Surveys the evolution of American television criticism, suggesting that, with the current attention to textual and contextual criticism, it is now in an important stage of refinement. (MS)

Argues that the symbolic annihilation of gay and lesbian youth exhibited by network television contributes to a dysfunctional isolation supported by the mutually reinforcing invisibility of homosexual adolescents on television and in the real world. Suggests that the spiral of silence also partially accounts for the inefficacy of oppositional…

Describes three varieties of metatelevision: audience awareness and intertextuality or medium-reflexive structure; metagenericism or genre-reflexive structure; and autodeconstruction and ilinx or text-reflexive narrative. Metatelevision relies on the ability of the viewers to recognize artifice. (NKA)

Examines theories of ideology as presented in Marxist-based critical studies; how these theories serve a strategic function within Marxist theory; and, by way of the work of Michel Foucault, the inadequacies of this discourse of "ideological" analysis. Proposes that critical studies of the media move toward the concept of…

Claims that most television research ignores the connections between its symbolic and economic influences. Argues for an integrated approach that views television as both a commodity and an artifact. Describes five analytical categories that researchers could use to provide information illuminating these relations to the public. (JD)

Analyzes research about the mass communication audience and describes a theoretical and methodological framework for further empirical studies. Discusses the (1) explanatory value of qualitative research; (2) social and cultural implications of the reception process, with special reference to television; and (3) applications and social relevance…

Examines the way one local television station covered the Persian Gulf War. Links coverage to the media routines of television newswork, showing how they act as coherent frames supportive of Gulf policy. Finds that the conflict frame placed anti-war protest in opposition to patriotism, and the control frame dealt with protest as a threat to social…

Considers the broad appeal of broadcast evangelism among conservative American Protestants although it is an ineffective and inefficient means of evangelization. Defines, describes, and examines the mythos as represented in the rhetoric of various well-known broadcast evangelists and their trade association, National Religious Broadcasters.…

Presents a qualitative methodology employing workshop sessions for studying audience assessment of the mass media's service to the public. Finds that viewers are capable of a sophisticated critique of television, and raises implications both for the politics of communication and for further reception studies. (MG)

Provides a theoretical framework for thinking, from a developmental perspective, about the role of television as a "dominant activity" of American childhood. (PD)

Argues that television programs must be polysemic to achieve popularity because of the wide variety of subcultures represented in the television audience. Analyzes two scenes from "Hart to Hart" to demonstrate the textual devices that bear the dominant ideology and those that resist it. (JD)