Television after TV : essays on a medium in transition /

These 16 essays attempt to examine television in a world in which the word "television" itself applies less to an appliance and more to a form of video content. Television programs can now be received over the air or by cable or Internet, digitally captured and delayed for viewing anytime, and soon viewed by cellular telephone. As Spigel (radio/television/film, Northwestern Univ.) and Olsson (cinema studies, Stockholm Univ.) state, "We no longer know what 'TV' is at all." The contributors attempt to address this, primarily from a US perspective, and their media-studies approach lends itself to a variety of qualitative analyses focused primarily on the nexus of television and popular culture. As a result, though the quality of the essays is indisputable, this reviewer wonders if readers interested in particular subjects covered here but not evident from the book's title will find their way to them in what is purportedly a book of television criticism. For example, will those interested in feminist theory think to look here for essays on the million woman march or television and housewives? Anthologies such as this one, good as they may be, are likely to be missed by those who might in fact be interested. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above. D. Caristi Ball State University