Legitimating Television Media Convergence and Cultural Status

"Legitimating Television offers a crucial intervention in the popular and scholarly conception of television's increasing cultural significance. ... As a teaching tool, Newman and Levine's engaging and clear style make Legitimating Television suitable for both the graduate and undergraduate classroom, especially as a counterpoint to popular or scholarly sources that regard the increased cultural status of contemporary television in a more favorable light." -Melinda E. S. Kohnen, New York University "Trenchantly, Michael Newman and Elana Levine observe that every new attempt to declare some form of television as especially valuable culturally or artistically 'is predicated on the systematic degradation of old television practices' and they demonstrate this insight through sharp history combined with comprehensive analysis of the contemporary context. Most refreshing in this respect is their self-aware sense of TV studies' own contribution to processes of legitimation. A rich, far-reaching study of the values we've given to TV across its complicated history." -Dana Polan, Professor of Cinema Studies, New York University