Raiding the Lost Ark:
The Golden Age of
TV News Documentary
The University of Delaware
Department of Communication

(In the course registration book: "Hist TV News Documentary")
Ye Olde Film & TV
Readings

yellowburstCalendar of documentaries

Updated 2-7-2003

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Spring 2003

Reading Packet

Required Course Packet is available from Copy Maven (136 E. Main St, Newark, DE) (302-456-9100)

Book (obtain on your own)

  • Michael Curtin, Redeeming the Wasteland: Television Documentary and Cold War Politics (Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, 1995)

Articles/Chapters (Course Packet) Index

Notes: This outline is to help you associate course packet readings with specific broadcasts we will study. Additional articles may be posted on the course web site periodically. Some documentaries listed may not be used in class. Your mileage will vary.

I. Introduction & Context

A. William Bluem, Documentary in American Television (Hastings House, New York, 1965) packet pp. 3-18

B. Edward Bliss, Jr. Now the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism (Columbia University Press, New York, 1991) pp. 199-207, 385-406 packet pp. 19-23, 24-34

C. Charles Montgomery Hammond, Jr. The Image Decade: Television Documentary 1965-1975 (Hastings House, New York, 1981) packet pp. 35-54

II. CBS "See It Now" (1953)

A. Thomas Rosteck, See It Now Confronts McCarthyism: Television Documentary and the Politics of Representation (University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa and London, 1994) packet pp. 55-61

B. Edward Bliss, Jr. Now the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism (Columbia University Press, New York, 1991) packet pp. 63-70

C. CBS "Milo Radulovich" (1954)

D. CBS "Report on Senator McCarthy" (1954)

  • Thomas Rosteck, See It Now Confronts McCarthyism: Television Documentary and the Politics of Representation (University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa and London, 1994) packet pp. 71-73

E. CBS "Annie Lee Moss" (1954)

F. John E. O'Connor, Editor, American History, American Television (Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., New York 1983) packet pp. 75-87

III. All Eyes Abroad: Born of the Cold War

A. CBS "Christmas in Korea" (1953)

B. "Night and Fog" (1955)

C. NBC "The U-2 Affair" (1960)

  • Chris Pocock, Dragon Lady: The History of the U-2 Spy Plane (Airlife Publishing Ltd., Shrewsbury, England, 1989) packet pp. 89-112

IV. Domestic Turmoil

A. CBS "Harvest of Shame" (1960) & NBC "Migrant" (1970)

  • Robert Miraldi, Muckraking and Objectivity (Greenwood Press, New York, 1990) packet pp. 113-130

B. CBS "Biography of a Bookie Joint" (1961) & NBC "The Business of Gambling" (1963)

C. CBS "The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson" (1963)

  • Mary A. McCay, Rachel Carson (Maxwell Macmillan Canada, Toronto 1993) packet pp. 131-141

D. CBS "Titicut Follies" (1967)

  • Barry Keith Grant "Ethnography in the First person: Frederick Wiseman's Titicut Follies" in Documenting the Documentary (Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1998) packet pp. 143-150

E. CBS "Hunger in America" (1968)

  • Charles Murray, Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950-1980 (BasicBooks/HarperCollins, 1984) packet pp. 151-167

  • William Issel, Social Change in the United States, 1945-1983 (Schocken Books, New York, 1985) pp. 135-150 packet pp. 169-176

  • Charles Montgomery Hammond, Jr. The Image Decade: Television Documentary 1965-1975 (Hastings House, New York, 1981) packet pp. 177-180

F. CBS "Of Black America: Black History, Lost, Stolen or Strayed" (1968)

  • William Issel, Social Change in the United States, 1945-1983 (Schocken Books, New York, 1985) packet pp. 181-187

  • Edward Bliss, Jr. Now the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism (Columbia University Press, New York, 1991) packet pp. 189-192

G. CBS "Hill 943" (1968)

H. NBC "Attica" (1971)

I. NBC "Pensions: The Broken Promise" (1972)

  • Charles Montgomery Hammond, Jr. The Image Decade: Television Documentary 1965-1975 (Hastings House, New York, 1981) packet pp. 193-195

J. NBC "A Shooting Gallery Called America" (1975)

V. The Business of Broadcast News

A. CBS "A Teenage Smoker" (1962)

B. CBS "Selling of the Pentagon" (1971)

  • John E. O'Connor, Editor, American History, American Television (Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., New York 1983) packet pp. 197-206

  • Martin Mayer, About Television (Harper & Row, New York, 1972) packet pp. 207-218

  • Charles Montgomery Hammond, Jr. The Image Decade: Television Documentary 1965-1975 (Hastings House, New York, 1981) packet pp. 219-223

C. CBS "You and the Commercial" (1972)

D. CBS "Anatomy of a News Story: TV Covers Itself" (1972)

E. CBS "The Trouble With Rock" (1974)

  • Charles Montgomery Hammond, Jr. The Image Decade: Television Documentary 1965-1975 (Hastings House, New York, 1981) packet pp. 225-227

VI. Conclusions

  • Charles Montgomery Hammond, Jr. The Image Decade: Television Documentary 1965-1975 (Hastings House, New York, 1981) packet pp 229-230

  • Edward Bliss, Jr. Now the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism (Columbia University Press, New York, 1991) packet pp. 231-241

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