Xueping Zhong
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824834173
- eISBN:
- 9780824870010
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824834173.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This introductory chapter first highlights the “fate” of Chinese mainstream culture and debates about it in the West, with a brief observation about their own sociocultural particularities. It argues ...
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This introductory chapter first highlights the “fate” of Chinese mainstream culture and debates about it in the West, with a brief observation about their own sociocultural particularities. It argues for a need to move beyond the existing mode of state–market dichotomy in order to arrive at a historically informed understanding of the production of contemporary Chinese mainstream culture in general and television drama in particular. The chapter then sets out four seemingly straightforward terms—television set (dianshi ji), television industry (dianshi chanye), television culture (dianshi wenhua), and television drama (dianshiju)—in order to both focus and expand the discussion regarding the relationship between state and market forces and cultural production. These four terms indicate television’s role among “global” and globalizing technology-aided cultural phenomena, but they are also socially and historically particular to modern and contemporary Chinese history, rich with specific implications. They illustrate the complex relationship between the state and the collective imaginary of “modernization” shared by different social groups, and between the state and different players who have participated in the development of television culture as mainstream popular culture in ways specific to the social characteristics in contemporary China.Less
This introductory chapter first highlights the “fate” of Chinese mainstream culture and debates about it in the West, with a brief observation about their own sociocultural particularities. It argues for a need to move beyond the existing mode of state–market dichotomy in order to arrive at a historically informed understanding of the production of contemporary Chinese mainstream culture in general and television drama in particular. The chapter then sets out four seemingly straightforward terms—television set (dianshi ji), television industry (dianshi chanye), television culture (dianshi wenhua), and television drama (dianshiju)—in order to both focus and expand the discussion regarding the relationship between state and market forces and cultural production. These four terms indicate television’s role among “global” and globalizing technology-aided cultural phenomena, but they are also socially and historically particular to modern and contemporary Chinese history, rich with specific implications. They illustrate the complex relationship between the state and the collective imaginary of “modernization” shared by different social groups, and between the state and different players who have participated in the development of television culture as mainstream popular culture in ways specific to the social characteristics in contemporary China.
Jonathan Bignell
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719064203
- eISBN:
- 9781781701867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719064203.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter discusses the broadcasting contexts where Beckett's television plays were made and shown. It examines some archival sources, which places the scheduling and promotional contexts of the ...
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This chapter discusses the broadcasting contexts where Beckett's television plays were made and shown. It examines some archival sources, which places the scheduling and promotional contexts of the plays in comparison with and in contrast to other television drama forms. It shows that Beckett's dramas for British television were screened in arts programming slots on BBC2, instead of the customary scheduling positions and drama series of the time. It also mentions BBC radio, which was committed to broadcasting original experimental drama in the Third Programme (now known as Radio 3), including Beckett's radio plays. This chapter also shows that his plays work both with and against television cultures, and draw attention to their distinctiveness.Less
This chapter discusses the broadcasting contexts where Beckett's television plays were made and shown. It examines some archival sources, which places the scheduling and promotional contexts of the plays in comparison with and in contrast to other television drama forms. It shows that Beckett's dramas for British television were screened in arts programming slots on BBC2, instead of the customary scheduling positions and drama series of the time. It also mentions BBC radio, which was committed to broadcasting original experimental drama in the Third Programme (now known as Radio 3), including Beckett's radio plays. This chapter also shows that his plays work both with and against television cultures, and draw attention to their distinctiveness.
Robin Nelson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719073106
- eISBN:
- 9781781701119
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719073106.003.0011
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
The study reviews the output of ‘quality’ TV drama between the mid-1990s and 2006 and assesses the ‘state of play’ in television cultures at a time of significant technological and market change. It ...
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The study reviews the output of ‘quality’ TV drama between the mid-1990s and 2006 and assesses the ‘state of play’ in television cultures at a time of significant technological and market change. It aims to offer a measured, self-reflexive, assessment of ‘high-end’ drama on contemporary television, offering insights into TV drama as a cultural form, both noting how provision has changed and sketching the force-field of influences which has given rise to new product. It reveals a mix of cultural studies and arts approaches, setting analyses of compositional principles of specific TV dramas against a broader context of production and, to some extent, reception. New accounts of the pleasures of television are required and these are considered in respect of the specificity of the medium. Though not uncritical of contemporary television culture, this study expounds the view that the current state of play in TV drama gives perhaps more ground for hope than for despair.Less
The study reviews the output of ‘quality’ TV drama between the mid-1990s and 2006 and assesses the ‘state of play’ in television cultures at a time of significant technological and market change. It aims to offer a measured, self-reflexive, assessment of ‘high-end’ drama on contemporary television, offering insights into TV drama as a cultural form, both noting how provision has changed and sketching the force-field of influences which has given rise to new product. It reveals a mix of cultural studies and arts approaches, setting analyses of compositional principles of specific TV dramas against a broader context of production and, to some extent, reception. New accounts of the pleasures of television are required and these are considered in respect of the specificity of the medium. Though not uncritical of contemporary television culture, this study expounds the view that the current state of play in TV drama gives perhaps more ground for hope than for despair.
Bruno Maçães
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- December 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197528341
- eISBN:
- 9780197539842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197528341.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter details how television became the first modern technology to be entirely shaped by American culture and American ambition, and to take the American way of life to its fullest ...
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This chapter details how television became the first modern technology to be entirely shaped by American culture and American ambition, and to take the American way of life to its fullest development. In the beginning, the new medium was literally the product of American power, a peacetime application of wartime technology used against German submarines and the Japanese navy. Later, the connection would seem less obvious, but only at first. As the mass medium of choice during the decades when the United States conquered the planet, television quickly became synonymous with an American future of material and spiritual progress. They were a window into America, but a window displaying the American dream in all its glory, a transplant of the American life energy. Arguably, the internet, mobile technology, Netflix, and binge-watching did not change this basic fact. By liberating content from the physical restraints of the old wartime vacuum tubes, they can only increase its powers and render it, as it were, more spiritual. Ultimately, the internet can be seen as an expansion of television culture.Less
This chapter details how television became the first modern technology to be entirely shaped by American culture and American ambition, and to take the American way of life to its fullest development. In the beginning, the new medium was literally the product of American power, a peacetime application of wartime technology used against German submarines and the Japanese navy. Later, the connection would seem less obvious, but only at first. As the mass medium of choice during the decades when the United States conquered the planet, television quickly became synonymous with an American future of material and spiritual progress. They were a window into America, but a window displaying the American dream in all its glory, a transplant of the American life energy. Arguably, the internet, mobile technology, Netflix, and binge-watching did not change this basic fact. By liberating content from the physical restraints of the old wartime vacuum tubes, they can only increase its powers and render it, as it were, more spiritual. Ultimately, the internet can be seen as an expansion of television culture.
Troy Rondinone
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037375
- eISBN:
- 9780252094668
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037375.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
This introductory chapter details the rise of Gaspar “Indio” Ortega. Gaspar Ortega grew up poor and fought his way out of the dusty streets of Colonia Morelos, Tijuana, traveling from utter obscurity ...
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This introductory chapter details the rise of Gaspar “Indio” Ortega. Gaspar Ortega grew up poor and fought his way out of the dusty streets of Colonia Morelos, Tijuana, traveling from utter obscurity to international celebrity in the space of a few short years. He is a Friday Night Fighter. At breakfast tables, water coolers, subway stations, restaurants, and bars across America and south of the border, Indio is the topic of lively conversation. Along with the others in his elite cohort—such as Jake LaMotta, Carmen Basilio, Tony DeMarco, Chico Vejar, Benny “Kid” Paret, Willie Pep, Emile Griffith, Kid Gavilan, and Dick Tiger—Gaspar Ortega is a part of the fabric of popular television culture and hence of American life.Less
This introductory chapter details the rise of Gaspar “Indio” Ortega. Gaspar Ortega grew up poor and fought his way out of the dusty streets of Colonia Morelos, Tijuana, traveling from utter obscurity to international celebrity in the space of a few short years. He is a Friday Night Fighter. At breakfast tables, water coolers, subway stations, restaurants, and bars across America and south of the border, Indio is the topic of lively conversation. Along with the others in his elite cohort—such as Jake LaMotta, Carmen Basilio, Tony DeMarco, Chico Vejar, Benny “Kid” Paret, Willie Pep, Emile Griffith, Kid Gavilan, and Dick Tiger—Gaspar Ortega is a part of the fabric of popular television culture and hence of American life.
