Television : visual storytelling and screen culture / Jeremy G. Butler ; with contribution from Amanda D. Lotz.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

pt. I Television Structures and Systems
1. An Introduction to Television Structures and Systems: Ebb and Flow in the Network Era
Television's Not-So-Distant Past: The Network Era
Polysemy, Heterogeneity, Contradiction
Interruption and Sequence
Segmentation
Summary
Further Readings
2. Television in the Contemporary Media Environment / Amanda D. Lotz
Internet-Distributed Television: Digital Endemic and Legacy Media
But I Don't Have a TV
We Can All Make Television
Summary
Further Readings
3. Narrative Structure: Television Stories
The Theatrical Film
The Television Series
The Television Serial
Transmedia Storytelling and Binge-Watching
Summary
Further Readings
4. Building Narrative: Character, Actor, Star
Building Characters
A Typology of Character Signs
Building Performances
A Typology of Performance Signs
Strategies of Performance
The Star System?
Summary Note continued: Further Readings
5. Beyond and Beside Narrative Structure
Television's Reality
Television's Reality: Forms and Modes
Television's Reality: Genres
Summary
Further Readings
6. The Television Commercial
U.S. Linear-TV's Economic Structure
The Polysemy of Commodities
The Persuasive Style of Commercials
Summary: "Capitalism in Action"
Further Readings
pt. II Television Style: Image and Sound
7. An Introduction to Television Style: Modes of Production
Single-Camera Mode of Production
Multiple-Camera Mode of Production
Hybrid Modes of Production
Summary
Further Readings
8. Style and Setting: Mise-en-Scene
Set Design
Costume Design
Lighting Design
Actor Movement
Summary
Further Readings
9. Style and the Camera: Videography and Cinematography
Basic Optics: The Camera Lens
Image Definition and Resolution
Color and Black-and-White
Framing
Aspect Ratio Note continued: In-Camera Visual Effects
Summary
Further Readings
10. Style and Editing
The Single-Camera Mode of Production
The Multiple-Camera Mode of Production
Continuity Editing and Hybrid Modes of Production
Summary
Further Readings
11. Style and Sound
Types of Television Sound
Audio's Mode of Production
Purposes of Sound on Television
Acoustic Properties and Sound Technology
Space, Time, and Narrative
Summary
Further Readings
pt. III Television Studies
12. An Introduction to Television Studies
Critical Research and Television
Further Readings
13. Textual Analysis
Television Authorship
Style and Stylistics
Genre Study
Semiotics
Summary
Further Readings
14. Discourse and Identity
Ideological Criticism and Cultural Studies
The Discourse of the Industry I: Production Studies
The Discourse of the Industry II: Political Economy
Discourse and Identity I: Gender Note continued: Discourse and Identity II: Queer Theory
Discourse and Identity III: Race and Ethnicity
Summary
Further Readings

For over two decades, Television has served as the foremost guide to television studies, offering readers an in-depth understanding of how television programs and commercials are made and how they function as producers of meaning. Author Jeremy G. Butler shows the ways in which camera style, lighting, set design, editing, and sound combine to produce meanings that viewers take away from their television experience.