Award Date

1-1-1992

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Communication Studies

Number of Pages

122

Abstract

This research offers an alternative method to the study of visual narrative. It criticizes Western society's videocentrism, or centering of television as the predominant medium of communicating to mass society. This method is known as videocentric criticism; Chapter one assesses the modern and postmodern condition. Philosophy from the Greek and modern Enlightenments suggests that Western society's videocentrism is a developing process originating in these periods. It then addresses modernity and postmodernity. Postmodern cultural phenomena that progressed in proximity with the evolution of television is discussed; Chapter two defines videocentric criticism. Narrative, structuralism, post-structuralism, and deconstruction are applied to televisual information. An example of televisual information is partially deconstructed; Chapter three proposes the Levels of Televisual Reality, which are similar to Plato's "Divided Line Analogy." The Levels of Televisual Reality suggest a person interacts with televisual information as an artificial form of: environment, experience, and consciousness. Examples are used.

Keywords

Criticism; Deconstruction; Postmodernism; Television; Videocentric

Controlled Subject

Mass media

File Format

pdf

File Size

4771.84 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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