Thesis advisor: Juliet Schor / As cult, quality, and mainstream television have merged, a new breed of show has evolved; such shows raise complicated themes and incorporate deep meanings. Drawing from Abercrombie and Longhurst’s (1998) audience continuum, this study focuses on the more casual portion of fandom previously overlooked in fan studies. These “everyday fans” differ from their cultist and enthusiast counterparts by limiting television to a hobby, not engaging in creative production, and not seeking out fan networks. The interviews with sixteen everyday fans as well as four cultists/enthusiasts ground Lost fandom in previous fan traditions and also explore the experience of a previously overlooked segment of the audience. Using ABC's LOST, this study shows how mainstream, everyday fans often unconsciously think about practical and profound issues of everyday philosophy simply by following characters and storylines. In effect, viewers of the show become "accidental intellectuals." LOST raises issues of love, redemption, science versus faith and good versus evil. The interviews with everyday fans reflect that viewers were not only using critical thinking in puzzling out the show’s mysteries but also engaging in deep analysis, personal identification, and the pondering of profound moral dilemmas through the medium of the characters, often without realizing it. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology Honors Program. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Sociology.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Yucel Altunbasak; Committee Member: Brani Vidakovic; Committee Member: Ghassan AlRegib; Committee Member: James Hamblen; Committee Member: Russ Mersereau. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

The diploma thesis examines the depiction of social classes, men, women and ethnic minorities in historical television serials. It is concentrated specifically on a qualitative analysis and comparison of two serials, namely Bridgerton (2020) and The Knick (2014- 2015), of which both fall within the quality television genre. The thesis deals with the ways of representation of the societies of their respective periods, aiming especially at identifying the incorrect depiction of the historical period in question, if any, and at finding similarities with the problems concerning the today's society (such as addressing the issues of social inequalities and manifestations of the identity policy). The theoretical part of the diploma thesis describes the phenomenon of a television serial, namely that concerning the historical serial and quality TV genres, the latter being the kind of television serial work distinguishing itself by comprehensive and innovative procedures, elaborate narratives, and emphasis put on the development of characters. Attention is also paid to the field of the cultural studies, mainly the hegemony theory and the concept of ideology, media and their representation, as well as the study of media audience. In its conclusion, the first part of the thesis focuses on the presentation of...

Tout en voulant inclure la fiction télévisuelle brésilienne parmi les fictions de qualité, cette recherche analyse l’émergence et l’évolution du concept de qualité dans le panorama télévisuel brésilien. Examinant l’histoire de la télédramaturgie au Brésil, depuis les téléthéâtres jusqu’aux microséries réalisées par Luiz Fernando Carvalho, en particulier la microsérie Capitu (2008), nous suggérons que la production fictionnelle brésilienne a atteint un niveau de qualité sophistiquée et avant-gardiste qui illustre une alternative au style préconisé par la formule des séries télévisées américaines qui se regroupent sous l’étiquette de la Quality TV. De plus, le raffinement de la microsérie contribue à la légitimation de la valeur artistique de la télévision à partir de caractéristiques télévisuelles, contrairement à la production fictionnelle américaine dont l’esthétique plutôt cinématographique finit par discréditer davantage le petit écran. Finalement, nous souhaitons démontrer l’importance des innovations esthétiques que cette microsérie a apportées au sein d’une sphère médiatique qui semble se diriger progressivement et rapidement vers l’uniformisation du langage télévisuel et de son contenu. / This research seeks to analyse the rise and the evolution of the concept of quality within the Brazilian context, to include Brazilian television fiction amongst quality television products. Covering the history of Brazilian television dramas from tele-theatres to the microseries directed by Luiz Fernando Carvalho, and in particular the serie Capitu (2008), we suggest that the fictional production in Brazil has reached a very sophisticated and forward-thinking quality level, illustrating an alternative to the aesthetics of American TV series, also known as Quality TV. Furthermore, the sophistication of this microseries contributes to legitimize the artistic value of television by taking into consideration its own formal characteristics, which are different from American fictional production whose cinematographic style ends up discrediting the qualities of the small screen. At last, we would like to demonstrate the importance of Capitu’s aesthetic innovations within a media-sphere which seems to evolve gradually and quickly towards a standardisation of the televisual language and its content. / Desejando incluir a ficção televisiva brasileira no rol das ficções de qualidade, esta dissertação analisa o aparecimento e a evolução do conceito de qualidade no panorama televisivo brasileiro. Percorrendo a história da teledramaturgia no Brasil, desde os teleteatros até as microsséries dirigidas por Luiz Fernando Carvalho, em particular a obra Capitu, sugerimos que a produção ficcional brasileira tenha alcançado um nível de qualidade muito sofisticado e de vanguarda que ilustra uma alternativa à estética das séries americanas contemporâneas que se reagrupam sob o rótulo da Quality TV. Ademais, o refinamento de Capitu contribui com a legitimação do valor artístico da televisão que é, por sua vez, confirmado pelas características próprias ao meio televisivo, opondo-se à ficção serial americana, cuja estética cinematográfica acaba por acentuar o descrédito da televisão. Por fim, gostaríamos de salientar a importância das inovações propostas por esta ficção em uma esfera midiática que parece caminhar progressiva e rapidamente em direção à uniformização da linguagem televisiva e de seu conteúdo.

The discursive and critical positions of the ‘classic’ nineteenth-century novel, particularly the woman’s novel, in the field of adaptation studies have been dominated by long-standing concerns about textual fidelity and the generic processes of the text-screen transfer. The sociocultural patterns of adaptation criticism have also been largely ensconced in representations of literary women on screen. Taking a decisive twist from tradition, this thesis traces the evolution of representations of masculinity in the malleable characters of Rochester and Heathcliff in film and television adaptations of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights between 1939 and 2009. Concepts of masculinity have been a neglected area of enquiry in studies of the ‘classic’ novel on screen. Adaptations of the Brontës’ novels, as well as the adapted novels of other ‘classic’ women authors such as Jane Austen, George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell, increasingly foreground male character in traditionally female-oriented narratives or narratives whose primary protagonist is female. This thesis brings together industrial histories, textual frames and sociocultural influences that form the wider contexts of the adaptations to demonstrate how male characterisation and different representations of masculinity are reformulated and foregrounded through three different adaptive histories of the narratives of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Through the contours of the film and television industries, the application of text and context analysis, and wider sociocultural considerations of each period an understanding of how Rochester and Heathcliff have been transmuted and centralised within the adaptive history of the Brontë novel.