Boob Tube, Idiot Box, Electronic Babysitter, Couch Potato Incubator, Time Waster. While they might differ in some details, these nicknames for television ultimately broadcast a consistent message: namely, the low value of the medium that has accompanied and arguably shaped modern lives since the mid-twentieth. In sum, television programs offer lowbrow distractions to waste our time and transform us into vegetable-like idiots.

This lecture opts for a different perspective on the medium of television and the cultural practice of watching television and interacting with the "small screen." Rather than attacking the "idiot box," our sessions will explore the history of television as a visual and narrative communication form in the United States in addition to considering theories of television as a "cool" medium (McLuhan) and/or as affording "complex" narrative form (Mittell). The concluding sessions of the course will expand the analysis to consider the screen cultures of newer media and gaming.

Screen Cultures is the third installment of a winter term lecture series devoted to visual media forms of modernity.

I. Cultures of the Camera looks at the development of photography as technology as well as cultural and artistic practice (last offered winter term 2017/2018, will be offered again in winter term 2020/2021).

II. Going to the Picture Show: American Cinemas offers an overview of filmmaking and moviegoing in US-American culture (last offered winter term 2018/2019, will be offered again in two installments in winter term 2020/2021 and summer term 2021)