A journal of television and new media

Archive for March, 2010

<strong>Time Wasted</strong><br /><em> Ernest Mathijs / The University of British Columbia</em>

Time Wasted
Ernest Mathijs / The University of British Columbia

An investigation of the role of “Free Time” in the formation of cult viewing strategies.

<strong>Buffy Failed: <em>True Blood</em> and the Accommodation of Vampires </strong><br /><em>Jon Stratton / Curtin University of Technology</em>

Buffy Failed: True Blood and the Accommodation of Vampires
Jon Stratton / Curtin University of Technology

An examination of the notion of race in HBO’s True Blood.

<strong>The Spelling Bee, Model Minorities, and American Citizenship</strong><br /><em>Shilpa Davé / Brandeis University</em>

The Spelling Bee, Model Minorities, and American Citizenship
Shilpa Davé / Brandeis University

A consideration of media narratives of spelling bee winners.

<strong> Gourmet Drama: A Tasty Case of Narrating the Nation</strong><br /><em>Jiwon Ahn / Keene State College</em>

Gourmet Drama: A Tasty Case of Narrating the Nation
Jiwon Ahn / Keene State College

Why has the genre of gourmet drama not translated to American television that nonetheless relishes reality food-based drama?

<strong> How Chatroulette Taught Me Everything I Need to Know About the Internet </strong><br /><em>Tama Leaver / Curtin University of Technology </em>

How Chatroulette Taught Me Everything I Need to Know About the Internet
Tama Leaver / Curtin University of Technology

A consideration of the social networking video chat site Chatroulette as a microcosm of today’s Internet.

<strong><em>Logorama’s</em> Chaotic Critique of Corporate Rule</strong> <br /><em>Esteban del Río / University of San Diego</em>

Logorama’s Chaotic Critique of Corporate Rule
Esteban del Río / University of San Diego

Logorama: risky corporate trademark satire or straight product placement marketing via the doctrine of “fair use”?

<strong>Flow Favorites: The Bronze Fonz</strong> <br /><em> Michael Z. Newman / University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee </em>

Flow Favorites: The Bronze Fonz
Michael Z. Newman / University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Michael Z. Newman’s “The Bronze Fonz” explores not only the relationship between art and popular culture, but between cultural memory and urban space.

<strong>Flow Favorites: Digg, Flickr, and the Colonizing of Bridging Texts</strong> <br /><em>Vanessa Au / University of Washington</em>

Flow Favorites: Digg, Flickr, and the Colonizing of Bridging Texts
Vanessa Au / University of Washington

Discourse around the author’s image on Digg and Flickr highlight the fact that social media are shot through with race and gender codes.

<strong>Flow Favorites: Around the Antenna Tree: The Politics of Infrastructural Visibility</strong><br /><em>Lisa Parks / UC Santa Barbara</em>

Flow Favorites: Around the Antenna Tree: The Politics of Infrastructural Visibility
Lisa Parks / UC Santa Barbara

Lisa Parks’ article revisits the infrastructure of communications media and examines the stakes of devices masked as “nature.”

<strong>Flow Favorites: Quality Television, Melodrama, and Cultural Complexity</strong> <br /><em>Michael Kackman / University of Texas – Austin</em>

Flow Favorites: Quality Television, Melodrama, and Cultural Complexity
Michael Kackman / University of Texas – Austin

This piece sparked a vigorous discussion within the television studies community with its call to think more rigorously about why, exactly, we are drawn to aesthetically and narratively complex TV.

<strong>Flow Favorites: A Specter is Haunting Television Studies</strong><br /><em>Jeffrey Sconce / Northwestern University</em>

Flow Favorites: A Specter is Haunting Television Studies
Jeffrey Sconce / Northwestern University

By raising the specter of “dead white men” theorists and their applicability to the 2008 Economic Meltdown, Jefferey Sconce provoked one of the most highly-charged debates on Flow in some time.