Newman and Levine (2012) ask how and why television's former status as a denigrated, low-brow medium has been overturned. Once associated with mindless consumption, television programming is now said to be experiencing a cultural renaissance, as evidenced by the increased cultural capital of "quality" television as well as the increasingly expensive investments consumers make in cable, DVR devices, and high-tech television sets.
For Newman and Levine (2012) this renaissance has happened in concert with convergence culture primarily because media convergence allows television to become connected with more respected media and audiences. Specifically, they argue that television becomes legitimized through the denegration of "old" television media, which has historically been understood as feminized. Contemporary "quality" television is distanced from the past and reassociated with the masculine through programming themes, viewership, and television technologies. This shift is accompanied by increased costs, which further distances television's past as a populist medium from contemporary television's association with elite audiences.
Newman and Levine (2012) urge scholars to move beyond quality distinctions, and instead refocus on television studies' contextual elements of culture, politics, and economics.
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