Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Communication Dissertations Department of Communication Winter 12-7-2012 The Critical Eye: Re-Viewing 1970s Television Karen C. Petruska PhD Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_diss Recommended Citation Petruska, Karen C. PhD, "The Critical Eye: Re-Viewing 1970s Television." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2012. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_diss/38 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Communication at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE CRITICAL EYE: RE-VIEWING 1970S TELEVISION by KAREN PETRUSKA Under the Direction of Dr. Alisa Perren ABSTRACT In my dissertation entitled “The Critical Eye: Re-Viewing 1970s Television,” I argue that TV scholars would benefit greatly by engaging in a more nuanced consideration of the television critic’s industrial position as a key figure of negotiation. As such, critical discourse has often been taken for granted in scholarship without attention to how this discourse may obscure contradictions implicit within the TV industry and the critic’s own identity as both an insider and an outsider to the television business. My dissertation brings the critic to the fore, employing the critic as a lens through which I view television aesthetics, media policy, and technology. This study is grounded in the disciplines of television studies, media industries studies, new media studies, and cultural studies. Yet because the critic’s writing reflects the totality of television as an entertainment and public service medium, the significance of this study expands beyond disciplinary concerns to a reconsideration of the impact of television upon American culture.