ABSTRACT

Updated to include information and discussion on new technologies and new critical ideas, Jonathon Bignell and Jeremy Orlebar present this excellent critical introduction to the practice and theory of television, which relates media studies theories and critical approaches to practical television programme making.

Featuring advice on many aspects of programme making, from initial ideas to post-production processes, and includes profiles to give insight into how people in the industry, from graduates to executives, think about their work.

With debates on what is meant by ‘quality’ television, key discussions include:

  • the state of television today
  • how television in made and how production is organized
  • how new technology and the changing structure of the television industry will lead the medium in new directions
  • the rise of new formats such as Reality TV
  • how drama, sport and music television can be understood.

 

part |2 pages

Part 1: Television today

chapter 1|5 pages

Media literacy

chapter 2|4 pages

The political landscape

chapter 3|7 pages

Public service broadcasting (PSB)

chapter 4|10 pages

The widescreen world of digital technology

part |2 pages

Part II Working in television

chapter 5|8 pages

Production jobs

chapter 6|4 pages

Technical jobs

chapter 7|7 pages

Working in a television studio

chapter 8|7 pages

Working in postproduction

part |2 pages

Part III Television theory

chapter 9|14 pages

Genre and format

chapter 10|17 pages

Schedule and audience

chapter 11|16 pages

Approaches to narrative

chapter 12|13 pages

Factual television: tabloid TV?

chapter 13|15 pages

Drama and ‘quality’

chapter 14|15 pages

News and current affairs: the public sphere

chapter 15|9 pages

Sport

chapter 16|13 pages

Music video and postmodernism

part |2 pages

Part 4: Idea to image

chapter 17|13 pages

Factual programming

chapter 18|20 pages

Fictional television

chapter 19|13 pages

Practical programme making

chapter 20|13 pages

Television framing and shot size

chapter 21|12 pages

Television studio

chapter 22|10 pages

Postproduction

chapter 23|13 pages

Television compliance

part |2 pages

Part V Future shock

chapter 24|23 pages

Overview

chapter 25|9 pages

Programme making in the future