The television industry has experienced major changes in the past decade that have affected our behaviors, expectations, and perceptions of the world. New services offer different methods of consuming media and shift the way the industry defines television. The following research reflects on past trends in television history and the current landscape in order to understand how television will continue to evolve, adapt, or return to old practices as it reacts to audiences' needs. From the growth of binge-watching to the proliferation of connected devices and digital technologies, the television industry faces many new challenges and opportunities. Consumers have shifted from the post-network era of cable's dominance to the leading online, digital services that enhance consumers' desires to have television anywhere and everywhere. Although these changes threaten the industry's current advertising models, they also present new ways for networks to connect with quality audiences, and thereby, shape our identities and consumer culture. This study analyzes the influence of these changes and considers how the current state of the television industry may continue to change in the future.

This project examines the literary figures of Tristan and Isolde, looking to see how each character is portrayed, how their portrayals change through time, and takes a socio-cultural perspective in attempts to explain why these portrayals were used, and why they changed. Three different versions of the Tristan and Isolde story from three different time periods were used: Le Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory from the 1400's, Idylls of The King by Lord Alfred Tennyson from the 1800's, and the film Tristan + Isolde distributed by 20th Century Fox in the mid 2000's. For each version of the story, the primary text or film, along with secondary sources, were used to determine how each character was portrayed. This was done by examining Tristan and Isolde's physical appearances, stations in life, actions, and personality/tone. These portrayals from each version were then compared with portrayals from the other versions to determine what changes had occurred. Finally, secondary textual information was used to examine the culture in which each version was originally published, specifically examining such socio-cultural changes that could explain why the previously determined portrayals of Tristan and Isolde were used and why they differ from versions of these characters from different time periods. The results of this study found that some characteristics of Tristan and Isolde's portrayals do not change through time. Specifically, their physical appearances and stations in life are, for the most part, fixed. Tristan is always a handsome, strong, and noble knight/warrior while Isolde is always a beautiful and delicate princess. Other characteristics, such as personality/tone and actions do change drastically from one version to the next in accordance with the changing culture in which the authors and audience members lived.

This project is a screenplay that follows the life of Marisa Bradford, a young college-aged woman from Palm Springs, California who finds herself moving to London to attend the London University for the Dramatic Arts (LUDA). Marisa is a recovering alcoholic who recently became engaged to her boyfriend Eric before leaving for London. At LUDA, while fighting for leading roles in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with catty actresses from Essex, Marisa faces the familiar temptations associated with her alcoholism and a new temptation—Sean, a good-looking lead actor who defends Marisa at every turn. When her friends and family arrive for the debut of the play from America, everything comes to a head as Marisa’s separate lives merge. Ultimately, she maintains the relationships that matter to her with the people who have never stopped supporting her, even when she didn’t understand the support. A scout from a prestigious acting program in New York City sees her performance in a supporting role, Titania, and offers her a spot in the highly-competitive program. The ending leaves her and Eric resolving their relationship challenges and moving to New York together.

I've spent the last four-plus years in Arizona studying to earn a degree that hopefully will get me an interesting and well-paying job. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that my Filmmaking Practices degree will adequately describe what I've done with my time at Arizona State University. In addition to studying film, I spent my first year in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication; I wrote for, acted in, and later directed and hosted the webshow Devil's Chowda for The State Press; I did marketing for companies including HBO and RAW Rolling Papers; I performed improv comedy every week with Barren Mind Improv for two semesters; I wrote and acted in Farce Side Comedy Hour sketch comedy this past semester. It is clear that my interests do not lie in one area \u2014 my education is mostly in film, my resume is mostly marketing, and my extra-curricular interests lie mostly in comedy. To best prepare myself for the job market post-graduation, I believe that I need an example of my work to show a prospective employer that I have knowledge beyond how a camera works and the films of Steven Spielberg. To do this, I have chosen to create two spec advertising campaigns for large companies: Heinz and Burger King. This allows me to use my knowledge in film, marketing, and comedy all at once. The Heinz campaign revolves around real-world experiences of children using their French fry as a utensil rather than a food item. The Burger King campaign is based around a limited-time offer to get an entry code into a contest for a bathtub full of chicken nuggets. Each campaign is fleshed out with video advertisement storyboards, audio advertisement scripts, print advertisement mock-ups, and social media hashtags and plans.

This dissertation examines the ways ABC/Disney's Ugly Betty (ABC 2006-2010) manufactures diversity to create an illusion of the U.S. as a site of multiple pluralisms and equality by re-scripting the ugly duckling parable as a Latino de-racialization project and assimilation narrative. The success of the show's original version, Colombian telenovela, Yo Soy Betty, La Fea (RCN 1999-2001), escalated into an international franchise, licensed by and culturally adapted for television markets around the globe. The image the United States promotes of itself, as seen through its media products (especially Disney products) valorize and export discourses of The American Dream around the globe. In order to maintain this carefully crafted self-image, one that masks the ongoing racial oppression and colonial holdings, depictions of diversity are manufactured.

This study examines the Disney affiliated series Ugly Betty to assess how the culture and identity of Betty Suarez, its titular character, as a Mexican-American woman is manufactured. Of particular interest is how she is coded as a diverse member of U.S. workforce, and how her transformative makeover from ugly duckling can be read as an assimilation narrative from racialized ethnic invader to white American professional. Using criteria extracted from scholarship and cultural production regarding Latina identity formation, I locate Betty within what I call the spectrum of assimilation among U.S. Latinas. Because there are various ways in which one negotiates, expresses and balances the multiple cultural, racial and classed components of their self-identity, I tease out markers from existing theories to locate Betty's self-projected cultural identity within the series narrative.

Building on the evidence gathered regarding Betty's rejection of a politicized Latina identity, this project analyzes the implications of the choice of New York City as site of Betty's transformation and how the use of queer visibility and American Dream discourse inform a reading of Betty as assimilation narrative. This dissertation concludes with a brief analysis of two shows featuring Latina titular characters. Both Cristela (ABC 2014-) and Jane the Virgin (CW 2014-) are successors of Ugly Betty yet diverge in the way their portrayals of Latinidades include more nuanced and pluralistic representations.