This course will set aside evaluative considerations of TV in favor of theoretical and critical approaches that challenge widespread assumptions about the medium and expand our understanding of its role in our lives. Such approaches include, but are not limited to, critical political economy, cultural studies, semiotics, genre theory, and narrative theory. Students will emerge from the course with a thorough understanding of how to perform television-focused research and analysis. As students discover the critical and theoretical foundations of the study of television, they will learn how to apply those foundations to crucial developments in television (in their midterm exam) and to expound upon them (in the form of a scholarly final paper). Undergrad Pre-req FT 303