Television criticism

Television criticism is the act of writing or speaking about television programming with a view to evaluating its worth, meaning and other aspects. Such criticism can be found in daily newspapers, on culture discussion shows (on TV and radio), and in specialist books and periodicals, all of which are in direct competition for audience from television.

Overview

Since television is so accessible to so many people, most newspapers carry TV listings and these are often accompanied by criticism even just to the extent of recommending a particular programme or programmes from that day's selection of viewing. Television criticism is a way for us to share and gain information about television shows. There are so many options to watch that it may be hard to complete by yourself.

Television will often provide a forum for criticising itself. In the United Kingdom, The Review Show on BBC Four hosts a monthly discussion on the arts with a television series often featuring. Also in the UK is Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe which takes an incisive though humorous look at current television.

Due to its nature of episodic review, it was hard for TV criticism to really take off before the internet age. Now TV critics have the luxury of covering a weekly television show nearly instantaneously via a website.

See also

• Did You See...?
• Category:Television critics

External links

• Our critics' advice - The Guardian, 8 July 2008.
  • In this article Nancy Banks-Smith gives advice to young, aspiring, would-be TV critics.
• Flett, Kathryn (20 December 2009). "Can I finally turn the telly off now?". The Guardian. London: Guardian News and Media. ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 60623878. Retrieved 20 May 2013.