Demographic Vistas: Television in American Culture [Paperback]

David Marc (Author), Horace Newcomb (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1996

In Demographic Vistas, David Marc shows how we can take television seriously within the humanist tradition while enjoying it on its own terms. To deal with the barrage of messages from television's chaotic history, Marc adapts tools of theatrical and literary criticism to focus on key personalities and genres in ways that reward serious students and casual viewers alike.

This updated edition includes a new foreword by Horace Newcomb and a new introduction by the author that discusses the ways in which the nature of television criticism has changed since the book's original publication in 1984. A new final chapter explores the paradox of the diminishing importance of over-the-air broadcasting during the period of television's greatest expansion, which has been brought about by complex technologies such as cable, videocassette recorders, and online services.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Quite simply, a tour de force—a wonderful synthesis of history and criticism."—Daniel Czitrom, author of Media and the American Mind

"A cooly sophisticated analysis . . . of American televsion."—American Studies International

From reviews of the first edition—

"Demographic Vistas analyzes television in the tradition of a Gilbert Seldes or Michael Arlen. Exhibiting fluency in television history, theories of culture, and American literature, the book offers a thoughtful, idiosyncratic interpretation of television's life so far in American culture."—Critical Studies in Mass Communication

"Marc does a good job of drawing links between the American literary tradition and television themes, which illustrate that television texts are not isolated from the critical mainstream of American creative efforts. . . . These links illustrate that television texts offer themselves to much the same analytical forms as any other literary endeavor."—Southern Speech Communication Journal

About the Author

David Marc is Adjunct Professor, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, and Visiting Professor, School of Theater, Film and Television, University of California, Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press; Revised Edition edition (February 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812215605
• ISBN-13: 978-0812215601
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,457,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Known principally for his writing on television, film, and popular culture, David Marc is currently at work on his seventh book. It concerns "The Syracuse Eight," a group of African American student athletes on the Syracuse University football team who, in 1970, protested racial bias at a school known for fostering such breakthrough stars as Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, and Floyd Little. Demographic Vistas: Television in American Culture, his first book, was published in 1984 and a second edition, containing added material, was brought out in 1998. Our Movie Houses, a collaboration with Norman O. Keim, was named "book of the year" for 2008 by the Theatre Historical Society of America. Reviews of David's books have appeared in The New York Times, The Times of London, on National Public Radio, and elsewhere. His feature articles, essays and reviews have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, The Village Voice, Television Quarterly and a long list of periodicals ranging from academic journals to airline magazines. He has contributed chapters to more than a dozen critical anthologies, including, most recently, Reading Mad Men (ed. Gary Edgerton). He has written more than 100 articles and biographical portraits for reference works, including Oxford's American National Biography (www.anb.org), Scribner's American Lives, Grolier's, and Microsoft Encarta. An experienced editor and ghost writer, he offers private tutoring in writing to business executives, scientists, and others interested in improving their skills. A graduate of Binghamton University, Marc holds a doctorate in American studies from the University of Iowa. He has taught at Brown, Brandeis, Cal Tech, USC, UCLA, UC-San Diego, and Syracuse University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I've Read This Twice, and Will Do So Again, September 20, 2005

By 

Chris Ward (Costa Rica) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Demographic Vistas: Television in American Culture (Paperback)

This was written in the 80s and revised in the 90s, but television has undergone such a revolutionary shift in its very nature (with hundreds of channels where there were only a few when this was first written) that Marc needs to do a complete rewrite. Even so, the book is still a goldmine of THEORY about how to think about TV: why we watch, what we're seeking when we turn on the tube. Yes, there's some academic jargon, but it's generally a clear and concise look at the dominant medium of our age. He dissects several popular shows and really gets inside the box. There's a little of everything here: history, theory, criticism, sociology. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to understand TV instead of just watching it.