Watching What We Watch: Prime-Time Television through the Lens of Faith

by Walter T. Davis Jr., Teresa Blythe, Gary Dreibelbis, Mark Scalese, Elizabeth Winslea

Overview

Television has eclipsed the church and school as the most dominant storyteller in our culture. Watching What We Watch discusses the various aspects of "reading" television, helps us to understand how television creates meanings, and teaches us to assess the truth and value of those meanings. Watching What We Watch provides an accessible framework for analyzing television theologically and from the perspective of our values and beliefs. A team of experts uses examples from popular television shows to to explore the forces that drive television production and to challenge viewers to consider what things they should appreciate about television and what things they should call into question.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780664226961
Publisher:	Westminster John Knox Press
Publication date:	11/01/2001
Pages:	338
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Walter T. Davis Jr. is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Religion and a former director of the Advanced Pastoral Studies Program at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California.

Teresa Blythe is a freelance writer, spiritual director, and media literacy advocate with an extensive background in broadcast news.

Gary Dreibelbis has taught courses in television and communications at Solano College in Suisun, California; San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California; and Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.

Mark Scalese is a Roman Catholic priest and Assistant Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Elizabeth Winslea is co-Pastor of Lincoln Street United Methodist Church in Portland, Oregon.

Editorial Reviews

While too many authors may not have spoiled this book, they do seem to have muddled its interesting but disorganized treatment of television and its effect on people of faith. Beginning with an arcane explanation of the analytic methods they will employ, the authors fail to adequately introduce and define the book's fundamental concepts and purposes. Rather, they jump into a series of analyses of various prime-time programs; these analyses are long on episode summaries, but short on substantive faith-influenced insights. Fascinatingly, in the book's final chapters those examining news, sports, commercials and the business and history of television the authors beautifully articulate all that is missing in their introduction. For example, while their exploration of situation comedies and dramas is inexplicably devoid of all but the gentlest, most tentative moral critique, the authors finally begin to express strong and compelling outrage in their discussions of television news and commercials. Moreover, it is only in these chapters that they fully explain the commercialism and corporate hegemony that television programming serves. Each author wrote his or her section alone; as such, the book would probably have fared better as a series of essays. As it is, the authors' varying styles, politics and faith commitments yield an uneven text. Despite these flaws, their intelligent and usually balanced treatment of this topic provides an excellent starting point for discussion and further study. (Nov.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly