About

Christine Becker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame specializing in film and television history and critical analysis. Her book It’s the Pictures That Got Small: Hollywood Film Stars on 1950s Television (Wesleyan University Press, 2009) won the 2011 IAMHIST Michael Nelson Prize for a Work in Media and History. She is currently working on a research project exploring issues of cultural taste in contemporary American and British television. She also runs the NewsforTVMajors.com blog and co-hosts the Aca-Media podcast. She’s taught at Notre Dame since 2000, specializing in film and television history and critical analysis. Recent courses include Media Industries, Television as a Storytelling Medium, History of Television, Basics of Film, and Television, and Media Stardom and Celebrity Culture.

Education

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2001, Communication Arts: Film Studies; M.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1995, Communication Arts: Film Studies; B.A., University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, 1993, Humanities.

Other Publications

It’s the Pictures That Got Small: Hollywood Film Stars on Fifties Television. (Wesleyan University Press, 2008)


“WGN America: From Chicago to Cable’s Very Own,” in Derek Johnson, ed., The New Television Industries: A Guide to Changing Channels (Routledge, 2018)

China Beach and the Good Series Death,” in Living Room Wars: American Militarism on the Small Screen, edited by Stacy Takacs and Anna Froula. (Routledge, 2016)

“Off Goes the Telly: Writer Discourse on the Life on Mars Franchise Finales,” Journal of Screenwriting (Vol 6 Num 2: 2015): 173-188.

Life on Mars: How Industry Demands Impact Television Storytelling,” in Jason Mittell and Ethan Thompson, eds., How to Watch Television: Media Criticism in Practice (NYU Press, 2013), pp30-37.

“Acting for the Cameras: Performance in the Multi-Camera Sitcom,” Mediascape (Spring 2008): http://www.tft.ucla.edu/mediascape/ Spring08_ActingForTheCameras.html.

“Paul Newman: Superstardom and Anti-Stardom,” in Pamela Robertson Wojcik, ed., New Constellations: Movie Stars of the 1960s, Star Decades: American Culture/American Cinema series, Adrienne L. McLean and Murray Pomerance, eds. (Rutgers University Press, 2011), 14-33.

“Clark Gable: The King of Hollywood,” in Adrienne L. McLean, ed., Glamour in a Golden Age: Movie Stars of the 1930s, Star Decades: American Culture/American Cinema series, Adrienne L. McLean and Murray Pomerance, eds. (Rutgers University Press, 2011), 245-266.

“From High Culture to Hip Culture: The Transformation of the BBC Into BBC America,” in Mark Hampton and Joel Wiener, eds., Anglo- American Media Interactions, 1850-2000, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2007), pp. 275-294.

“Televising Film Stardom in the 1950s,” Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media (vol. 46 no. 2: Fall 2005): 5-21.

“Glamour Girl Classed as TV Show Brain: The Body and Mind of Faye Emerson,” Journal of Popular Culture (vol. 4 no. 2: Summer 2004): 242-260.

Blog Posts

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