Journal of Popular Film and Television

Journal of Popular Film and Television
Title	Journal of Popular Film and Television
Discipline	Film studies; Television studies; Media studies
Language	English
Abbreviation	J. Pop. Film Telev.
Publisher	Routledge
Frequency	Quarterly
History	1971–present
Issn	0195-6051
Eissn	1930-6458

Contents

Journal of Popular Film and Television is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering analysis of motion pictures and broadcast and streaming television. It publishes scholarly articles, critical essays, and review essays that engage with film directors, producers, actors, studios, networks, festivals, and awards. The journal situates works by figures such as Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg within discourses also involving institutions like Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., BBC Television, and Netflix.

History

Founded in 1971, the journal emerged during an expansion of film and television studies alongside programs at institutions such as University of Southern California, New York University, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Warwick, and University of Exeter. Early issues engaged auteurs including Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and chronicled developments around events like the Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, and the rise of television phenomena such as I Love Lucy and The Twilight Zone. Over subsequent decades the journal responded to shifts brought by the Hollywood Renaissance (1960s–1980s), the emergence of New Hollywood, the consolidation of conglomerates like Time Warner and ViacomCBS, and the digital turn exemplified by YouTube, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video.

The journal emphasizes critical and historical approaches to popular moving-image culture, treating texts by filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, Hayao Miyazaki, Pedro Almodóvar, Guillermo del Toro, and Bong Joon-ho alongside television creators like Vince Gilligan, David Chase, Matthew Weiner, Shonda Rhimes, and Ryan Murphy. It addresses industrial entities including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Disney, NBCUniversal, HBO, AMC Networks, festival circuits like Sundance Film Festival, and awards institutions such as the Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and Emmy Awards. Topics span reception around personalities like Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Audrey Hepburn, James Dean, and contemporary stars like Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, Cate Blanchett, Leonardo DiCaprio, and examine adaptations of works by authors such as Stephen King, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, J. R. R. Tolkien, and George R. R. Martin.

The journal is published quarterly by Routledge with peer review overseen by an editorial board drawn from faculties at institutions including University of Southern California, New York University, King's College London, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Chicago. Editors have collaborated with contributors who teach courses on figures like Orson Welles, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, D. W. Griffith, and institutions such as BBC News, Television Bureau of Advertising, and Screen Actors Guild. Each issue typically contains original articles, review essays, and film and television review sections addressing releases from companies including Studio Ghibli, Film4, A24, Focus Features, and distribution trends exemplified by Criterion Collection and Magnolia Pictures.

The journal is abstracted and indexed in leading services used by scholars in programs at University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Yale University, Princeton University, Brown University, and international research centers like Bibliothèque nationale de France and Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. It appears in databases alongside titles covering cinema and television history, festival programming, and industry reports from organizations like the Motion Picture Association of America, British Film Institute, and Screen Actors Guild‑American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Scholars cite the journal in work on auteurs including Roman Polanski, Sergio Leone, Robert Altman, John Ford, and contemporary directors such as Christopher Nolan and Patty Jenkins, and in television studies addressing shows like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Wire, Game of Thrones, and The Crown. Its articles have informed museum exhibitions at institutions like the Museum of Modern Art, British Film Institute, Tate Modern, and retrospective programs at festivals including Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and SXSW. The journal has been used in curricula for courses at London Film School, National Film and Television School, and research theses that engage awards histories like the César Awards and BAFTA Awards.

Notable contributions have focused on case studies of directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Yasujiro Ozu, Wong Kar-wai, and on television phenomena including Doctor Who, Star Trek, The Simpsons, Twin Peaks, and South Park. Special issues have centered on themes such as national cinemas of Japan, India, France, Italy, South Korea, representational politics involving figures like Angela Davis and Frantz Fanon in media contexts, genre studies of film noir, science fiction, musical film, and industry-focused collections addressing studio reorganizations at Paramount, Columbia Pictures, and 20th Century Fox.

Category:Film studies journals Category:Television studies