Jason Mittell

Jason Mittell is an associate professor of American studies and film and media culture at Middlebury College whose research interests include the history of television, media, culture, and new media.

Career

Training

Mittell received his Ph.D. in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Media & Cultural Studies Program (part of the Department of Communication Arts) in August 2000. In the spring of 1996, Mittell obtained an M.A. in the same concentration and program. Mittell completed his undergraduate studies at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio in 1992, graduating with a B.A. and majoring in English and Theater.

Academic positions

Mittell taught Communication at Georgia State University from 2000 to 2002. Currently, he is an associate professor at Middlebury College, where he teaches a number of courses related to television, culture, and media, such as "Television and American Culture, Theories of Popular Culture, Media Technology and Cultural Change, American Media Industries, Animated Film & TV, Narration Across Media", and "Media and Childhood in American Culture".

His research interests include pop culture topics such as television history and criticism, media and cultural history, genre theory, narratology, animation and children's media, cultural historiography, and new media studies and technological convergence. He lists questions of race and gender (but not social class) among his areas of study. He is currently writing a book on contemporary American television narrative, and a textbook entitled "Television and American Culture". Mittell also writes a blog entitled [http://justtv.wordpress.com JustTV] .

"Genre and Television" book

His book, "Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture" was released in May 2004. The book "...proposes a new understanding of television genres as cultural categories, offering a set of in-depth historical and critical examinations to explore five key aspects of television genre:history, industry, audience, text, and genre mixing." Mittell uses a number of "well-known television programs" to develop "...a new model of genre historiography and illustrat [e] how genres are at work within nearly every facet of television..." Mittell's book "...argues that through analyzing how television genre operates as a cultural practice, we can better comprehend how television actively shapes our social world." [Professor Mittell's homepage. Available at: https://seguecommunity.middlebury.edu/index.php?&site=jmittell&section=5607&action=site]

Use of Wikipedia for college research

In an interview in the "New York Times" on February 21, 2007, Mittell defended the use of Wikipedia as a citeable resource for college-level research. Mittell responded to critics that questioned the accuracy and reliability of an online document that anyone in the world can edit at any time by arguing that “The message that is being sent is that ultimately they see it as a threat to traditional knowledge... [;] I see it [Wikipedia] as an opportunity. What does that mean for traditional scholarship? Does traditional scholarship lose value?”

Publications

*"Genre and Television" (Routledge, 2004).
*"The Great Saturday Morning Exile: Scheduling Cartoons on Television's Periphery in the 1960s," in "Prime Time Animation: Television Animation and American Culture", edited by Carol Stabile and Mark Harrison (New York: Routledge Press, 2003).
*"Before the Scandals: The Radio Precedents of the Quiz Show Genre," in "The Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of US Radio Broadcasting", edited by Michele Hilmes and Jason Loviglio, (New York: Routledge Press, 2002), 319-42.
*“A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory,” article reprinted in "The Television Studies Reader", edited by Robert C. Allen and Annette Hill (New York: Routledge Press, 2005).
*“Classic Network System” and “Generic Cycles: Innovation, Imitation, Saturation,” in "The Television History Book", edited by Michele Hilmes and Jason Jacobs (London: British Film Institute, 2005).

References

External links

* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/education/21wikipedia.html?em&ex=1172379600&en=ad418204e5130dd2&ei=5087%0A The New York Times on Wikipedia in the classroom, from February 21, 2007]
* [https://seguecommunity.middlebury.edu/index.php?action=site&site=jmittell Jason Mittell's homepage]
* [http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/ump/majors/alc/hours/jmittell.htm Jason Mittell's faculty page at Middlebury]
* [https://segue.middlebury.edu/?&site=fmmc0246a-s07&section=15280&action=site Jason Mittell, and Joeseph Antonioli's 'Media Technology and Cultural Change' course website, Middlebury College]