ABSTRACT
In drama, the writer has traditionally had a higher profile than either the director or the producer. Writers are considered as uniquely creative originators of programmes, whose work is then realised by the production team. This has two consequences: first that judging the quality of drama often means judging the quality of the writing rather than the other aspects of a production. Second, as a result, it means that the criteria of quality have a lot in common with the criteria often used in literary criticism, where there is an emphasis on structure, a ‘personal vision’ or style, and the expectation that a drama has something to say about humanity or society. Academic thinking has moved away from these literary kinds of
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makes TV possible, and also the role of the audience in making meaning from what writers and other creative personnel have produced. Because of these critiques of authorship, academic studies of television have focused less on drama than other genres in the last couple of decades because of the concern that studying drama, with its literary associations with authorship, will entail the celebration of authors.
