Journal of Popular Film and Television

The Journal of Popular Film was founded in 1971 at the Center for Popular Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University. It became the Journal of Popular Film and Television with Volume 7, Number 1 (1978), being the first scholarly film journal anywhere to include television in its title and editorial purview. From the beginning, the Journal of Popular Film and Television has been resolutely committed to the widest possible range of analytical views and techniques.  The primary purpose of the Journal of Popular Film and Television is to provide a representative cross section of critical-cultural perspectives and to broaden the existing literature to include the “public visions” of popular filmmakers and television showrunners, economic and industrial factors, and an emphasis on the complex role of audiences in the development of film and television as art forms and wide-reaching sociocultural forces.

Today the Journal of Popular Film and Television remains the leading scholarly publication for sociocultural analyses of films and television programming. A sociocultural orientation to film and television has understandably matured and advanced in many diverse directions over the years, but one elemental assumption remains: The first allegiance of this genre of criticism is to the
cultural context and not the media. As basic as this premise is, it powerfully asserts that film and television are cultural products and forms of social knowledge. They are never neutral technologies, but are only meaningful within their relationships to broader contexts, institutions, and discourses.

Regular features of Journal of Popular Film and Television include original essays, “perspective” pieces on controversial issues, “retrospective” articles on older films and television programs, filmographies, bibliographies, and commissioned book and video reviews. Each year, the journal publishes one theme issue on such subjects as “The Western,” “Television as Text,” and “Mixed-Up Confusion: Television in the Twenty-First Century.” The Journal of Popular Film and Television delivers lively and insightful commentaries, written in accessible prose. Authors from across the arts, humanities, and social sciences are welcome and encouraged to submit their work.

Peer Review Policy: