1. Television as an Advertising Medium
participants: Neal Burns (University of Texas at Austin), Harper Cossar (Georgia State University), David Gurney (Northwestern University), Alexander Russo (Catholic University), Spencer Downing (University of Central Florida), moderator: Nick Marx (University of Texas at Austin)

Question: What does television studies have to say about television advertising? Television would not exist in the United States without the economic foundation of advertising and the insistent presence of commercials on TV screens. Increasing numbers of viewers across the globe witness television commercials of one sort or another on a daily basis. Most of us note the general existence of commercials, or the economic and ideological imperatives of a commercial system, but then turn our attention to some other aspect of the medium, while shunting television advertising into the background. There is little scholarship in television studies that brings commercials into the foreground or that locates particular commercials or advertising strategies in the history of television. Why have we paid relatively scant attention to television as an advertising medium? What does television studies have to say about television advertising?

Harper Cossar's Response

David Gurney's Response

Alexander Russo's Response

Neal Burns's Response

Spencer Downing's Response