Dramatic Storytelling on the Small Screen: From Broadcast to Mobile

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course examines the evolution of U.S. scripted drama on small screens, tracing its lineage from the 1950s “Golden Age” to today’s mobile landscape. The class will chart how the aesthetic grammar of TV drama took shape in the network era, expanded in the multi-channel and post-network eras, and is currently being redefined by mobile devices and short-form digital fiction. Beyond the screen, we’ll analyze the shift from a television monoculture, where millions watched together, to a fragmented world of personalized, on-demand mobile viewing, assessing the effects of consuming dramatic forms through these different viewership modes. By analyzing formats ranging from the 60-minute broadcast hour to the 60-second vertical video, we will investigate what has changed and what has endured across the history of small-screen scripted drama in the U.S. Assignments may include a mix of exams, written assignments, and multimodal options, such as pitch decks and video essays.