Robert Thompson

The current moment in TV history, and how the medium continues to shape our public discourse.

Syracuse University professor Robert Thompson looks at the media and music that made 1968.

How television in 1948 was 'the last great gasp of cultural hegemony.'

The music publisher and producer Don Kirshner died this week at age 76. We’ll look back at one of the best-known chapters in his career: the syndicated TV show he hosted in the 1970s and early 80s called “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.” We'll talk with Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University's Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, and Rolling Stone contributing editor Alan Light. And: we get a call from Sylvain Sylvain of The New York Dolls.

With national unemployment at record levels, an economy seemingly reluctant to get out of first gear, and experts struggling to solve a foreclosure crisis, it may come as no surprise that Americans are watching more television. According to the Nielsen Company, we’re watching a lot more TV than we used to. Nielsen collects viewer data and television ratings, and says that the average American now watches about 34 hours of television on any given week.

This season will be Simon Cowell's last as judge on Fox's smash-hit American Idol. The caustic Brit everyone loves to hate is stepping down to bring his show X Factor to American audiences next year. Some say he’s brought diverse audiences together and made us all critics; others argue he ...

Oprah Winfrey is kicking off her show's fall season with sit-down interviews with pop stars like Jay Z, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Another talk show host, Ellen DeGeneres, will determine the fate of contestants on the next season of American Idol. Today, a look at how media celebrities outside ...

The Saturday night resignation of White House green jobs advisor Van Jones is as much a story of politics as it is about cable television, as well as the drive and magnetism of Fox Ne...