Mission Statement and Goals
Drafted by Michele Hilmes in 2000
Mission Statement: SCMS Television Studies Interest Group
The last fifteen years have seen a dramatic change in media studies in the US, and in many places abroad. Television has become a legitimate, though contested, object of study in a wide range of university settings. It may be housed in a film department, or within the academic confines of English, History, American Studies, Journalism, Women's Studies, Ethnic Studies, Sociology, or Art, but in a list of relatively recent books, journals, conferences, and organizations television has emerged as a distinct field of study with its own unique theory, methodology, history, and points of intersection with other disciplines.
The Society for Cinema and Media Studies has for many years served as one of the pre-eminent places for television scholars to present their work. Its broad focus on the visual and aural medium of film extended fairly easily to television, and even tentatively to such non-paradigmatic media as radio, satellite communication, and the Internet. Film theory and television theory have points of divergence and convergence. Given television's changing academic status, a need has been felt for the establishment of a television studies issues group within SCMS. It seems entirely appropriate that as television itself faces identity-blurring technological developments, so that as an object of study it requires a new level of definition and analysis, the Society for Cinema and Media Studies should play a central role in defining television as an academic field and facilitating its development. We envision the mission of the Television Studies Interest Group as a site to facilitate discussion, consolidation, outreach and inclusion. Thus the mission of the television studies group consists of two broad objectives:
1) To provide a forum in which television scholars can discuss their work, organize panels and workshops for each year's conference, and work together to accomplish the goals and objectives of the group;
2) To schedule a yearly meeting at the SCMS conference where we can gather
to formulate more specific programs and plans.
SCMS Television Studies Interest Group -- Goals and Objectives
1) To work with the Executive Committee and each year's Conference Program Committee as a source of television-related expertise;
2) To support Cinema Journal and other publications and to encourage their inclusion of television-related scholarship;
3) To work with other SCMS groups, such as the various caucuses and issues groups, and to bring a television-specific orientation to such ongoing SCMS issues as preservation of and access to archival materials, encouragment and support of minority work, and others;
4) To take on special projects, such as specially-designated panels, joint conferences, plenary participation, or workshops;
5) To set up a television studies website, which can eventually serve as a resource for television scholars;
6) To encourage international membership and participation in SCMS for television scholars in other countries, since the issues we address are of relevance everywhere, and to resist the insularity of much of American media studies;
7) To explore the definition of television studies itself as a field, to explore and expand the film/television relationship, and to facilitate the study of television's interconnection and convergence with other media, practices, technologies and disciplines, as the shape of the field itself changes in the 21st century;
8) To acknowledge and recognize the important work that is being done in our field, and to spread awareness to other disciplines and areas, with particular emphasis on a television studies presence in public debate; to work towards establishing relationships with media industry personnel, critics and reviewers, and policy groups .
contact the current SCMSTV Chair, Marsha Cassidy