Hybridity, History, and the Identity of the Television Studies Teacher

My teaching and research investigate the intersections of production cultures and identity studies. I am interested in the way workers construct and contest their own identities while they produce culture in institutions and the way these battles over identities shape sociopolitical issues and formal elements in texts. When asked to contribute to this In Focus on teaching contemporary Television Studies, I thought it would be a unique opportunity to use some of my research concerns to make sense of the work and identities of television scholars in contemporary universities. An appropriate starting point is to note that in the first half of the previous decade, when I went on the job market, many Media Studies departments placed job advertisements exclusively for “Television Studies scholars.” At that time, an established institutional logic prevailed that those who taught TV Studies were TV Studies scholars. In the second half of the decade, television-centered jobs largely disappeared, with a job dedicated exclusively to that field appearing every two years or so. Now jobs that mention the teaching of television often ask the candidate to have a hybrid identity and to teach television with a combination of other media—usually film or new media. One might blame this on the way university cuts and consolidations force workers to take on more tasks. Or one might positively conclude that areas such as production studies investigate the creation of contemporary film and television simultaneously, a sign that the study of TV is being brought together with the study of other media. Likewise, the focus on convergence, coupled with the increasing tendency to call our field “Screen Studies,” suggests we are more comfortable with merging media in our teaching and scholarship.

One could claim that all media scholars should have a hybrid identity and teach numerous media. Yet a quick glance through the Chronicle of Higher Education or the SCMS job postings today reveals that many departments advertise for film positions or for new media positions and do not require the hire to teach other components of our field such as Television Studies. Hybridity—a term that I use to describe the need to combine various media or areas of Media Studies (Film Studies, Television Studies, New Media Studies) in our teaching and scholarship—is unequally affecting the practice of hiring and the future of different fields within Media Studies. Contemporary universities usually construct the identity of a TV instructor as that of a hybrid scholar-teacher who should not focus solely on television, whereas film or new media teachers often have the option just to teach their medium of specialty. Still, we should not conclude that hybridity is simply bad for the teaching of Television Studies.

Rather, the hybrid identity of the TV teacher can serve either as a benefit to Television Studies or as a denigration of the field, depending on who constructs this hybridity. Self-identified hybrid scholars usefully illustrate how identities are constructed and contested across media or how industry personnel work in more than one medium. Diane Negra’s and Yvonne Tasker’s work on postfeminism in film and television is a superb classroom tool that asks students to think about problematic notions on television that suggest that we have somehow moved past the need for feminism.¹ Likewise, Mary Beltrán’s writings on Latina/Latino and mixed-race identities in film and TV have helped me teach my own interests in multiracialism and postracialism.² Film scholar Amanda Ann Klein has written provocative work on reality television that I have used to teach multiplatforming and class-based prejudice in the genre.³ Television Studies is still indebted to 1990s industry studies that prioritize the mining of trade magazines and archives; I have used these writings from hybrid scholars in my own courses to speak more explicitly about the social, political, cultural, and economic constructions of identity on television. I place a priority on archival and trade research in my own teaching and writing, but the identity issues investigated by hybrid scholars offer my students an important and equally valuable way to...