MEVIT4117 – Contemporary TV fiction

Course content

TV is dead. There is too much TV. We hear both statements regularly. We can watch television anywhere—on our computers, phones, tablets, sometimes in cinemas, and if, you take this course, in seminar rooms. For many of us, television is not only almost everywhere but it has always been. It has not only been ever-present in our own lives but is woven into our social interactions and cultural understandings. We use television to start conversations; to laugh together; to discuss topics difficult to broach; to see experiences we might not otherwise. We quote from television to find our crowds. We talk about, through, and with television. But how does television fiction function? How does it, as an aesthetic and cultural form, make meaning??

Contemporary Television Fiction is designed to critically engage with TV scholarship, as well as the discourse surrounding television and related media trends, and consider how contemporary television presents visual narratives that reflect, interrogate, inform, and represent different cultural, political, and social realities. Through key television theory, recent research in television studies, and—most importantly—examples drawn from television itself, this course will seek to understand television as an important contemporary fictional form. This course unpacks television’s formal components and presents critical contexts and lenses for its analysis.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

After completing the course, students will:

  • have a critical understanding of various analytical and theoretical approaches to contemporary television fiction
  • be able to situate theoretical concepts such as postmodernism, representation, genre, national and transnationalism, and aesthetics in relation to television studies
  • understand key debates and histories in television studies
  • understand the relationship between television studies and specific cultural trends

Skills

After completing the course, students will be able to:

  • understand television fiction?in an aesthetic, ideological, institutional and cultural perspective
  • conduct theoretically informed textual analyses of television fiction
  • analyse and critically discuss television fiction in different cultural contexts
  • conduct close formal readings of television texts
  • present arguments about contemporary TV fiction in different forms—oral, written, and visual

General competence

After completing the course, students will be able to:

  • read and discuss theoretical perspectives
  • conduct textual analyses of audiovisual and written materials
  • develop strategies for disseminating ideas within a group setting
  • develop oral presentation skills
  • understand how arguments are structured in academic and critical texts
  • understand the function of different written materials, particularly scholarly, critical, and popular

Admission to the course

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester?register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for?in Studentweb.

This course is for students admitted to Media and Communication Studies (master) (being phased out) and?Politisk kommunikasjon (master).?Students enrolled in other Master's Degree Programmes can, on application, be admitted to the course if this is cleared by their own study programme.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

It is highly advisable that the students have obtained fundamental textual analytical skills and knowledge of central theoretical perspectives in the humanities (through courses such as MEVIT1110, MEVIT2110, MEVIT2710, MEVIT2532, MEVIT3528, MEVIT3510/4510, EST3010).

Overlapping courses

Teaching

The teaching will consist of eight four-hour lecture-seminars and one 2-hour seminar.?Attendance and familiarity with course materials is expected. Students are expected to actively participate in class discussions.

Compulsory activity

To qualify for the exam students are required to participate in an in-class group-led activity. Each week one group will be responsible for conducting a teaching activity. Details provided in week 1.

The compulsory assignment will be assessed as approved/not approved. Approval of the assignment is a prerequisite for being allowed to sit for the examination.??

If you get ill or have other valid reasons for not being able to meet the deadline of the compulsory activity, you must apply for valid absence or postponed deadline.?Read more about compulsory activities at the Faculty of Humanities and find link to the application form.?

A student who has completed compulsory activity and coursework and has had these approved, is not entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework. A student who has been admitted to a course, but who has not completed compulsory instruction and coursework or had these approved, is entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework, depending on available capacity.

Examination

The exam for this course is a term paper of up to ten (10) standard pages. One standard page is? approximately 2300 characters excluding spaces. Students must devise their own research questions based on the core concepts of the course. The page count does not include the front page, literature list/bibliography or appendices.?

Compulsory activity must be fulfilled to be able to hand in the term paper.

See also the department's exam information

Language of examination

The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

More about examinations at UiO

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.

Last updated from FS (Felles studentsystem) Apr. 9, 2026 4:50:38 AM

Facts about this course

Level
Master
Credits
10
Teaching
Spring
Examination
Spring
Teaching language
English

Contact

Department of Media and Communication