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Critical Studies in Television

Journal Description

Critical Studies in Television

We are delighted to announce that effective the 4th September 2015, this title (previously published by Manchester University Press) will now be published by SAGE. For more information on the transfer of 10 titles from MUP to SAGE please click here.

Critical Studies in Television publishes articles that draw together divergent disciplines and different ways of thinking, to promote and advance television as a distinct academic discipline. It welcomes contributions on any aspect of television—production studies and institutional histories, audience and reception studies, theoretical approaches, conceptual paradigms and pedagogical questions. It continues to invite analyses of the compositional principles and aesthetics of texts, as well as contextual matters relating to both contemporary and past productions. CST also features book reviews, dossiers and debates. The journal is scholarly but accessible, dedicated to generating new knowledge and fostering a dynamic intellectual platform for television studies.

CSTonline is updated weekly to include industry and journal news, CFPs, event announcements (conference, symposia), as well as various blogs (where scholars reflect on various aspects of television studies). It also includes information about TV archives and resources, where to study and the latest research news.

Books for review should be sent by publishers to:

Amy Harris
Student Advice Centre
0.42 Clephan Building
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Journal Feed

  • Provocation: An agenda for the future of TV studies: Technology, audiences, stakeholders
    by Catherine Johnson
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. As viewing shifts from broadcast to streaming, what should be the role for TV studies? Arguing for the need to account for the multi-faceted nature of contemporary television, this provocation proposes an agenda for the future of TV studies. It argues that the technological consequences of shifting to internet-delivered television demand new theorisations of television as software, new digital tools and methods, and audience research that pays more attention to less engaged and unconnected audiences. Such research would ensure that critical policy decisions about the future of television draw on the depth of […]
  • Book Review: Television/Death
    by Katie Crosson
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print.
  • Notes on the state of Brazilian television archives: From scattered initiatives to an uncertain future
    by Esther Hamburger
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in past television programmes and television memory more broadly, a trend amplified by streaming platforms. This development highlights the critical issue of television archiving and content accessibility. As Brazilian television approaches its 75th anniversary in 2025, this article examines the current state of television archives in Brazil, their accessibility to the general public, and the role of amateur archiving on online platforms. We analyse the public and private dimensions of these archives and, drawing on international examples, advocate for public-private collaborations to expand Brazilian […]
  • Book Review: Rethinking horror in the new economies of television
    by Amy Harris
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print.
  • Female audiences for true crime television: Popular discourse, feminism and the politics of ‘ethical viewing’
    by Su Holmes
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. This article draws on data from 18 semi-structured interviews with women which explore their relations with true crime television. Complicating popular and academic arguments that such relations operate pedagogically (that true crime offers a form of ‘safety advice’ for women), the data attests to the participants’ reflexive negotiation of ethics as a frame through which viewing investments are presented, regulated and articulated. Both contributing to and questioning feminist work which has explored the potential ‘reimagining’ of true crime within a post #MeToo context, the data offers insight into how these female viewers negotiate […]
  • Book Review: Mothers on American Television: From Here to Maternity
    by Tanya Horeck
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print.
  • Book Review: Sesame Street: A Transnational History
    by Laura Sinclair
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print.
  • Book Review: Armchair Cinema – A History of Feature Films on British Television 1929–1981
    by Kevin Geddes
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print.
  • ‘I am in Great Pain, Please Help Me’: Nihilism, Humour, and Rick and Morty
    by Nicholas Holm
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. One of Cartoon Network’s most successful shows ever, Rick and Morty (2013–present) has established a cult following for its blend of dark humour and existential themes. However, the show is more than just a representation of popular nihilism; through its sustained engagement with nihilistic themes, it also demonstrates how nihilism can be embraced, exhausted, and potentially eventually surpassed in a popular context. Drawing on Richard Hoggart’s model of “social hermeneutics,” this article analyses key episodes as a means to think through the broader trajectory of nihilism as an influential element of twenty-first century […]
  • Victim behaviour and trauma recovery: Representing black British femininity through fantasy in Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You
    by Richard Bramwell
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. This paper examines the representation of trauma recovery in the television series I May Destroy You (). Research on rape in fictional television programmes overwhelmingly focus on rape myths or how rape is represented. There is scant research on recovery from rape trauma in television drama. This paper contributes to scholarship on rape in fictional television, through a focus on the process of trauma recovery. Michaela Coel’s portrayal of the struggle to recover from the traumatic experience of sexual assault, makes a nuanced contribution to debates on sexual violence, victim behaviour, and black […]
  • Exploring Netflix myths: Towards more media industry studies and empirical research in studying video-on-demand
    by Karin van Es
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. Using Netflix as a lens, this article identifies and unpacks three central interrelated myths – binge-watching, on-demand, and big data – surrounding global video-on-demand services. These myths are problematic because they make certain ideas about these services seem natural and self-evident, restricting our understanding of their role in culture and society. Moreover, these services provide little transparency and data access to evaluate their claims leading to a call for more media industry studies and empirical research. This article points to valuable avenues of inquiry, emerging from recent studies, that can serve as a […]
  • Editorial
    by Stephen Lacey
    Critical Studies in Television, Volume 19, Issue 4, Page 387-390, December 2024.
  • Book Review: Audiovisual Content for Children and Adolescents in Scandinavia: Production, Distribution, and Reception in a Multiplatform Era
    by Ruchi Kher Jaggi
    Critical Studies in Television, Volume 19, Issue 4, Page 503-505, December 2024.
  • Is prompt engineering the future of screenwriting? Views of professional screenwriters and commissioners about the impact of AI technologies on their profession
    by Eliisa Vainikka
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. This article presents a qualitative interview study of Finnish screenwriters and commissioners about the impact of generative artificial intelligence on the profession of screenwriting. We ask how screenwriters and commissioners see the benefits and risks of AI tools in screenwriting and how screenwriters see their changing profession in the future. We identify three stances towards AI-driven work practices in screenwriting. The functional, critical and curious stance reflect the ways in which the writers position themselves against AI technologies. Prompt engineering has emerged as a new skill in commanding AI and will become a […]
  • Book Review: Monsters on Maple Street: The Twilight Zone and the Postwar American Dream
    by Mehdi Achouche
    Critical Studies in Television, Volume 19, Issue 4, Page 508-510, December 2024.
  • Book Review: Transmedia/Genre: Rethinking Genre in a Multiplatform Culture
    by Marta F Suarez
    Critical Studies in Television, Volume 19, Issue 4, Page 506-508, December 2024.
  • Book Review: Screen Plays: Theatre Plays on British Television
    by Tom May
    Critical Studies in Television, Volume 19, Issue 4, Page 510-513, December 2024.
  • Book Review: TV drama in the multiplatform era: Transnational coproduction and cultural specificity
    by Max Sexton
    Critical Studies in Television, Volume 19, Issue 4, Page 501-503, December 2024.
  • Gay as cute: Unpacking cuteness in contemporary gay teen drama series
    by Frederik Dhaenens
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. Since the late 2010s, there has been a surge in gay teen drama series that portray their gay male protagonists as cute. This article focuses on four series (Heartstopper, Young Royals, Love, Victor, and wtFOCK) and examines which formal and narrative practices are used to convey cuteness. It argues that, first, each series participates in the creation of the cute gay boy archetype; second, each series represents cuteness as vulnerable in an ambiguous and, at times, resistant manner; third, cute aesthetics are used to soften the blow when tackling heavy or disturbing issues […]
  • Within power constraints: Forty years of the successes and failures of talent shows in China
    by Shenglan Qing
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. This study reveals the transformation of representation and voting mechanisms in the successes and failures of talents shows in China over the past four decades. This article analyses how talent shows have been shaped within the constraints of political power in China, global neoliberal economic logic and the collective power of population. As an inherent tactic of talent shows to engage the populations of audiences, users and consumers in commercial society, voting mechanisms have not been suspended but rather modified. Talent shows ranged across a spectrum of bureaucratic/commercial elitism and ordinariness. In this […]