I. Theoretical and Critical Foundations 1. The Context for Criticism: Television and Society 2. Foundations of Television Criticism 3. Critical Approaches to Television Discourse: An Overview 4. Writing Television Criticism II. Text-Centered Critical Approaches 5. Semiotic/Structural Criticism A Sample Study: John Fiske's "Popularity and Ideology: A Structuralist Reading ofDr. Who" 6. Genre Criticism A Sample Study: Matthew P. McAllister's "Recombinant Television Genres andDoogie Howser, M.D." 7. Rhetorical Criticism Two Sample Studies: Bonnie Dow's "Murphy Brown: Postfeminism Personified"; Sarah R. Stein's, "The 1984 Macintosh Ad: Cinematic Icons and Constitutive Rhetoric in the Launch of a New Machine" 8. Narrative Criticism A Sample Study: Bruce E. Gronbeck's "The Visual and Narrative Rhetoric of Redemption: American Culture Responds to 9/11" III. Producer-Centered Approaches 9. Auteur Criticism A Sample Study: Richard Campbell and Jimme L. Reeves's "Television Authors: The Case of Hugh Wilson" 10. Production Context Criticism A Sample Study: Elana Levine's "Toward a Paradigm for Media Production Research: Behind the Scenes atGeneralHospital" 11. Ideological Criticism A Sample Study: Mark P. Orbe's "Constructions of Reality on MTV'sThe Real World:An Analysis of the Restrictive Coding of Black Masculinity" IV. Reception-Centered Approaches 12. Reader-Oriented Criticism A Sample Study: Lawrence A. Wenner's "The Dream Team, Communicative Dirt, and the Marketing of Synergy: USA Basketball and Cross-Merchandising in Television Commercials" 13. Audience Ethnographic Criticism A Sample Study: Rona Tamiko Halualani and Leah R. Vande Berg's "'Asian or American': Meanings In, Through, and AroundAll-American Girl" 14. Cultural Criticism: General Approaches Two Sample Studies: Heather L. Hundley's "The Naturalization of Beer inCheers; Cathy Sandeen's "Success Defined by Television: The Value System Promoted byPM Magazine" 15. Cultural Criticism: Mythic, Feminist, and Psychoanalytic Approaches Three Sample Studies: Susan Owen's "Vampires, Postmodernity and Postfeminism:Buffy the Vampire Slayer"; Robert Westerfelhaus and Teresa A. Combs's "Criminal Investigations and Spiritual Quests: TheX-Filesas an Example of Hegemonic Concordance in Mass-Mediated Society"; Sonia Livingstone and Tamar Liebes's "Where Have All the Mothers Gone? Soap Opera's Replaying of the Oedipal Story" V. Ethics and the Critical Approach