite Corpse (Ernie Gusella, 1978); Einstine (Eric Siegel, 1978); General Motors (Phil Morton, 1976); Select music videos (1978–1989); Miami Vice, "Brother's Keeper" (1984); Max Headroom, "Blipverts" (1986)

Oct 18 » Deregulation I: Fowler's Toaster

Readings: Victor E. Ferrell, Jr., "The Impact of Television Deregulation on Private and Public Interests," Journal of Communication 39.1 (Winter 1989). 8–38.; Fred J. Macdonald, "Towards a New Video Order: The 1980s," One Nation Under Television: The Rise and Decline of Network TV. New York: Pantheon, 1990.
In-Class Screenings: G.I. Joe, "The Pyramid of Darkness" (1982); The Transformers, "The Secret of Omega Supreme" (1985); Bill Boddy Reminds The FCC of the 1934 Communications Act (Paper Tiger, 1983)

Oct 25 » Midterm Exam

Nov 01 » Network Branding and Narrowcasting

Readings: Jane Feuer, "Yuppie Envy and Yuppie Guilt: LA Law and Thirtysomething," Seeing through the Eighties: Television and Reaganism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995. 60–81; Joseph Turow, "Mapping a Fractured Society," Breaking Up America: Advertisers and the New Media World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. 55–89
In-Class Screenings: Twin Peaks, Episode 1 (1990); Northern Exposure, "Brains, Know How, and Native Intelligence" (1990); L.A. Law, "L.A. Lawless" (1992)

Nov 08 » The Case of Fox

Readings: Laurie Thomas and Barry R. Litman, "Fox Broadcasting Company, Why Now? An Economic Study of the Rise of the Fourth Broadcast 'Network,'" Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 35.2 (1991): 139–157.; Alisa Hayley Perren, "Finding a Niche with The Simpsons, January 1990–February 1992," Deregulation, Integration and a New Era of Media Conglomerates: The Case of Fox, 1985-1995 (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas, 2004), 181–234.
In Class Screenings: Married... with Children, "The Camping Show" (1988); In Living Color, "Episode 2.1" (1990); The Simpsons, "Krusty Gets Kancelled" (1992); Roc, "Nightmare on Emerson's Street" (1992)

Nov 15 » Deregulation II: The Telecommunications Act

Readings: Robert McChesney, "US Media at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century," Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999. 15–77.; John Allen Hendricks, "The Telecommunications Act of 1996: Its Impact of the Electronic Media of the 21st Century," Communication and the Law (June 1999): 39–53.; Patricia Aufderheide, "The Missing Space of Satellite TV," The Daily Planet: A Critic on The Capitalist Culture Beat. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000.
In-Class Screenings: No Carrier: Accessing the Telecom Act of 1996 (Paper Tiger, 1996); Free Speech for Sale: A Bill Moyers Special (1999)

Nov 29 » Conglomeration and Convergence

Readings: Jennifer Holt. "Vertical Vision: Deregulation, Industrial Economy and Prime-time Design." Quality Popular Television. Ed. Mark Jancovich and James Lyons. London: BFI, 2003. 11–31.; Michael Curtin and Thomas Streeter. "Media." Culture Works: The Political Economy of Culture. Ed. Richard Maxwell. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. 225–250.; Janet Wasko, "The Disney Empire," Understanding Disney: The Manufacture of Fantasy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 28–69
In-Class Screenings: Roseanne, "We're Going to Disney World" (1996); Disney Channel programming

Dec 06 » Globalization

Readings: Edward S. Herman and Robert McChesney, "Media Globalization: The US Experience and Influence," The Global Media: The New Missionaries of Corporate Capitalism Washington: Cassell, 1997.; Chris Barker, "Global Television and Global Culture," Television, Globalization, and Cultural Identities. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1999. 33–59.; Serra Tinic. "Going Global: International Coproduction and the Disappearing Domestic Audience in Canada." Quality Popular Television. Ed. Mark Jancovich and James Lyons. London: BFI, 2003. 65-87.
In-Class Screenings: Format Programming; Human Trafficking (Christian Duguay, 2005); Sex Traffic (David Yates, Canada/UK, 2004); Crusades: The Crescent and the Cross (Stuart Elliot and Mark Lewis, UK, 2005)

Dec 13 » Conclusion: DTV, VOD, and New Directions

Readings: John Caldwell, "Convergence Television: Aggregating Form and Repurposing Content in the Culture of Conglomeration," Television after TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition, ed. Lynn Spigel and Jan Olsson (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004) 41–74.; Philip Swann, "Interactive TV: Are You Ready?" TV dot Com: The Future of Interactive Television. New York: TV Books, 2000. 7–22.; Dossier including emerging distribution technology as reported in current trades.

Pedagogical Function

The course will provide students with a cultural history of multichannel television since the late 1960s and how technologies such as cable and satellite have impacted the aesthetics and economics of television. Moreover, the course pays close attention to salient cultural moments (such as Reaganism), shifts in communications policy (including deregulation), and the cultural implications (such as media consolidation and cultural imperialism) necessary to understand multichannel television.

While the course is centered on technology, the principal aim is to dispell the notion of technological determinism that plagues the thinking of many undergraduate students. It is intended to serve as a template for cultural historical study this is vital for an undergraduate liberal arts education.

This Tier II course or undergraduate seminar supplements the introductory Television History and Culture course available through our department as well as the various introductory television courses taught in Film and Television and the Culture and Communication departments. It would also suit students from those departments. While it builds on these kinds of courses, it is also designed for students who have not taken such a course.

Description of Method

This course defines multichannel television similar to how Michael Curtin defines "neo-networks." Curtin argues that the changes in the global capitalism since the 1970s has led to a decentralizaton and a move towards more local and flexible forms of cultural production. Television is no longer the singular, national experience it once was during the so-called "high network era." It is instead a global system that supports local forms ("On Edge" 187–188).

Multichannel television is thus determined by a number of historical factors, including the grassroots action of Community Antenna television, the utopian visions of cable television in the 1970s, the liberalization of trade in the 1980s, the competition and collusion between satellite cable and network broadcasting, the deregulation of communication industries of the 1980s and 1990s, and the consolidation of ownership and the rise of media conglomerates of the last two decades. In short, the course will outline a matrix of determinants that will allow students to consider the various factors involved in shaping television since the "high network era."

To achieve these goals, the class will focus primarily on lectures and readings. I realize this is a departure from most cinema studies courses, where the focus is on media texts. However, focusing primarily on media texts does not allow for a focused discussion on the salient historical determinants necessary to understanding multichannel television since these are generated by the industry, global capitalism, and regulatory bodies. Moreover, the effects on television programming may not occur until years later and in ways not apparent through simply screening a readily available program or series. In the lectures, I will present a vast array of primary historical documents relevant to the television industries and to the specific cultural moment. Also, the readings I have selected similarly highlight the economic, cultural, and social determinants of multichannel television.

The challenge of this course will be to distinguish it from other courses in communication studies departments. In addition to the lectures and readings, there will be screenings of television programs produced throughout the last thirty-five years that reflect the influences of multichannel television. The focus will be on the changing style and nature of television programming. For example, in the week on the televisuality and the innovations of cable television, I will screen network programs such as Miami Vice and Max Headroom, which reflect the conventional wisdom that the style of MTV heavily influenced the form of network television in the 1980s. However, for other weeks, such as the one on the utopian "Blue Sky" discourse of cable television, I will show examples of 1970s "guerrilla television" that reflects some of the excitement towards cable television during this period.

The assignments aim to challenge students to critically think about cultural history with regards to television. The first assignment will orient students with historical events relevant to television. Too often undergraduate students do not have a very precise sense of history, and this assignment seeks to correct that for our class. The second assignment is an opportunity for me to evaluate their writing at an early stage. The midterm exam tests students on their comprehension of the primary textbook, the changes in the television industry since the advent of multichannel television, and the specifics of this historical era before 1990. Their final paper will allow students to continue working on their skills for research and writing an original cultural historical paper on the media industries. I will also closely shepherd the students as they research and write their paper.

If the course is accepted as a seminar, I would change the in-class midterm exam to a take-home essy exam. Also, the last two weeks would be reserved for in-class presentations, and I would delete the concluding class on "new directions," consolidating that material into the week on convergence.

Supplemental Bibliography

Richard Adler and Walter S. Baer, eds. The Electronic Box Office: Humanities and the Arts on the Cable. New York: Praeger, 1975.
Theodor W. Adorno. The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture. London: Routledge, 1991.
Patricia Aufderheide. The Daily Planet: A Critic on the Capitalist Culture Beat. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000.
Ben H. Bagdikian. The Media Monopoly, 5th ed. Boston: Beacon, 1997.
Erik Barnouw. Tube of Plenty: The Evolution of American Television, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Erik Barnouw et al. Conglomerates and the Media. New York: New Press, 1999.
Browne, Nick. "The Political Economy of the Television (Super) Text." In Television: The Critical View, 4th ed. Edited by Horace Newcomb. 585–599.
John Caldwell. Televisuality: Crisis and Authority in American Television. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1995.
James Carey. Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society. New York: Routledge, 1989.
R. Serge Denisoff. Inside MTV. New Brunswick: Transaction, 1988.
Michael Curtin. "On Edge: Culture Industries in the Neo-Network Era." In Making & Selling Culture. Richard Ohmann, ed. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1996. 181–202.
Simon Frith. "Video Pop: Picking up the Pieces." In Facing the Music, ed. Simon Frith. New York: Pantheon, 1989. 88–130.
Lawrence Grossberg. "The Media Economy of Rock Culture: Cinema, Postmodernity, and Authenticity." In Sound and Vision: The Music Video Reader, ed. Simon Frith, Andrew Goodwin, Lawrence Grossberg. New York: Routledge, 1993. 185–219.
Edward S. Herman and Robert McChesney. The Global Media: The New Missionaries of Corporate Capitalism. Washington: Cassell, 1997
Michele Hilmes. Hollywood and Broadcasting: From Radio to Cable Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990.
———. Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2002.
Nicholas Johnson. "CATV: Promise and Peril." Saturday Review, November 11, 1967. 87–88.
Laura Linder. Public Access Television: America's Electronic Soapbox. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1999.
Barry Litman. "Network Oligopoly Power: An Economic Analysis." In Hollywood in the Age of Television. Tino Balio, ed. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990. 115–144.
Robert McChesney. Corporate Mediaa and the Threat to Democracy. New York: Seven Stories Press, 1997.
Marshall McLuhan. Understanding Media. New York: Mentor, 1964.
Patrick Parsons. "The Evolution of the Cable-Satellite Distribution System." Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 47.1 (March 1, 2003): 1–17.
Patrick Parsons and Robert Frieden. The Cable and Satellite Television Industries. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.
Martin H. Seiden. An Economic Analysis of Community Antenna Television Systems and the Television Broadcasting Industry. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1965.
Herbert Schiller. Culture Inc.: The Corporate Takeover of Public Expression. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Michael Shamberg. Guerrila Television. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1971.
Sloan Commission on Cable Communications. On the Cable: The Television of Abundance. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972.
Lynn Spigel and Jan Olsson. Television after TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004.
Thomas Streeter. Selling the Air: A Critique of the Policy of Commercial Broadcasting in the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Joseph Turow. Breaking Up America: Advertisers and the New Media World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
James Walker and Douglas Ferguson. The Broadcast Television Industry. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.
Janet Wasko. "The Wired Nation and the Electronic Superhighway: Cable Television, Pay Cable, Pay-Per-View, and Beyond." Hollywood in the Information Age. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995. 71–112.
David Waterman. "The Failure of Cultural Programming on Cable TV: An Economic Interpretation." Journal of Communication 36.3 (Summer 1986): 92–107.
Raymond Williams. Television: Technology and Cultural Form, Routledge Classics ed. London: Routledge, 2003.