In this volume, Charlotte Brunsdon analyzes a wide range of contemporary film and television programmes, from British soap operas and crime series such as "Crossroads" and "Widows" to Hollywood movies such as "Working Girl" and "Pretty Woman".;As well as interpreting the pleasures and meanings that these programmes offer - particularly for women viewers - the book is concerned with the nature of media criticism, particularly feminist criticism, and the problematic aesthetics of popular culture. Why have feminist media critics been so interested in the soap opera viewer? What are the "race" politics of the TV crime series? What is meant by "quality" in television? And was the fuss about the erection of satellite dishes on British homes really about architectural values?;The book brings together Charlotte Brunsdon's key writings on film and television and its criticism, with new introductions which contextualise and update the arguments, and recent work on the "post-feminist girly" in recent Hollywood cinema. Brunsdon's focus is on the tastes and pleasures of the female consumer as she is produced by popular film an television - and by feminist criticism.

Writings on Media gathers more than twenty of Stuart Hall's media analyses, from scholarly essays such as "Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse" (1973) to other writings addressed to wider publics. Hall explores the practices of news photography, the development of media and cultural studies, the changing role of television, and how the nation imagines itself through popular media. He attends to Britain's imperial history and the politics of race and cultural identity as well as the media's relationship to the political project of the state. Testifying to the range and agility of Hall's critical and pedagogic engagement with contemporary media culture-and also to his collaborative mode of working-this volume reaffirms his stature as an innovative media theorist while demonstrating the continuing relevance of his methods of analysis.

This book brings together for the first time David Morley and Charlotte Brunsdon's classic texts, Everyday Television: Nationwide and The Nationwide Audience. Originally published in 1978 and 1980 these two research projects combine innovative textual readings and audience analysis of the BBC's current affairs programme Nationwide. In a specially written introduction the authors trace the history of the original Nationwide project and clarify the origins of the two books.

Charlotte Brunsdon's illuminating study explores the variety of cinematic 'Londons' that appear in films made since 1945. Brunsdon traces the familiar ways that film-makers establish that a film is set in London, by use of recognisable landmarks and the city's shorthand iconography of red buses and black taxis, as well as the ways in which these icons are avoided. She looks at London weather - fog and rain - and everyday locations like the pub and the housing estate, while also examining the recurring patterns of representation associated with films set in the East and West Ends of London, from Spring in Park Lane (1948) to Mona Lisa (1986), and from Night and the City (1950) to From Hell (2001). Brunsdon provides a detailed analysis of a selection of films, exploring their contribution to the cinematic geography of London, and showing the ways in which feature films have responded to, and created, changing views of the city. She traces London's transformation from imperial capital to global city through the different ways in which the local is imagined in films ranging from Ealing comedies to Pressure (1974), as well as through the shifting imagery of the River Thames and the Docks. She addresses the role of cinematic genres such as horror and film noir in the constitution of the cinematic city, as well as the recurrence of figures such as the cockney, the gangster and the housewife. Challenging the view that London is not a particularly cinematic city, Brunsdon demonstrates that many London-set films offer their own meditation on the complex relationships between the cinema and the city.

Charlotte Brundson's key writings on film and television are bought together with new introductions which contextualise and update the arguments. The focus is on the tastes and pleasures of the female consumer as she is produced by popular film and television.

This book brings together for the first time David Morley and Charlotte Brunsdon's classic texts, Everyday Television: Nationwide and The Nationwide Audience. Originally published in 1978 and 1980 these two research projects combine innovative textual readings and audience analysis of the BBC's current affairs programme Nationwide. In a specially written introduction the authors trace the history of the original Nationwide project and clarify the origins of the two books.

Writings on Media gathers more than twenty of Stuart Hall's media analyses, from scholarly essays such as "Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse" (1973) to other writings addressed to wider publics. Hall explores the practices of news photography, the development of media and cultural studies, the changing role of television, and how the nation imagines itself through popular media. He attends to Britain's imperial history and the politics of race and cultural identity as well as the media's relationship to the political project of the state. Testifying to the range and agility of Hall's critical and pedagogic engagement with contemporary media culture-and also to his collaborative mode of working-this volume reaffirms his stature as an innovative media theorist while demonstrating the continuing relevance of his methods of analysis.

In Television Cities Charlotte Brunsdon traces television's representations of metropolitan spaces to show how they reflect the medium's history and evolution, thereby challenging the prevalent assumptions about television as quintessentially suburban. Brunsdon shows how the BBC's presentation of 1960s Paris in the detective series Maigret signals British culture's engagement with twentieth-century modernity and continental Europe, while various portrayals of London—ranging from Dickens adaptations to the 1950s nostalgia of Call the Midwife—demonstrate Britain's complicated transition from Victorian metropole to postcolonial social democracy. Finally, an analysis of The Wire’s acclaimed examination of Baltimore, marks the profound shifts in the ways television is now made and consumed. Illuminating the myriad factors that make television cities, Brunsdon complicates our understanding of how television shapes perceptions of urban spaces, both familiar and unknown.

Charlotte Brunsdon's illuminating study explores the variety of cinematic 'Londons' that appear in films made since 1945. Brunsdon traces the familiar ways that film-makers establish that a film is set in London, by use of recognisable landmarks and the city's shorthand iconography of red buses and black taxis, as well as the ways in which these icons are avoided. She looks at London weather - fog and rain - and everyday locations like the pub and the housing estate, while also examining the recurring patterns of representation associated with films set in the East and West Ends of London, from Spring in Park Lane (1948) to Mona Lisa (1986), and from Night and the City (1950) to From Hell (2001). Brunsdon provides a detailed analysis of a selection of films, exploring their contribution to the cinematic geography of London, and showing the ways in which feature films have responded to, and created, changing views of the city. She traces London's transformation from imperial capital to global city through the different ways in which the local is imagined in films ranging from Ealing comedies to Pressure (1974), as well as through the shifting imagery of the River Thames and the Docks. She addresses the role of cinematic genres such as horror and film noir in the constitution of the cinematic city, as well as the recurrence of figures such as the cockney, the gangster and the housewife. Challenging the view that London is not a particularly cinematic city, Brunsdon demonstrates that many London-set films offer their own meditation on the complex relationships between the cinema and the city.

The first edition of this book immediately became a defining text for feminist television criticism, with an influence extending across television, media and screen studies and the second edition will be similarly agenda-setting. Completely revised and updated throughout, it takes into account the changes in the television industry, the academic field of television studies and the culture and politics of feminist movements.

. . With fifteen of the eighteen extracts being new to the second edition, the readings offer a detailed analysis of a wide range of case studies, topics and approaches, including genres, audiences, performers and programmes such as 'Sex and the City', Prime Suspect, Oprah and Buffy.

. . With a new introduction to the volume tracing developments in the field and introductions to each thematic section, the editors engage in a series of debates surrounding the main issues of feminist television scholarship. They explore how television represents feminism and consider how critics themselves have created feminism and post-feminism as historical categories and political identities. Readings consider women who are engaged in various aspects of television production on both sides of the camera and examine how television targets and imagines its female audience, as well as how women respond to and use television in their everyday lives.

. . "Feminist Television Criticism" is inspiring reading for film, media, cultural and gender studies students.

. . "Contributors: Ien Ang, Jane Arthurs, Sarah Banet-Weiser, Karen Boyle, Marsha F. Cassidy, Geok-lian Chua, Bonnie J. Dow, Joanne Hollows, Deborah Jermyn, Annette Kuhn, Elizabeth MacLachlan, Purnima Mankekar, TaniaModleski, Laurie Ouellette, Yeidy M. Rivero, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Beretta E. Smith-Shomade, Kimberly Springer, Ksenija Vidmar-Horvat, Susan J. Wolfe.,"

L?aw and Order is a police story, a crime series, a courtroom drama and a prison film. Written by G. F. Newman, directed by Les Blair and produced by Tony Garnett, Law and Order challenges the comfortable world of the television police series to reveal the proximity of police and villains in a world of deals, set-ups and mutually advantageous financial arrangements. The 1978 series, shot in a low-key naturalistic style, was so controversial when first broadcast that the BBC could neither repeat nor export it, and BBC news teams were excluded from prisons. Now available on DVD, Law and Order is, Charlotte Brunsdon argues, an 'absent classic' in the history of British television drama. This carefully-researched and elegantly-argued study offers close analysis of the four films, while also showing how Law and Order comments on contemporary criminal justice scandals and exploring the outrage that the broadcasts caused the year before the election of the 1979 Thatcher government. It uses interviews with the makers of the programmes to show how the films were made, and original archive research about the BBC's response to the subsequent protests in a period of political instability. Charlotte Brunsdon argues that now the shocking claims of the series have been accepted as 'true enough', it is time to recognise its aesthetic achievement, and restore Law and Order to its place within the canon of great British television drama. Law and Order offers a much bleaker vision of 1970s policing than Life on Mars and re-runs of The Sweeney, and this study shows how the series draws on the tradition of 'serious television drama' and the popular police series to change ideas about both television serial drama and British criminal justice.

In Television Cities Charlotte Brunsdon traces television's representations of metropolitan spaces to show how they reflect the medium's history and evolution, thereby challenging the prevalent assumptions about television as quintessentially suburban. Brunsdon shows how the BBC's presentation of 1960s Paris in the detective series Maigret signals British culture's engagement with twentieth-century modernity and continental Europe, while various portrayals of London-ranging from Dickens adaptations to the 1950s nostalgia of Call the Midwife-demonstrate Britain's complicated transition from Victorian metropole to postcolonial social democracy. Finally, an analysis of The Wire's acclaimed examination of Baltimore, marks the profound shifts in the ways television is now made and consumed. Illuminating the myriad factors that make television cities, Brunsdon complicates our understanding of how television shapes perceptions of urban spaces, both familiar and unknown.

This is a history of the feminist engagement with soap opera which uses a wide range of sources including fascinating interviews with key soap opera scholars. It is the story of why feminists were

interested in soap opera, and who they thought watched it.