Johnson (2004), "CBS, PAX-TV, and 'Heartland' Values in a Neo-Network Era"

Johnson (2004) examines the marketing and production norms implemented by by CBS and PAX-TV. Johnson (2004) argues that these networks worked to appeal at a local level rather than a national cable level. This reflects the desire of a certain audience to "rebuild" an American understood through notions of the "heartland" including religion, small-town values, and family. By examining marketing strategies and programming choices (like "Touched by an Angel"), Johnson (2004) argues that these two channels tapped into an audience group that felt neglected. This move is particularly savvy in times of cultural threat, when many Americans feel that their culture is being neglected and disenfranchised.

Lotz (2006), "Women’s Brands and Brands of Women"

In this chapter, Lotz (2006) analyzes the proliferation of women's television programs and networks from an industrial perspective. Specifically, she examines Lifetime, Oxygen, and WE, with particular focus on the ways these channels approach the women in their audiences.  She argues that the increase in channels for women has provided female audiences with two important benefits.

1. Competition among women's networks has resulted in these networks having to actually compete. This has led to better quality programming and higher budgets for women-targeted television programs and channels.

2. There is not only multiplicity, but diversity. Multiple competing women's networks has resulted in different target networks that look at various demands among various women.

Lotz (2006) acknowledges the concern by feminist media researchers that women were being portrayed in narrow and stereotypical ways. She acknowledges the importance of close-readings of shows targeting women, but argues that broader industry level analysis reveals that there are progressive advancements being made in women-centric entertainment.

Havens, Lotz, and Tinic (2009), "Critical Media Industry Studies"

Fueled by the limited scope of political economy models, cultural studies scholars like Havens, Lotz, and Tinic (2009) have aimed to expand production theorization, refocusing efforts on smaller cogs in the larger media machine. 

Critical Media Industry Studies, the model recently proposed by Havens, Lotz, and Tinic (2009), refines the general aims of political economy models, acknowledging the broader structural power at work in political economy models while facilitating a narrower, complementary focus. 

For Havens, Lotz, and Tinic (2009), critiques of media’s power structure must be supplemented by a research-based understanding of power negotiations that happen at a more individualized level. 

Critical Media Industry Studies advocates methods like ethnography and interviews with production personnel, noting that an intimate connection with the media’s decision-makers can lead to a more thorough understanding of the structural power issues outlined by political economists.

Levine (2001), "Toward a Paradigm for Media Production Research"

Levine (2001) observed the industrial practices at General Hospital to determine the ways the show was produced. She suggests breaking media production research into five constraints: constraints, environment, routines and practices, characters and stories, and the role of the audience.

1. Levine (2001) examined the financial constraints placed on design personnel at General Hospital. As shows gain more or less prestige, their budgets grow or shrink accordingly, forcing production personnel to be more creative in their design choices.

2. Levine (2001) noticed that the production environment functioned in terms of gendered norms. The gendered division of labor behind the General Hospital scenes also shaped the production of the show.

3. By "routines and practices," Levine (2001) refers things like continuity design and editing and production schedules.

4. Characters and stories are produced within the guidelines of social norms. Lots of people contribute to the final characters and storylines, so it is important that all staff understand the goal of the developing production elements.

5. Audience communications are usually read by low-level interns, Levine (2001) observes. Therefore, audiences are considered only in aggregate, through lists compiled and delivered to executives.

Aslinger (2009), "Creating a network for queer audiences at Logo TV"

Aslinger (2009) uses Logo TV, a channel developed by Viacom and MTV, as a case study to examine the implications of LGBT representations for television industry. He examines Logo TV at three levels: the trade press, marketing strategies, and individual programming. Logo TV seems to represent a progressive advancement in television, since it speaks to a diversified audience base. However, Aslinger (2009) argues, when the channel is examined in a larger context, problematic implications are revealed.

1. At the trade press level, Logo TV attempted to reach out to a wide range of LGBT audiences. However, its desire for widespread distribution meant that more radical perspectives were silenced. The channel's marketing as an LGBT representative space therefore contributed to a narrowing of which perspectives "count" in the LGBT community. Specifically, Aslinger (2009) argues, Logo TV's target marketing techniques homogenized the LGBT community into affluent, urban trendsetters.

2. Aslinger (2009) also examine's Logo TV's marketing strategies, specifically focusing on the channel's attempts to gather a lesbian audience. This move ended up being problematic, because the marketing did not question issues of race or class, and the marketing strategy again homogenized its representation of LGBT communities.

3. Logo TV's programming also homogenized its representation of LGBT communities through their programming choices. Aslinger (2009) analyzes two of the channel's series to argue that the programming content privileged only a very narrow version of queerness, specifically limiting performance of gay Black identities and privileging class performances that allowed for cosmopolitan consumption of queerness.

Gray (2005), "Where Have All the Black Shows Gone?"

Gray (2005) discusses representations of Black characters, arguing that shows that prominently feature Black characters are often isolated and contained by industry practices.

1. Television representation is limited by structure of distribution

Gray (2005) argues that the conglomeration of media outlets influences representations of Black characters by standardizing and limiting the ways Black characters can be portrayed. Since deregulatory acts like the 1996 Telecommunications Act consolidates representational power to only a privileged few companies, there is little room for non-dominant markets to develop.

2. Conglomerate networks use stereotypical and niche programming to appear progressive

Television programming that includes representations of Black characters is often segregated and contained within the conglomerate television industry structure. Gray (2005) notes that television representations of Black characters are often limited to narrowly defined domains like sports and certain types of musical performance. This gives networks the illusion of representing Black populations, even though mainstream television shows include very little Black representation.

3. Since these representations are so shallow, they only strengthen historical representations of American Blackness

Adorno (1954), "How to Look at Television"

Adorno's (1954) "How to Look at Television" bemoans what he sees as the standardization of dominant ideology across all forms of media.

1. As all types of media (Adorno cites jazz and the detective novel) are being produced by an increasingly narrow group of producers, ideologies are becoming standardized across all formats. Though some of these messages are not new (Adorno cites the subjugation of women, for example), in a context of media standardization, these messages become a priori arguments that must be acknowledged implicitly before media content become intelligible.

2. Since we are getting the same message from all of these different areas, the message gets woven all throughout culture. Therefore, we are less likely to see the message as a message at all.  Instead, it just becomes ingrained in our culture.

3. Adorno (1954) believed that this dominant ideology tamped down resistance and prevented consumers from protesting against unfair treatment.