Television and the Self: Knowledge, Identity, and Media Representation

Television and the Self: Knowledge, Identity, and Media Representation is a fresh, lively approach to thinking about television in our everyday lives. The chapters in this edited volume highlight the importance of interrogating television programs as text. The reflexive collection makes an important contribution to our understanding of role of television in our lives, how TV contributes to identity formation, and above all how and why we enjoy it as much as we do.

The strength of Television and the Self is its effort to create conversation across and within areas of television studies, theoretically, thematically, and methodologically. Perhaps most noteworthy are the diverse methodological perspectives employed here–ranging from discourse and textual analysis to autoethnography, content analysis, and reflections on media history — which point to the breadth and plurality of the field. The autoethnographies (Marcelina Piotrowski’s essay on ‘becoming Polish’ through television viewership and Andree Betancourt’s reflection on motherhood as portrayed through characters on HBO’s Six Feet Under and The Sopranos) are especially powerful, merging academic critique with personal stories, narrated by authors who reflect–thoughtfully and, at times, emotionally–on the ways in which their relationship to TV has impacted their identities and lives. . . .Television and the Self speaks to multiple perspectives, inviting readers to consider the ways in which our own identities, values, and everyday lives have been shaped and molded, influenced and informed, by our engagement with televisual narratives.

Cynthia J. Miller is senior faculty at the Emerson College Institute for the Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies.

Laura C. Chezan is an associate professor of special education in the Darden College of Education and Professional Studies at Old Dominion University. She is a Board Certified Behavioral Analyst–Doctoral. Her research interests focus on social-communication interventions for individuals with autism spectrum disorder, positive behavior support, and postsecondary education for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities. She has coauthored book chapters and published peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals in the field of education and behavior analysis. Dr. Chezan has also presented at local, state, and national conferences on topics related to communication and behavioral interventions for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities. She serves as an associate editor for Preventing School Failure and as an editorial board member for six peer-reviewed journals in the fields of special education and applied behavior analysis