UCI Film and Tv Questions

The answers for the three segments of the test must not exceed 4 pages maximum (1000

words) in 11-12 pt. Times New Roman with standard margins.

1. Connections ( 2 pts each):

Choose two of the following and using normal prose (and complete sentences) Define/Identify

each term or phrase, Explain the connections between each, and their broader significance in

terms of their era in television history.

1. Quality TV, Magnum P.I., Libidinal Gaze/Spectacle
2. Between the 3rd & 4th Wave of Feminism, 30-Rock, Intersectionality
3. Reality TV, War on Drugs, Post-feminism
4. Plastic Representation, Grey’s Anatomy, Colorblind Casting,

The Significance of the Scene (6 pts. total):

Choose two of the following clips and concepts. Through textual analysis—a close reading,

focusing on specific elements of the selected scene and how it exemplifies and/or relates to

the concepts with which it is prepared.

• Identify the elements of transmedia storytelling used in the marketing campaign for The Dark Knight. Specifically, pinpoint moments in the clip used in Lecture 10A where television was used as a modality of the campaign.
• How does the opening of the Hill Street Blues pilot (00:00 – 3:45) exemplify a shift toward “quality TV?” Be sure to incorporate close textual analysis (i.e. discuss specific formal elements from the segment) into your argument.
• How does the following scene from the pilot of Girls (10:50-16:02) function either through or against the male gaze? Highlight specific moments, actions, and dialogues that suggest whether or not Hannah asserts agency in this scene.
• How do these scenes from Bridgerton [25:21-30:05] engage multiple readings depending upon whether or not you view the series in a colorblind or color-conscious manner?

III. Find The Fake (5 pts. total):

For each of the triads below, select which statement is FALSE and explain your choice.

Triad 1

1. Social media is the main platform through which transmedia storytelling functions.
2. There is tension between the possibilities of transmedia storytelling and the imperatives of neoliberal capitalism.
3. Although transmedia was first coined in the 1990s, it existed as a vehicle for storytelling well before that.

Triad 2

1. Reality TV can be studied as a product of neoliberalism, a technology of the prison-industrial complex, and a complex cultural artifact of the present.
2. The golden age of reality TV began on May 31, 2000, with the U.S. premiere of Survivor on CBS.
3. The Writers’ Strike of 1988 did not, as some later claimed, lead to a tidal wave of Reality television programming: it would not rise to its current level of popularity until over a decade later.

Triad 3

1. Third wave feminism can be characterized as a “movement” that problematically embraces/supports transphobic perspectives.
2. The use of overlapping dialogue, complex and imperfect characters and narrative arcs that extended beyond a single to imbue the series with a degree of realism not typical of earlier “cop” shows.
3. By the time the footage of the Rodney King beating aired on multiple news programs, many in the audience had no longer shocked by seeing this kind of police brutality on the evening news.

Triad 4

1. The Virgin/Whore Dichotomy is not the “traditional” view/depiction of women and femininity across television.
2. Plastic representation can be understood as the artificiality of representations of characters of color on screen with no real investment in those characters’ organic identities.
3. The character of Thomas Magnum in Magnum P.I. is both the object and subject of the show–he is what we love to look at and what we watch the program for (rather than story or plot).

Triad 5

1. The end of the Fairness Doctrine was caused largely by technological shifts in the 1980s such as the expansion of cable television, as well as the U.S. government’s adoption of marketplace logics for public interest.
2. The Fairness Doctrine made it possible for broadcast networks to embrace ideological/partisan biases in reporting (as exemplified in the Tucker Carlson and Chris Hayes interpretations of the January 6 Insurrection).
3. One of the lasting legacies of the end of the Fairness Doctrine is a shift in the interpretation of the First Amendment from the rights of citizens to be exposed to different political viewpoints in media to the individual right of media companies to make editorial decisions.