Graduate Program

Communication Studies

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

2018

Thesis Director

Scott M. Walus

Thesis Committee Member

Carrie A. Wilson-Brown

Thesis Committee Member

Chigozirim U. Sodeke

Abstract

Televisual satire news is currently a way for the creators of the programming to critique what is being said in broadcast news media. I think that satire should go a step further and also critique how broadcast news media works. In order to do this, I created a television pilot that breaks the paradigm in which television news operates. Only in it for the News is a creative thesis that incorporates communication and media theory with production techniques to create a television pilot that critiques television news and provides an alternative approach to how television satire is typically presented. The project critiques the 24-hour news metacycle by tracing back why it exists and why it is problematic by looking at television as flow and remediation theory. The research consisted of mapping formats and tropes of the television news genre. The television pilot is informed by this research, as well as theory on narrative like syntagmatic and paradigmatic elements, the process of narrative equilibrium and disequilibrium, characters, mise en scene, and production elements, creating an entertaining and academically rich project. By researching these theories and applying them to my production skills, I was able to create a television pilot that critiques the television news structure, while providing a new look at the genre of television satire. This pilot is important because it shows the overarching causes of the problems within the system of television news that cannot be critiqued by television satire as it exists currently.

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