Chad's message regarding Teaching TV raises the issue of what pedagogical approach is appropriate to teaching popular culture - a traditional approach or a progressive approach? Traditional media education is a subject-centered, modernist project that defines media and popular culture as ideological, for they manifest dominant (oppressive) social values that are imposed on passive individuals, who are therefore perceived as victims. According to traditionalists, students need to resist this victimization by becoming active critics through a transformation of their consciousness, which is provided by media education. Traditional media education is therefore a form of demystification, which involves the professor training students in the analytical skills and techniques of media theory and analysis. Progressive education, on the other hand, is a student-centered, libertarian project that aims to encourage students to 'find their own voice' or express their personal experiences with/through media and popular culture. Progressive media education is based on the celebration of popular culture as a form of resistance against or liberation from dominant culture. The students' everyday experience, active appropriation, and use of media and popular culture define them as the experts, and media education involves acknowledging this dimension of popular culture. Progressive education therefore cultivates individuality and rejects the idea of subjecting students to negative criticism, of education as coercion and discipline, and levels the distinction between authoritarian professor and naive student. The progressive media studies class takes students' everyday experiences of the media (not the professor's theory) as the subject matter of media education and emphasizes the positive and pleasurable aspects of the media. 'Channels of Discourse' seems to follow the traditional approach, which may explain some students' resistance to having "their" popular culture defined as ideological. I am not advocating either traditional or progressive media education; I'm simply suggesting that professors who teach popular culture need to be explicit about their pedagogical assumptions. Teaching TV isn't just about content (what TV programs to analyze?) or theories (what theories best match up to what programs?); one also needs to develop and inscribe into the syllabus a teaching philosophy. Also, implicit in Stephen Tropiano's message a few days ago was the assumption that he is teaching one different theory a week, and is then looking for a TV program that best 'fits' that theory. This format obviously favors teaching schedules and book publishing, but perhaps this partly explains the 'struggle' (Tropiano's term) frequently attached to this format. My main aim in raising this issue is to address this 'struggle' and perhaps find a way out of it. Warren Buckland Associate Professor, Film Studies Chapman University Editor, "New Review of Film and Television Studies": http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/17400309.asp ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.ScreenSite.org