TV and society Books

Book SynopsisThis volume looks at a range of texts and practices that address race and its relationship with television. The chapters explore television policy and the management of race, how transnationalism can diminish racial diversity, historical questions of representation, the myth of a multicultural England and more. They also provide analyses of programmes such as Doctor Who, Shoot the Messenger, Desi DNA, Survivors and Top Boy, all of which are considered in the context of the broadcast environments that helped to create them. While efforts have been made to put diverse portrayals on screen, there are still significant problems with the stories being told.Trade Review‘Adjusting the Contrast makes a meaningful intervention into the whiteness that historically characterises much of UK television studies […]with this rigorous, engaging and eclectic collection, Malik, Newton and their contributors play an important part in the ongoing project to decolonise British television studies.’Hannah Hamad, Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies, Vol. 13, No. 4 (2018) -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction – Sarita Malik and Darrell M. Newton1 A little Brit different? BBC America and transnational constructs of Britishness – Darrell M. Newton2 Scheduling race – Anamik Saha3 Reframing the 1950s: race and representation in recent British television – James Burton4 Black British drama, losses and gains: the case of Shoot the Messenger – Sarita Malik5 The iconic ghetto on British television: Black representation and Top Boy – Kehinde Andrews6 Whiteness, normativity and the ongoing racial Other: imperial fictions: Doctor Who, post-racial slavery and other liberal humanist fantasies – Susana Loza7 Myth of a multicultural England in BBC’s Luther – Nicole M. Jackson8 Framing The Fosters: jokes, racism and Black and Asian voices in British comedy television – Gavin SchafferIndex

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Book SynopsisJennifer Saunders'' comic creations have brought joy to millions. From Comic Strip to Comic Relief, from Bolly-swilling Edina in Ab Fab to her takes on Madonna or Mamma Mia, her characters are household names.But it''s Jennifer herself who has a place in all our hearts. This is her funny, moving and frankly bonkers memoir, filled with laughter, friends and occasional heartache - but never misery.BONKERS is full of riotous adventures: accidentally enrolling on a teacher training course with a young Dawn French, bluffing her way to each BBC series, shooting Lulu, trading wild faxes with Joanna Lumley, touring India with Ruby Wax and Goldie Hawn.There''s cancer, too, when she becomes ''Brave Jen''. But her biggest battle is with the bane of her life: the Laws of Procrastination. As she admits, ''There has never been a Plan. Everything has been fairly random, happened by accident or just fallen into place. I''m off now, to do some sweeping...''Prepare to chuckle, whoop, and go BONKERS.Trade ReviewFabulous? Yes. Funny? Absolutely * Mail on Sunday *Beautifully written and frequently hilarious * Guardian *Delightfully funny... she writes with moving honesty * Hello! *Her account of battling breast cancer is as honest as it is uplifting * Daily Mail *'Hilarious and brilliant' -- Kirsty Young * BBC Radio 4 *Endearing and hilarious. If only all celebrity biographies were this funny * Telegraph *

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Book Synopsis'Turner's seductive blend of political analysis, social reportage and cultural immersion puts him wonderfully at ease with his readers' David Kynaston 'Reading Alwyn Turner's account of life in the first two decades of the 21st century is a bit like trying to recall a dream from three nights ago ... uncannily familiar, but the details are downright implausible ' Kathryn Hughes, Guardian Weaving politics and popular culture into a mesmerising tapestry, historian Alwyn Turner tells the definitive story of the Blair, Brown and Cameron years. Some details may trigger a laugh of recognition (the spectre of bird flu; the electoral machinations of Robert Kilroy-Silk). Others are so surreal you could be forgiven for blocking them out first time around (did Peter Mandelson really enlist a Candomblé witch doctor to curse Gordon Brown's press secretary?). The deepest patterns, however, only reveal themselves at a certain distance. Through the Iraq War and the 2008 crash, the rebirth of light entertainment and the rise of the 'problematic', Turner shows how the crisis in the soul of a nation played out in its daily dramas and nightly distractions.Trade ReviewUp there with the best ... Reading it is almost like an out-of-body experience, in which you realise that your life and times will one day be as ancient to others as the Neolithic period is to us ... All In It Together zings along with such telltale facts and figures, often with an injection of black humour ... Wonderfully shrewd ... Brilliant -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *Hugely engaging ... Turner's genius lies in finding the odd little stories that get under the nation's skin and reveal what people were really thinking ... He writes with a tremendous sense of fun. The result is a rare thing: not just a serious work of contemporary history, but an unashamed, 24-carat hoot -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *Astute and entertaining -- Philip Johnston * Telegraph *Turner's seductive blend of political analysis, social reportage and cultural immersion puts him wonderfully at ease with his readers -- David KynastonReading Alwyn Turner's account of life in the first two decades of the 21st century is a bit like trying to recall a dream from three nights ago. The theme and the mood feel uncannily familiar, but the details are downright implausible ... His great skill lies in spotting themes that we might have missed the first time around -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *Turner may be an anorak, but he is an acutely intelligent anorak -- Francis Wheen * New Statesman *Turner writes with great fluidity, his tone underpinned by a prevailing sense of irony: even the footnotes are enjoyable ... This is a serious undertaking by a popular historian -- Charlotte Henry * TLS *For the first draft of very recent history, there's no more entertaining writer than Alwyn Turner ... a gloriously funny romp ... amid the welter of anecdotes he also has a thoroughly compelling argument about the loss of trust, the rise of populism and the emergence of Nigel Farage as the most influential politician of the age -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times Books of the Year *

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Book SynopsisOffers an important insight into the formative moments of transnational film culture in AustraliaTrade Review"Before Australian cinema's breakthrough in the early 1980s, visiting filmmakers made important and varied contributions to what Danks and Verevis call 'the imagination of Australia'. The Overlanders, On the Beach, Age of Consent, Ned Kelly and Walkabout are among the international productions here valuably reconsidered from a contemporary Australian perspective." -Ian Christie, Birkbeck College, University of London

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Book SynopsisProposes a new perspective on the contemporary rise of mainstreamed populism by exploring features of populist-style politics through the lens of distrust

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Book SynopsisPeople Best New BookThe inside story of the making of Mean Girls and our enduring 20-year obsession with itReleased in 2004, iconic teen comedy Mean Girls remains as relevant now as ever. But what made an adaptation of a parenting guide by SNL writer Tina Fey so successful? And why, two decades later, can we all just not stop quoting it?Drawing on revealing interviews with the director, cast and crew, Jennifer Keishin Armstrong takes us behind the scenes of the film's genesis, production and release. From how it shaped the Millennial generation to how it has intertwined with tabloid, meme and LGBTQ+ culture, So Fetch is also the first deep dive into what makes Mean Girls such an influential phenomenon.Part love letter, part cultural commentary, this is an unmissable read for anyone who is still like, obsessed' with all things Mean Girls twenty years on.Trade Review‘The definitive story of one of the greatest teen comedies in Hollywood history. A brilliant, captivating deep dive.’ Andy Greene, author of The Office: An Oral History ‘Funny, clear-eyed, full of unexpected insights and superb reporting, and a must for any comedy fan.’ Saul Austerlitz, author of Generation Friends ‘Armstrong’s account of the shooting of Mean Girls emulates the breezy enjoyability of the film while offering thoughtful commentary on how “taking young women’s problems seriously while also being very funny” proved central to the film’s appeal. Fans will be riveted.’ Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisCreating TV Formats: From Inception to Pitch takes the reader through a step-by-step process of how to generate ideas, develop story lines and characters and hook an audience, whilst staying aware of the realities of the media landscape.Beginning with a discussion about what a TV format is, each chapter then introduces a key aspect of the development process, such as looking for ideas, shaping the underlying story and thinking about participants. Practical exercises guide the reader through each stage of turning an initial idea or subject matter into a hook or insight; the importance of incorporating storytelling principles and techniques for designing and populating a story world. Examples from successful television formats such as First Dates and The Great British Bake Off are interwoven throughout the book alongside exclusive insights from the key industry professionals who brought them to the screen. From short-form digital content to lonTable of ContentsChapter 1 – What is a format?Chapter 2 – Be CreativeChapter 3 – Do CreativeChapter 4 – Shape ItChapter 5 – Build ItChapter 6 – Design ItChapter 7 – Populate ItChapter 8 – Drive ItChapter 9 – Get Out There!Appendix

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Book SynopsisReasserting the Disney Brand in the Streaming Era investigates the evolution of the Disney brand at a pivotal moment â the move from content creation to acquisition and streaming â and how the company reasserted its brand in a changing marketplace. Exploring how Disneyâs acquisition of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Fox positioned the company to launch the Disney+ streaming service, the chapters look at the history of those acquisitions, and the deployment of the content, brands, and intellectual property from those acquisitions, through an analysis of the original content that appeared on Disney+. Offering a focused investigation of how the content offered from these various media brands was adapted for Disney+ so that it reflects the Disney brand, the authors illustrate through close textual analysis how this content reflects elements of the Classic Disney Style. The analysis positions these texts in relation to their industrial contexts, while also identifying impor

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisFrom Frank's Place through Soul Food and Girlfriends, the increased involvement of African Americans in the production of television images has impacted the way television portrays the diversity of American life. Yet little research has been done to explore how minority television workers see their role as creators. This book explores television and race from the perspective of industry writers, producers, directors, and executives. Listening to those directly involved in bringing diversity to television helps uncover the process whereby difference is created and recreated in both the workplace, and on the television screen. Suitable for classes in race, gender, media, media culture, diversity and the media, and African Americans and popular culture, the book will also be of interest to those wishing to enter the television industry, providing insight from workers who have succeeded in an increasingly competitive business.Trade Review«‘African Americans in Television’ offers us unprecedented insight. It gives us what so few works about race and African Americans in television ever have: a broad, insider’s view of African Americans’ roles in, conflicts with, and dilemmas surrounding the television production process. Theoretically grounded and methodologically rigorous, Gregory Adamo’s work adds significantly to what should be a new era of conversation about the ways that African American involvement in and control (or lack thereof) over the television production process are producing new discourses about race in American life.» (Charlton McIlwain, New York University)«‘African Americans in Television’ offers us unprecedented insight. It gives us what so few works about race and African Americans in television ever have: a broad, insider’s view of African Americans’ roles in, conflicts with, and dilemmas surrounding the television production process. Theoretically grounded and methodologically rigorous, Gregory Adamo’s work adds significantly to what should be a new era of conversation about the ways that African American involvement in and control (or lack thereof) over the television production process are producing new discourses about race in American life.» (Charlton McIlwain, New York University)

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Book SynopsisWelcome to the Whoniverse. First stop: everywhere.Six decades may only be a handful of heartbeats to a Time Lord, but for Doctor Who it's the adventure of several lifetimes. Evolving over 60 years, the world's longest-running sci-fi TV show has gifted us a universe of menacing monsters and unforgettable heroes. You might even call it a 'Whotopia'.Now you can roam free through the Doctor's dimension as never before in this special commemorative book for Doctor Who's diamond anniversary. Join all the Doctors as each tells their own story. Learn about their legions of legendary allies - and hear from the monsters' own mouths about what makes them tick. Find danger on alien worlds and threats here on Earth in all eras. And explore the gadgets, robots, spaceships, computers and mind-blowing creations that crowd the never-ending corridors of Whotopia.Crammed with exciting new images and in full colour throughout, Whotopia: The Ultimate Guide to the Whoniverse is the essential celebration of 60 years of Doctor Who.

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Book SynopsisA deliciously irreverent and humorous insider's account of 25 years working at the very top of British political televisionWhat Rob Burley doesn''t know about political interviewing isn''t worth knowing' Andrew NeilA delicious read' Emily Maitlis ''He writes beautifully'' Jeremy Paxman''Very funny' Steve Coogan''An excellent book'' James O''Brien''He writes brilliantly'' Adam BuxtonWhy Is This Lying Bastard Lying to Me? is a deliciously irreverent insider's account of a career spent trying to get straight answers from politicians, offering a unique insight into the British political class during a time when no one appears to be telling the truth.This book is Rob Burley's love letter to the political interview and, with the help of exclusive conversations with TV giants from Jeremy Paxman and Andrew Neil to Andrew Marr and Emily Maitlis, it will take you inside the process like never before.

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Book SynopsisThis volume bridges the divide between film and media studies scholarship by exploring audience expectations of film and TV genre in the age of digital streaming, using qualitative thematic and quantitative data-driven analyses. Through four ground-breaking surveys of audience members and content creators, the authors have empirically determined what audiences expect of various genres, the extent to which these definitions match those of scholars and critics, and the overall variation and complexity of audience expectations in the age of media abundance. They also examine audience habits and preferences, drawing from both theory and original empirical analyses, with a view toward the implications for the moving image in a rapidly changing media environment. The book draws from the data to develop a number of new concepts, including genre repertoire, genre hybridity, audience interest maximization, and variety seeking, and a new stage of genre development, genre bendingTable of Contents1. Introduction 2. Audience Expectations for Film and Television Genres 3. Audience Viewing of the Moving Image—Film and Television Genres 4. A Profile of Creators of the Moving Images as Audience Roles Evolve 5. Audiences Coping with an Era of Content Abundance: Novelty Seeking and Interest Maximization 6. The New Viewing Environment—Matching Genres with Screens 7. Developing Content Theory for Moving Images 8. Responding to the Pandemic in a Streaming Environment 9. Final Thoughts

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Book SynopsisThis book provides an up-to-date, in-depth survey of 21st-century Spanish horror film and media, exploring both aesthetics and industrial dynamics. It offers detailed analysis of contemporary films and TV series as well as novel approaches to key works within the history of Spanish cinema.While addressing the specificities of the Spanish landscape, this volume also situates the national cinematic output within the international arena, understanding film production and reception as continuously changing processes in which a variety of economic, social and cultural factors intervene. The book first analyzes the main horror trends emerging in the early 2000s, then approaches genre hybridization and the rise of new filmmakers since the 2010s with a special focus on gender issues and the reconfiguration of the past, before addressing the impact of streaming services within the Spanish film panorama, from a production and distribution standpoint.This book will be of keen interest to scholars and students in the areas of film studies, media studies, TV studies, horror, Spanish cultural studies and production studies.

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Book SynopsisIn response to the growing scope and popularity of wedding-related offerings and the media attention given to celebrity and royal weddings, The Bride Factory critically examines various bridal media outlets, artifacts, and the messages they convey about women today. The book departs from conventional wisdom and other treatments of the bridal industry as a scholarly topic by revealing how media portray women in modern American society, and how these portrayals reflect feminism and femininity and illustrate the hegemony created by these media. The book discusses the portrayal of women as brides in media coverage throughout history; the various forms of wedding media, including print, television, and the Internet; how bridal media forward ideals of feminine beauty; how reality wedding programs depict brides and the new bridezilla as agents of control over their perfect day; the role of men in wedding planning; and the extent to which the white wedding ideal is embraced or resiste

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Book Synopsis First aired in 1989, The Simpsons has become America''s most beloved animated show. It changed the world of television, bringing to the screen a cartoon for adults, a sitcom without a laugh track, an imperfect lower class family, a mixture of high and low comedy and satire for the masses. This collection of new essays explores the many ways in which The Simpsons reflects everyday life through its exploration of gender roles, music, death, food politics, science and religion, anxiety, friendship and more.Trade ReviewThe book provides a deeper reading of the show, discussing its music and film allusions and how it examines themes such as nationalism, gender roles, and environmentalism. ... This is a perfectly cromulent resource and a fun read. Simpsons fans will appreciate academics geeking out, and scholars will benefit from this embiggening of Simpson-ology."—Library Journal; "Fans of The Simpsons will welcome the opportunity to delve deeper into their favorite show."—Booklist; "Nobody 'steams a ham' [writes and edits academic material about The Simpsons quite as well as Denise and Karma!...a brilliant book...read their book"—Bill Oakley was writer, producer, and show runner of The Simpsons with his partner Josh Weinstein. He is currently Co-EP of Disenchantment and is known as "The Gordon Ramsay of Fast Food" for his Instagram food videos; "As a chef, my biggest connection to The Simpsons is with food. In each of the essays of this book, the authors share how they connect to The Simpsons, a show that really is a part of us all."—"Chef John" Mitzewich of Foodwishes.com is one of the most-watched chefs on YouTube.

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Book SynopsisTV's American Dream examines how the U.S. television industry in the 2010s pursued audiences whose ideas about hope, fairness, work, and economic class were shaped by the Great Recession. While Americans navigated the trauma of the economic meltdown, the television industry faced growing pressure stemming from new program distribution and viewing methods, increasingly fragmented audiences, shifts in methods of advertising, and regulatory changes. To cut through the clutter of television content to appeal to elusive viewers, television programming reimagined some of the traditional representations of the American Dream and continued to bolster others. Exploring shows on different platforms from legacy networks to Netflix, Selznick takes a deep dive into representations of the American Dream on television. Each chapter of this book focuses on a particular strategy mobilized in the second decade of the new century to speak to audiences about their expectations for and concerns about the

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Book Synopsis'Like a superheated kernel of corn, the world has gone Pop... Drag has become mainstream. Being gay became cool. From being the criminal outsider, being queer has even become representative of the way the outsider voice is common to us all.'When he moved to New York in 1982, Fenton Bailey saw the world go Pop. Together with filmmaking partner Randy Barbato, their production company World of Wonder would pioneer the genre of Reality TV and chronicle the emerging Screen Age through their extraordinary programs and outrageous subjects - from Bible Belt televangelists and conspiracy theories to pioneering drag queens.Working with icons such as Britney Spears, Tammy Faye Bakker and RuPaul, the production company's shows tell a wider story of how television has fundamentally shifted our reality.Packed with glorious insider gossip and amazing celebrity stories, these are the riotous tales behind the shows that would make ScreenAgers of us all.Trade ReviewScreenAge is a must-read. We FINALLY have a book that recognizes the profound and positive impact television has had on all our lives -- Michelle Visagel learned everything I know from television, and you can learn everything I know from this book -- RuPaul

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Book Synopsis‘Every story ever told really happened...’ (The Doctor, ‘Hell Bent’, 2015) Stories are, fundamentally what Doctor Who is all about. In Once Upon a Time Lord, Ivan Phillips explores a wide range of perspectives on these stories and presents a lively and richly-varied analysis of the accumulated tales that constitute this popular modern mythology. Concerned equally with ‘classic’ and ‘new’ Who, Phillips looks at how aspects of the Time Lord’s story have been developed on television and beyond, tracing lines of connection and divergence across various media. He discusses Doctor Who as a mythology that has drawn on its own past in often complex ways, at the same time reworking elements from many other sources, whether literary, cinematic, televisual or historical. Once Upon A Time Lord offers an original take on this singular hero’s journey, reading the unsettled enigma of the Doctor in relation to the characters, narratives and locations that he has encountered across more than half a century.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction: ‘Quite a great spirit of adventure’ 1. Critics, fans and mythologies of discourse 2. Doctor Who as mythology 3. Doctor Who and mythology 4. The hero and his worlds Conclusion: ‘The universe will surprise you’ Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn Valparaiso, a breathtaking play from Don DeLillo, a man sets out on what he imagines will be an ordinary business trip to Valparaiso, Indiana. It proves to be anything but run-of-the-mill, turning instead into a mock-heroic journey toward identity and transcendence. Valparaiso is a funny, sharp and deeply satirical look at our information age. This is the way we talk to each other today. This is the way we tell each other things, in public, before listening millions, that we don't dare say privately. Nothing is allowed to be unseen. Nothing remains unread. And everything melts repeatedly into something else, as if driven by the finger on the TV remote. This is also a play that makes obsessive poetry out of the language of routine airline announcements and the flow of endless information.Trade ReviewValparaiso is art at its finest. * Boston Globe *A play that crawls into the most carefully protected corners of one’s consciousness—gorgeous, frightening, stunningly poetic, wickedly funny, surprisingly voluptuous and poetic. * Chicago Sun-Times *

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Book SynopsisThis book explores how British culture is negotiating heroes and heroisms in the twenty-first century. It posits a nexus between the heroic and the state of the nation and explores this idea through British television drama.Drawing on case studies including programmes such as The Last Kingdom, Spooks, Luther and Merlin, the book explores the aesthetic strategies of heroisation in television drama and contextualises the programmes within British public discourses at the time of their production, original broadcasting and first reception. British television drama is a cultural forum in which contemporary Britain's problems, wishes and cultural values are revealed and debated. By revealing the tensions in contemporary notions of heroes and heroisms, television drama employs the heroic as a lens through which to scrutinise contemporary British society and its responses to crisis and change. Looking back on the development of heroic representations in BTrade ReviewThis timely, vigorous, and wide-ranging book is a welcome addition to the scholarship. Korte and Falkenhayner demonstrate an illuminating depth and breadth of understanding of the texts and their contexts that contributes new insights on both.- Michael Goodrum, Canterbury Christ Church University, UKIt has been a true pleasure reading this book. It offers a rich and engaging discussion of the ambiguous hero and the contested heroic in contemporary British TV culture. Moreover, it presents a range of deeply fascinating and thought-provoking analyses of contemporary series – military, espionage, detective and fantasy - and scrutinizes the protagonist – mostly male - as a figure whose actions raise the broad and important questions what counts as heroic and who can be represented as heroic. Thereby it includes a clever and critical discussion on TV series and (the lack of) diversity. It is highly recommendable to anyone interested in contemporary British TV culture and how TV fiction can contribute to our understanding of contemporary societies. - Anne Jerslev, University of Copenhagen, DenmarkTable of ContentsIntroduction: Heroes, television drama and a nation in change. Concepts and contexts 11 The hero’s journey and the state of the nation 212 British soldier heroism in the War on Terror era 443 The heroic TV detective in the twenty-first century: Transforming archetypes 644 Secret service TV drama: Dubious ethics, dubious heroism 905 Merlin versus Misfits: Heroic British youth telefantasy 110Summary and Outlook 135

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Book SynopsisThis volume examines the shift toward positive and more accurate portrayals of mental illness in entertainment media, asking where these succeed and considering where more needs to be done. With studies that identify and analyze the characters, viewpoints, and experiences of mental illness across film and television, it considers the messages conveyed about mental illness and reflects on how the different texts reflect, reinforce, or challenge sociocultural notions regarding mental illness. Presenting chapters that explore a range of texts from film and television, covering a variety of mental health conditions, including autism, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and more, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology, cultural and media studies, and mental health.Table of Contents1. Introduction: Why depictions of mental illness matter 2."Remember what Dr. Lopez said": Portrayals of mental health care in Nickelodeon’s The Loud House 3."And I suffer from short-term memory loss": Understanding presentations of mental health in Pixar’s Finding Nemo and Finding Dory through communication theory of identity 4.Family narratives and mental illness in This is Us 5.Cognitive differences in Star Trek: The case and evolution of Reginald Barclay 6.Popular culture and the (mis)representation of Asperger’s: A study on the sitcoms Community and The Big Bang Theory 7.Psychopath, Sociopath, or Autistic: Labeling and framing the brilliance of Sherlock Holmes 8.When Saga Norén meets neurotypicality: A liminal encounter along The Bridge 9.The Girl on the Swing: An analysis of cues and depression in Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice (2005) 10.Depictions of depression and eating disorders in My Mad Fat Diary 11."Portraying real feelings with comedy on top": Postpartum depression storylines and domestic sitcoms 12.Ruby Wax: Comedy, celebrity capital, and (re)presentations of mental illness 13.Post-traumatic stress disorder in the films Taxi Driver and You Were Never Really Here: A comparative progressive approach 14.Bipolar and Shameless: Showtime’s portrayal of living and working with bipolar disorder 15.Wrestling with eating disorders: Transmedia depictions of body issues in WWE’s women’s professional wrestling 16.Conclusion: Destigmatizing mental illness and neurodiversity in entertainment media

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Book SynopsisIn 1964, Mary Whitehouse launched a campaign to fight what she called the ''propaganda of disbelief, doubt and dirt'' being poured into homes through the nation''s radio and television sets. Whitehouse, senior mistress at a Shropshire secondary school, became the unlikely figurehead of a mass movement for censorship: the National Viewers'' and Listeners'' Association, now Mediawatch-uk.For almost forty years, she kept up the fight against the programme makers, politicians, pop stars and playwrights who she felt were dragging British culture into a sewer of blasphemy and obscenity. From Doctor Who (''Teatime brutality for tots'') to Dennis Potter (whose mother sued her for libel and won) to the Beatles - whose Magical Mystery Tour escaped her intervention by the skin of its psychedelic teeth - the list of Mary Whitehouse''s targets will read to some like a nostalgic roll of honour.Caricatured while she lived as a figure of middle-brow reaction, Mary Whitehouse was held in contempt by the country''s intellectual elite. But were some of the dangers she warned of more real than they imagined? Ben Thompson''s selection of material from her extraordinary archive shows Mary Whitehouse''s legacy in a startling new light. From her exquisitely testy exchanges with successive BBC Directors General, to the anguished screeds penned by her television and radio vigilantes, these letters reveal a complex and combative individual, whose anxieties about culture and morality are often eerily relevant to the age of the internet. ''A fantastic read . . . I can''t recommend it highly enough.'' Lauren Laverne, BBC Radio 6 Music

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Book SynopsisInterviews with over forty of the most iconic entertainers, broadcasters, writers and stars of British Television.Trade Review"I so enjoyed being interviewed by someone who realises it is the news that is the star and not the newsreader - as my mentor Alastiar Burnet always said!"; Alastair Stewart OBE ;"Josh Barry is without doubt a force of nature.";Larry Lamb ;"Josh Barry is a brilliant interviewer. I am so proud to have had a chance to meet him. His book deserves to be widely read."; Stanley JohnsonTable of ContentsForeword Acknowledgements Introduction Showbiz legends Barry Cryer Tim Brooke-Taylor Jimmy Tarbuck Dame Esther Rantzen George Layton Melvyn Hayes Ray Galton O.B.E. and Alan Simpson O.B.E. Television's coming of age Chris Tarrant Jasper Carrott Richard Digance Peter Duncan Steve Nallon Broadcasters Krishnan Guru-Murthy Jon Snow Alastair Stewart Alan Titchmarsh John Hannam Comedy Ben Elton Arthur Smith Larry Lamb Miles Jupp Vicki Michelle Sue Hodge Jeffrey Holland Brian Conley Joe Pasquale Paul Jackson Writers Tony Jordan Laurence Marks & Maurice Gran David Quantick Colin Edmonds Jonathan Maitland Dick Fiddy Chapter - The 90's Leslie Ash Gaby Roslin Phill Jupitus Mathew Priest from Dodgy Fay Ripley Gordon Kennedy Mike Dixon The New Age of Television Jeremy Kyle Stanley Johnson Lee Ridley Steve Hewlett Shirley Ballas Sum up Sir Michael Parkinson: Liza Tarbuck Michael McIntyre Anthony Joshua Claudia Winkleman About the author

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Book SynopsisThis book analyses video games like Grand Theft Auto and Resident Evil as aesthetic objects. Drawing on philosophical theories of art from Kant to Ranciere, it focuses on what games feel like to players and argues that their appeal can only be adequately understood by relating them to developments in contemporary art and recent cultural history.Trade Review"An established scholar of the sociology of gaming and computers, Kirkpatrick (Univ. of Manchester, UK) argues video games are autonomous cultural forms that should be considered art.""Kirkpatrick positions the aesthetics of video games in interactivity, outside the traditional realm of formal or literary representation.""......adds a distinct, if rather conservative, perspective on video game play to the burgeoning field of game studies."I have yet to encounter a book as extensive and thought-provoking as Aesthetic Theory and the Video Game....Kirkpatrick’s book is an illuminating exploration of how a players body and a game intertwine, or how, “a generation of young men have grown up dancing with their hands.”There is no doubt that this book is important: for the academic theorization of gameplay, aesthetic theory, and cultural studies in its broadest, interdisciplinary or ‘indisiciplined’ manifestations… Rancière is one of a plethora of writers with whom Kirkpatrick artfully weaves propositions and readings of games to accumulate a coherently mapped theory of gaming as an aesthetic cultural practice... I have yet to encounter a book as extensive and thought provoking as Aesthetic Theory and the Video Game.You’ll never look at a controller the same way again after Kirkpatrick explains how we’ve been conditioned to use carefully designed blobs of plastic to influence an image. -- .Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. The Aesthetic ApproachWhy an aesthetic approach?Play and formForm, taste and societyArt and politicsCulture industry revisited2. Ludology, Space and TimeFrom ergodicity to ludologyGameness and its limitsAbstraction, virtual space and simulacraThe rhythm of suspended timeLudology, narratology and aesthetics3. Controller, Hand, ScreenForm, vision and matterHands and touchThe controllerVideo game imageEmbodied activity and culture4. Games, Dance and GenderDance and artHabitus and embodied playChoreography in ‘Mirror’s Edge’A dance aesthetic Choreography and discourseAesthetics and gender5. Meaning and Virtual WorldsFictional worldnessNeo-baroque entertainment cultureForm and fictional contentDeath and allegoryPlay and mourning6. Political AestheticsUnit operationsRhetoric and persuasionBadiou’s inaestheticsThe ludological truth-eventDancing our way to where?Index

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Book SynopsisExplores the influence of the graphic user interface on contemporary screen mediaTrade Review"With sparkling prose, Nick Jones provides a multi-plane illumination of graphic user interfaces their provenance, aesthetics, inter-medial connections, and how they shape experience, imagination, and creative labour. Gooey Media should be essential reading for anyone seeking to understand this key layer of our screen lives, and its aesthetic links across our media ecology." -Lisa Bode, The University of Queensland

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Book SynopsisA new edition that brings the ways we watch and think about television up to the presentWe all have opinions about the television shows we watch, but television criticism is about much more than simply evaluating the merits of a particular show and deeming it good or bad. Rather, criticism uses the close examination of a television program to explore that program's cultural significance, creative strategies, and its place in a broader social context.How to Watch Television, Second Edition brings together forty original essaysmore than half of which are new to this editionfrom today's leading scholars on television culture, who write about the programs they care (and think) the most about. Each essay focuses on a single television show, demonstrating one way to read the program and, through it, our media culture. From fashioning blackness in Empire to representation in Orange is the New Black and from the role of the reboot in Gilmore Girls Trade ReviewThere's quite simply no book out there that can match this in scope and quality. The contributors are a 'Who's Who' of contemporary television studies, and the prose is engaging and highly readable. If you're looking for models of how to think about television from a range of perspectives, you need look no further. -- Greg M. Smith, author of Beautiful TV: The Art and Argument of Ally McBealAsk anyone in Hollywood and they'll tell you the movies are dead. TV is where its at, and this book will show you why. Thompson and Mittell offer an essential guide to television today, featuring the most insightful critics writing about the most creative and engaging shows. Whether student, fan, or TV professional, it belongs on your bookshelf. -- Michael Curtin, co-author of The American Television IndustryThis book, unlike the manual that comes with your TV set, is utterly readable, highly engaging, and worth referring back to, long after you've switched on your favorite channel. . . . Regardless of which essay one chooses to tune in to, How to Watch Television is an accessible and impressive group of essays by a powerhouse cast of television scholars. -- Journal of American CultureThere's not a single dull page in this book. -- Jose Solis, PopmattersWhat happens when you give 40 smart television scholars ten pages each to write about a television show that interests them? You get a delightful book that is sure to become a favorite of television scholars and students alike. Thompson and Mittell have brought together authors who provide thoughtful criticism in an engaging style and cover just about every genre, historical period, and lens of analysis. Each essay's combination of brevity and detailed analysis makes the book likely to work well as both a course reader for undergraduates in television studies and a reference resource for those wanting to dive into research on individual shows. Though every essay adds something valuable to the collection, essays on Mad Men, Glee, M*A*S*H, I Love Lucy, Modern Family, NYPD Blue, The Twilight Zone, and The Walking Dead are worth the price of this fun, informative, and useful book, even for seasoned television scholars.Summing Up: Highly recommended. -- S. Pepper, ChoiceWith their urging in the introduction about how the essays serve as models for writing your own criticism, the editors seem to be addressing media studies students. But because of its well-commissioned and well-balanced tone and diversity/specificity of texts, it is just as instructive for a wide range of burgeoning or established TV scholars as well as inquisitive fans of the various programs. The collection manages to be potentially enjoyable and useful to scholars and TV fans alike. -- Kathleen Collins, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly[I]t is a damn good collection, featuring 40 different contributions from American scholars, plus Matt Hills from Aberystwyth and Roberta Pearson from Nottingham. Their contributions are organised under five main themes: Aesthetics and Style;TV Representations: Social Identity and Cultural Politics;TV Politics: Democracy, Nation, and the Public Interest;TV Industry: Industrial Practices and Structures; and TV Practices: Medium, Technology, and Everyday Life. As with television schedules, it is easy to flick and pick and read. Indeed, the editors in their Introduction actively encourage & readers to go straight to a particular program or approach that interests them. -- Geoff Lealand, CST OnlineThis second edition ensures that this title will remain a staple of television studies courses, and the accessible style welcomes students and general readers to explore these essays and see their favorite television shows in new ways. * CHOICE *

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Book SynopsisA major work destined to change how scholars and students look at television and animation With the release of author Thomas Lamarre’s field-defining study The Anime Machine, critics established Lamarre as a leading voice in the field of Japanese animation. He now returns with The Anime Ecology, broadening his insights to give a complete account of anime’s relationship to television while placing it within important historical and global frameworks. Lamarre takes advantage of the overlaps between television, anime, and new media—from console games and video to iOS games and streaming—to show how animation helps us think through television in the contemporary moment. He offers remarkable close readings of individual anime while demonstrating how infrastructures and platforms have transformed anime into emergent media (such as social media and transmedia) and launched it worldwide. Thoughtful, thorough illustrations plus exhaustive research and an impressive scope make The Anime Ecology at once an essential reference book, a valuable resource for scholars, and a foundational textbook for students.Trade Review"The Anime Ecology is a path-breaking work of media philosophy whose influence will be felt for many years to come. In this wildly innovative book, Thomas Lamarre presents an enlarged concept of animation that entails a major theoretical revision of our understanding of the complexly interrelated genealogies of television, animation, and interactive gaming with respect to their media platforms, technologies, infrastructures, screen forms, and affective relations. What Lamarre describes as the ‘anime ecology’ is nothing less than the emergence of a new and distinctive mode of techno-sociality."—D. N. Rodowick, University of Chicago"By tracking the evolving modes of television animation across cultures as well as in modern Japan, Thomas Lamarre offers a painstaking account of the infrastructure complexes that constitute affective experiences in the age of non-discrete multimedia objects. Written with both a media specialist’s technical precision and a maverick theorist’s archival resourcefulness, this book compels us to rethink our relations with the electronic screens that cohabit intimately with us, body and soul. A brilliant work."—Rey Chow, author of Entanglements, or Transmedial Thinking about Capture"Infrastructures have a tendency to slide into the background, and after seven decades of television, it is hard to make it new and strange again. In his long-awaited book, Thomas Lamarre turns everything we think we knew about television upside down. Animation, not liveness, is the key to its ontology. Japan, not the USA, is the place to see its most radical development. Signals are not simply the raw materials of electrical engineering but the symptoms of our vulnerable existence in the world. Television turns out to be a strange and wonderful habitat, a meeting place of many species. In seeing media platforms as wormholes into alternate universes, The Anime Ecology fulfills the prime directive of media theory: to show that channels are not simply pipes but are worthy of existential dread, respect, and reverence. Steeped in both Japanese television and continental theory, this book is a kind of Japanese-French fusion, a delicious feast of insight. To write this book you would need to be a world-class media theorist, a long-time connoisseur of Japanese culture, and even a former marine biologist, and the one person on earth who is all of those things has brought the rest of us this gift."—John Durham Peters, author of The Marvelous Clouds: Toward a Philosophy of Elemental MediaTable of ContentsContentsIntroduction: Television Animation and Infrastructure EcologyPart I. The Screen–Brain Apparatus1. Population Seizure2. Neurosciences and Television3. This Stuff Called Blink4. A Thousand Tiny BlackoutsPart II. A Little Social Media History of Television5. Media Genealogy and Transmedia Ecology6. A Little History of Japanese Television7. Television and New Media8. Sociality or Something Like It9. Platformativity and OntopowerPart III. Infrastructure Complexes10. The Family Broadcast Complex11. The Home Theater Complex12. The Game Play Complex13. The Portable Interface ComplexConclusion: Signaletic AnimismNotesBibliography

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Book SynopsisThis book seeks to investigate ‘platform power’ in the multi-platform era and unravels the evolution of power structures in the TV industry as a result of platformisation. Multiple TV platforms and modes of distribution are competing–not necessarily in a zero-sum game–to control the market. In the volume, the contributors work to extend established ‘platform theory’ to the TV industry, which has become increasingly organised as a platform economy. The book helps to understand how platform power arises in the industry, how it destabilises international relations, and how it is used in the global media value chain. Platform Power and Policy in Transforming Television Markets contributes to the growing field of media industry studies, and draws on scholarly work in communication, political economy and public policy whilst providing a deeper insight into the transformation of the TV industry from an economic, political and consumer level. Avoiding a merely legal analysis from a technology-driven perspective, the book provides a critical analysis of the dominant modes of power within the evolving structures of the global TV value chain. Trade Review“This book is a welcome addition to the fields of media policy, media industries and screen business. ... It is an ambitious book that tackles the emergence and impact of new players across the globe, detailing the complex interactions between national policy, business models and patterns of consumption. ... The breadth of the research is one of the strengths of this book.” (Jane Roscoe, Critical Studies in Television, Vol. 14 (2), 2019)Table of Contents1. Introduction: Planet Of The Platforms.- 2. From Local Utility To Global Commodity, Case Liberty Global: All Along The Value Chain.- 3. Game Of Screens, Case Netflix: Turning Data Into Content.- 4. Power To The Platforms, Case Hulu: Partners In Crime.- 5. The Retransmission Swamp, Case Fox Networks: The Howling Wolf.- 6. Regulating The Retransmission Swamp, Case Aereo, Bhaalu And Friends: Copyright In The Cloud.- 7. Policing The Platforms, Case Time Warner + AT&T: A Great Deal.- 8.Conclusion: Winner Takes It All.

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Book SynopsisLassen sich kommerzielle Fernsehformate verwissenschaftlichen? Auf jeden Fall!

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Book SynopsisCritically examines two interpretations of government. The first comes from pop culture fictions about politics, the second from academic political science. Stephen Benedict Dyson argues that televised political fictions and political science theories are attempts at meaning-making, reflecting and shaping how a society thinks about its politics.Trade ReviewImagining Politics is a first-rate work of scholarship. Popular culture as conveyed through television shows, such as The West Wing and Yes, Minister, can help to explain the political world. The study provides an innovative account of the populist turn in multiple locations around the world. This is essential reading." - Patrick James, University of Southern California"This is an important and engaging resource for scholars and researchers because of the way that Dyson weaves understandings of fictional narrative into an understanding of the embedded narrative that constructs an entire academic discipline. Dyson integrates popular culture and narratives while analyzing the narratives that shape and form political science as a discipline, exploring the connections between stories told in different contexts." - Imagining Politics: Interpretations in Political Science and Political Television guides the reader through a fascinating interpretation of politics, from diverse vantage points, but through an understanding of the role of narratives." - Lilly Goren, Carroll University"Imagining Politics makes an interesting, novel, and important intervention into the political science literature. The book is crafty—it gets readers to learn about some particularly dry areas of political science by enticing us with Scandal and House of Cards—nicely done." - Renée Ann Cramer, Drake University "When a reality television personality becomes the President of the United States, it's time to pay attention to what television can tell us about politics. Stephen Benedict Dyson has the unusual ability to bridge political science and popular culture and find the 'useful fictions' in both." - John Sides, George Washington University

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Book SynopsisInternational in scope and more comprehensive than existing collections, A Companion to Reality Television presents a complete guide to the study of reality, factual and nonfiction television entertainment, encompassing a wide range of formats and incorporating cutting-edge work in critical, social and political theory.Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors ix Introduction 1Laurie Ouellette Part One Producing Reality: Industry, Labor, and Marketing 9 1 Mapping Commercialization in Reality Television 11June Deery 2 Reality Television and the Political Economy of Amateurism 29Andrew Ross 3 When Everyone Has Their Own Reality Show 40Mark Andrejevic 4 Cast-aways: The Plights and Pleasures of Reality Casting and Production Studies 57Vicki Mayer 5 Program Format Franchising in the Age of Reality Television 74Albert Moran Part Two Television Realities: History, Genre, and Realism 95 6 Realism and Reality Formats 97Jonathan Bignell 7 Reality TV Experiences: Audiences, Fact, and Fiction 116Annette Hill 8 From Participatory Video to Reality Television 134Daniel Marcus 9 Manufacturing “Massness”: Aesthetic Form and Industry Practice in the Reality Television Contest 155Hollis Griffin 10 God, Capitalism, and the Family Dog 171Eileen R. Meehan Part Three Dilemmas of Visibility: Identity and Difference 189 11 The Bachelorette’s Postfeminist Therapy: Transforming Women for Love 191Rachel E. Dubrofsky 12 Fractured Feminism: Articulations of Feminism, Sex, and Class by Reality TV Viewers 208Andrea L. Press 13 “It’s Been a While Since I’ve Seen, Like, Straight People”: Queer Visibility in the Age of Postnetwork Reality Television 227Joshua Gamson 14 The Wild Bunch: Men, Labor, and Reality Television 247Gareth Palmer 15 The Conundrum of Race and Reality Television 264Catherine R. Squires 16 Tan TV: Reality Television’s Postracial Delusion 283Hunter Hargraves Part Four Empowerment or Exploitation? Ordinary People and Reality Television 307 17 Reality Television and the Demotic Turn 309Graeme Turner 18 DI(t)Y, Reality-Style: The Cultural Work of Ordinary Celebrity 324Laura Grindstaff 19 Reality Television’s Construction of Ordinary People: Class-Based and Nonelitist Articulations of Ordinary People and Their Discursive Affordances 345Nico Carpentier Part Five Subjects of Reality: Making/Selling Selves and Lifestyles 367 20 Mapping the Makeover Maze: The Contours and Contradictions of Makeover Television 369Brenda Weber 21 House Hunters, Real Estate Television and Everyday Cosmopolitanism 386Mimi White 22 Life Coaches, Style Mavens, and Design Gurus: Everyday Experts on Reality Television 402Tania Lewis 23 Reality Television Celebrity: Star Consumption and Self-Production in Media Culture 421Julie A. Wilson 24 Producing “Reality”: Branded Content, Branded Selves, Precarious Futures 437Alison Hearn Part Six Affective Registers: Reality, Sentimentality, and Feeling 457 25 A Matter of Feeling: Mediated Affect in Reality Television 459Misha Kavka 26 “Walking in Another’s Shoes”: Sentimentality and Philanthropy on Reality Television 478Heather Nunn and Anita Biressi Part Seven The Politics of Reality: Global Culture, National Identity, and Public Life 499 27 Reality Television, Public Service, and Public Life: A Critical Theory Perspective 501Peter Lunt 28 Reality Talent Shows in China: Transnational Format, Affective Engagement, and the Chinese Dream 516Ling Yang 29 Reality Television from Big Brother to the Arab Uprisings: Neoliberal, Liberal, and Geopolitical Considerations 541Marwan M. Kraidy Index 557

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Book SynopsisFrom Twin Peaks (including the 2017 return) to Girls, a veteran critic and scholar draws on decades of industry expertise and exclusive interviews with renowned creators to examine the rise of art television.Trade ReviewNochimson's book is well worth reading not only for its insights but for the dialogue and reflection it opens up among readers. * Lost in the Movies *Television Rewired is an essential contribution to the still-crystallizing critical definition of auteur television…from the unique perspective of a critic who has engaged with the medium in profound ways. * 25 Years Later *This book details the creative process of each of the series [that developed the concept of the television auteur], based on interviews and detailed research by the author…Recommended. * CHOICE *A lively and fascinating book...Throughout Nochimson is thoroughly consumed by the question of what constitutes television art, and what plausibly counts as a defense of its achievements; her prose is utterly compelling in its gentle unfolding of such complex and challenging questions. * New Review of Film and Television Studies *[Nochimson provides] solid, but accessible, insights into the process of auteur television expression....After reading Television Rewired, I learned a new vocabulary for television viewing. The book is not a judgment of what is good or bad. Nochimson expanded my appreciation for television by explaining exactly what it is I am watching. * Popular Culture Studies Journal *Table of Contents Introduction: The David Effect The Founding Titans: Men without Formula Chapter 1. David Lynch, Twin Peaks Chapter 2. David Chase, The Sopranos Chapter 3. David Simon, The Wire The Legacy: New Options, New Questions, Retooled Formulas Chapter 4. David Simon and Eric Overmyer, Treme Chapter 5. Matt Weiner, Mad Men Chapter 6. Lena Dunham, Girls Chapter 7. Backlash! Formula 2.0 Coda: The Return of David Lynch Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisVenezuela''s most prominent community television station, Catia TVe, was launched in 2000 by activists from the barrios of Caracas. Run on the principle that state resources should serve as a weapon of the poor to advance revolutionary social change, the station covered everything from Hugo Chávez’s speeches to barrio residents'' complaints about bureaucratic mismanagement. In Channeling the State, Naomi Schiller explores how and why Catia TVe''s founders embraced alliances with Venezuelan state officials and institutions. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research among the station''s participants, Schiller shows how community television production created unique openings for Caracas''s urban poor to embrace the state as a collective process with transformative potential. Rather than an unchangeable entity built for the exercise of elite power, the state emerges in Schiller''s analysis as an uneven, variable process and a contentious terrain where institutionsTrade Review"This is a rich, timely and compelling piece of work that contributes significantly to debates about the state, press freedom, community media, class, gender and urban social movements. It will be of great value both to those interested specifically in Venezuela and those concerned with these themes in broader terms." -- Matt Wilde * ERLACS *"In this engaging book . . . Schiller is able to buttress critiques of top-down approaches to state power and state-building, showing readers how most interactions and relationships on the ground cannot be neatly categorized as either from above or from below." -- Anna Fournier * PoLAR *"Schiller’s book is a thorough description of how class and gender affect active citizenship and how these factors create constant conflict in everyday practices of meaning making." -- Virpi Salojärvi * Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly *"This text is important because it so carefully recorded the explanatory principles of Catia TVe and the impact of media technology in the hands of the community desperate to affect state process and policy. . . . This study is quite timely, considering the events that took place in Venezuela in March 2019. It will help future researchers to see whether the theory of community TV and its ethos had a long-lasting impact on the people those stations were designed to serve." -- Albert Tedesco * Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media *"This book joins a significant body of anthropological and theoretical work on the state and society in Venezuela. . . . This book is a highly useful aid to that project." -- Daniel Hellinger * Journal of Anthropological Research *"Schiller’s book boldly unthinks commonsensical categories in the liberal episteme, namely 'the state' and 'society.' Doing so casts the popular classes not as victims of Western imperialism or of Chavista hegemony, but as activated agents who debated in what kind of state would be made. It is an important entry in the emergent field of Chavismo media studies." -- Noah Zweig * International Journal of Communication *"We must read Naomi Schiller's Channeling the State, a compelling study of community media in Venezuela, with a sense of urgency.… The book offers a deep understanding of complex political and social processes occurring within social movements that established alliances with the state. What makes it so unique is the engrossing narrative that, benefiting from ethnographic detail, presents a tangible approach to difficult conceptual debates on state formation, populism, and subalternity." -- Luis Duno-Gottberg * NACLA Report on the Americas *"While Schiller considers statecraft and the role of poor people rather than the medium of media per se, I'd encourage anyone thinking about media as a channel for social justice to take up Channeling the State. I further recommend this book to anyone considering the relations between the marginalized and the state and the specifics of Venezuelan politics at a particular moment in time." -- Amanda Daniela Cortez * American Ethnologist *"A fascinating behind-the-scenes account that draws on months of ethnographic fieldwork. . . . The book’s framing of CatiaTVe as a legacy of New Latin American Cinema makes it an essential reference for researchers of film and participatory film-making." -- Rebecca Jarman * Modern Language Review *Table of ContentsPreface ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 1. State-Media Relations and the Rise of Catia TVe 23 2. Community Media as Everyday State Formation 62 3. Class Acts 89 4. Channeling Chávez 128 5. Mediating Women 164 6. Reckoning with Press Freedom 196 Conclusion 227 Notes 241 References 251 Index 269

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Book SynopsisVenezuela''s most prominent community television station, Catia TVe, was launched in 2000 by activists from the barrios of Caracas. Run on the principle that state resources should serve as a weapon of the poor to advance revolutionary social change, the station covered everything from Hugo Chávez’s speeches to barrio residents'' complaints about bureaucratic mismanagement. In Channeling the State, Naomi Schiller explores how and why Catia TVe''s founders embraced alliances with Venezuelan state officials and institutions. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research among the station''s participants, Schiller shows how community television production created unique openings for Caracas''s urban poor to embrace the state as a collective process with transformative potential. Rather than an unchangeable entity built for the exercise of elite power, the state emerges in Schiller''s analysis as an uneven, variable process and a contentious terrain where institutionsTrade Review"This is a rich, timely and compelling piece of work that contributes significantly to debates about the state, press freedom, community media, class, gender and urban social movements. It will be of great value both to those interested specifically in Venezuela and those concerned with these themes in broader terms." -- Matt Wilde * ERLACS *"In this engaging book . . . Schiller is able to buttress critiques of top-down approaches to state power and state-building, showing readers how most interactions and relationships on the ground cannot be neatly categorized as either from above or from below." -- Anna Fournier * PoLAR *"Schiller’s book is a thorough description of how class and gender affect active citizenship and how these factors create constant conflict in everyday practices of meaning making." -- Virpi Salojärvi * Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly *"This text is important because it so carefully recorded the explanatory principles of Catia TVe and the impact of media technology in the hands of the community desperate to affect state process and policy. . . . This study is quite timely, considering the events that took place in Venezuela in March 2019. It will help future researchers to see whether the theory of community TV and its ethos had a long-lasting impact on the people those stations were designed to serve." -- Albert Tedesco * Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media *"This book joins a significant body of anthropological and theoretical work on the state and society in Venezuela. . . . This book is a highly useful aid to that project." -- Daniel Hellinger * Journal of Anthropological Research *"Schiller’s book boldly unthinks commonsensical categories in the liberal episteme, namely 'the state' and 'society.' Doing so casts the popular classes not as victims of Western imperialism or of Chavista hegemony, but as activated agents who debated in what kind of state would be made. It is an important entry in the emergent field of Chavismo media studies." -- Noah Zweig * International Journal of Communication *"We must read Naomi Schiller's Channeling the State, a compelling study of community media in Venezuela, with a sense of urgency.… The book offers a deep understanding of complex political and social processes occurring within social movements that established alliances with the state. What makes it so unique is the engrossing narrative that, benefiting from ethnographic detail, presents a tangible approach to difficult conceptual debates on state formation, populism, and subalternity." -- Luis Duno-Gottberg * NACLA Report on the Americas *"While Schiller considers statecraft and the role of poor people rather than the medium of media per se, I'd encourage anyone thinking about media as a channel for social justice to take up Channeling the State. I further recommend this book to anyone considering the relations between the marginalized and the state and the specifics of Venezuelan politics at a particular moment in time." -- Amanda Daniela Cortez * American Ethnologist *"A fascinating behind-the-scenes account that draws on months of ethnographic fieldwork. . . . The book’s framing of CatiaTVe as a legacy of New Latin American Cinema makes it an essential reference for researchers of film and participatory film-making." -- Rebecca Jarman * Modern Language Review *Table of ContentsPreface ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 1. State-Media Relations and the Rise of Catia TVe 23 2. Community Media as Everyday State Formation 62 3. Class Acts 89 4. Channeling Chávez 128 5. Mediating Women 164 6. Reckoning with Press Freedom 196 Conclusion 227 Notes 241 References 251 Index 269

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Book SynopsisEngaging with a variety of shows, including The League, Dexter, and Nip/Tuck, among many others, this title identifies the gradual incorporation of second-wave feminism into prevailing gender norms as the catalyst for the contested masculinities on display in contemporary cable dramas.Trade Review"Amanda Lotz impressively maps out important features of television's representations of men and shifting masculinities in the 21st century. Her careful analyses of these series makes this book an essential resource for anyone interested in television, gender, and culture." -- Ron Becker,author of Gay TV & Straight America"Cable Guys is an incredible work that should further cement Lotz's place as a considerate yet comprehensive expert on media and gender studies. Her writing . . . oozes confidence, knowledge, and reflection for her themes and televised tales." * PopMatters *"Lotz (communication studies, Univ. of Michigan;Redesigning Women: Television After the Network Era) here explores how cable television is dramatizing contemporary American male masculinity. The author identifies and focuses on three narrative types: serials that emphasize the development of of a central male protagonist (e.g.,Breaking Bad; Dexter), shows set in male enclaves (e.g.,Rescue Me; Entourage), and stories featuring intimate male friendships (e.g.,Boston Legal; Nip/Tuck). Lotz argues that these dramas depict straight, largely white men wrestling with what it means to be manly in today's post-second-wave feminism and in the context of rising queer visibility. She concludes that the shows' characters all struggle to combine old and new modes of manhood . . . . Lotz offers a concise and insightful analysis of the productions she does examine. Verdict:Scholars will value Lotz's contribution to media and masculinity studies, as will more casual viewers who enjoy watching cable television with a critical eye." * Library Journal,Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Massachusetts Historical Soc. Lib., Boston *"Cable Guysis essential reading for students and scholars working in television studies and in the gendered politics of representation. The book is clear enough to be accessible to anundergraduate audience, while it is also sufficiently subtle and illuminating to be satisfying to more advanced students and scholars.​" * International Journal of Communication,Katherine Sender *"Lotz explores modern visions of masculinity following third wave feminism and epitomized in the rhetoric of male protagonists in cable programming. Mostly eschewing networks depictions of problematized males, Lotz zeroes in on straight male one-on-one friendships, what she calls the & homosocial enclave of the male group, and a genre that particularly challenges male characters, the emerging & male centered-serials." * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Understanding Men on Television2. Trying to Man Up: Struggling with Contemporary Masculinities in Cable's Male-Centered Serials3. Any Men and Outlaws: The Unbearable Burden of Straight White Man4. Where Men Can Be Men: The Homosocial Enclave and Jocular Policing of Masculinity5. Dynamic Duos: Hetero Intimacy and the New Male Friendship Conclusion: Is It the End of Men as We Know Them? NotesBibliography Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisHow the internet transformed television Before HBO's hit show Insecure, Issa Rae's comedy about being a nerdy black woman debuted as a YouTube web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, her response to the absence of diverse black characters on the small screen. Broad City, a feminist sitcom now on Comedy Central, originated as a web series on YouTube, developed directly out of funny women Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson's real-life friendship. These unconventional stories took advantage of the freedom afforded outside the traditional television system: online. Open TV shows how we have left the network era far behind and entered the networked era, with the web opening up new possibilities for independent producers, entrepreneurs, and media audiences. Based on interviews with writers, producers, show-runners, and network executives, visits to festivals and award shows, and the experience of producing his own series, Aymar Jean Christian argues that the webTrade ReviewChristians account of networked television is thrilling, current, and deep. He narrates a period when the story is up for grabs and even the 'postnetwork' era as we know it is on its way to becoming something else through the creativity and vitality of people old TV has left behind. Using stories full of driven energy yet equally steeped in a scholars recognition of the nature of the industry, this is one of the most remarkable books in television studies in quite some time. -- Lisa Henderson,author of Love and Money: Queers, Class, and Cultural ProductionAymar Jean Christian shows us the need to reinvent television, a medium, he says, that has never fully represented the United States. Deeply engaged in the most pressing debates about the future of televisual and web culture, and written in sparkling prose, this book is chock full of inspiring stories of those working to make & open TV, this time, online, for all Americans. -- Stuart Cunningham,author of Hidden Innovation: Industry, Policy and the Creative SectorMedia historian Michele Hilmes referred to the challenges with writing media histories as comparable to 'nailing mercury.' In that sense, Christian nailed it. InOpen TV, Christian has articulated a history of scripted web series, a phenomenon that has advanced at a pace never witnessed in prior media history or, for that matter, media historiographies....Christians research yields great merit in capturing how web series producers operate and have the agency to engage in more diverse representational strategies. This is a phenomena that marginalized audiences and critical scholars have been eager to witness. * Journal of Communication *The focus ofOpen TVgoes beyond the network era and examines the 'networked era' (open TV) and media distribution over the internet and other web protocols. * Choice *

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Book SynopsisFinalist, 2020 Latino Book Awards, Best Academic Themed BookThe surprising effects of American TV on global viewers As a dominant cultural export, American television is often the first exposure to American ideals and the English language for many people throughout the world. Yet, American television is flawed, and, it represents race, class, and gender in ways that many find unfair and unrealistic. What happens, then, when people who grew up on American television decide to come to the United States? What do they expect to find, and what do they actually find? In America, As Seen on TV, Clara E. Rodriguez surveys international college students and foreign nationals working or living in the US to examine the impact of American television on their views of the US and on their expectations of life in the United States. She finds that many were surprised to learn that America is racially and economically diverse, and that it is not the easy-breezy, happy endings culture portrayed in the mTrade Review"This insightful book delves into the influence that watching US TV shows has on the viewers preconceptions and perceptions about race, class, and gender, and to what extent they are aware of this influence[A] timely and important contribution in understanding the global dominance of US TV." * Choice *"It may be useful for undergraduate courses in research methodology, particularly for the open and honest introduction that explains Rodriguezs reason for conducting the study in the first place. Rodriguezs expertise as a sociologist comes through here and she is systematic in approach and easy and enjoyable to read in analysis." * Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly *"This is an interesting and important book, as it provides sorely lacking data on not only viewer impressions of television (rather than the content analyses more common in media studies) but also on those of two populations of viewers; it also provides insight into how foreigners see the United States. This book would be very useful in an introduction to sociology class, as well as classes related to globalization or media studies. It is accessible for an undergraduate or even high school audience." * American Journal of Sociology *"All in all, the book presents interesting empirical findings ... It would most certainly be of interest to academics interested in audience research and the role of American TV." -- European Journal of Communication"Clara Rodríguez has produced an incisive and provocative study. Through intensive interviews and a thoughtful examination of scholarly literature on the media, she has provided a revealing examination of American televisions influence on global perceptions of the life and values of the United States.This is a landmark study of televisions role in shaping popular views of our nation, particularly its racial, ethnic, class, and gender diversity." -- Carlos E. Cortés, author of The Children Are Watching: How the Media Teach about Diversity"This engaging book provides a nuanced probing of the vast and complex literature on the & soft power of television here and abroad to examine how TV shapes the views of foreign born and U.S. millennials about representations of class, race, ethnicity, and gender in America. Through grounded analysis, the findings reveal not only the influence of viewers social and cultural backgrounds on their reception of American television programs, they also transform our understanding of the cultural embeddedness of the global television industry." -- Denise Bielby, author of Global TV: Exporting Television and Culture in the World Market"This book has valuable insights for those studying American soft power but offers even more to students and scholars interested in the impact of the representation of minority groups on television, as Rodríguez emphasizes questions of race, class and gender diversity in American television. Unlike previous studies which have mainly focused on international audiences viewing in their home countries, Rodríguez focuses on how depictions of American life on television can impact immigrants’ perceptions and expectations of America before and after arrival." * Critical Studies in Television *

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Book SynopsisThe election of President Barack Obama signaled for many the realization of a post-racial America, a nation in which racism was no longer a defining social, cultural, and political issue. This title helps you examine television's role as the major discursive medium in the articulation and contestation of racialized identities in the United States.Trade Review"Collectively the essays document the dominance of colorblind ideology, which, the volume argues, has been enabling the continuation of 'racial apathy.' This volume contributes to postracial discourse and is also a valuable resource for those interested in media criticism." * Choice *"Overall, The Colorblind Screen is a timely anthology that joins a smallbut, I hope, growingnumber of works that address colorblind and post-race discourses in media. This collection demonstrates the continued need to consider the central role television plays in the articulation, construction, and contestation of contemporary racial politics . . . . This collection is essential for anyone interested in exploring current racial politics and representations of racial difference in media." * International Journal of Communication *Table of ContentsIntroduction Sarah Nilsen and Sarah E. TurnerPart I: Theories of Colorblindness1. Shades of ColorblindnessAshley ("Woody") Doane 2. Rhyme and ReasonRoopali Mukherjee3. The End of Racism? Colorblind Racism and Popular Media Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and Austin AshePart II: Icons of Post-Racial America4. Oprah Winfrey5. The Race Denial CardDavid J. Leonard and Bruce Lee Hazelwood 6. Representations of Arabs and Muslims in Post-9/11 Television DramasEvelyn Alsultany7. Maybe Brown People Aren't So Scary If They're Funny ComediesDina IbrahimPart III: Reinscribing Whiteness8. "Some People Just Hide in Plain Sight"Sarah Nilsen9. Watching TV with White SupremacistsC. Richard King10. BBFFsPart IV: Post-Racial Relationships11. Matchmakers and Cultural CompatibilityShilpa Dave12. Mainstreaming Latina IdentityPhilip A. Kretsedemas13. Race in Progress, No Passing ZoneJinny Huh About the Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThis is the first cultural history of MAC Cosmetics and charts the originally Canadian company's philanthropy around HIV/AIDS awareness and fundraising during the revitalization of the Toronto fashion industry, the rise of the AIDS epidemic in North America, and the commodification of social causes during the 1980s and 1990s.Trade Review"The book makes important contributions to urban history, the history of queer life, the history of corporate social responsibility, Canadian business history and the history of beauty and fashion." -- Catherine Carstairs, University of Guelph * Canadian Business History Association *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Prologue: Rise Up Introduction: The Rules of Make-up Art Cosmetics Part I: Spaces of Original Possibilities 1 The Kitchen Sink 2 Fashion Capital 3 Caring Is Never Out of Fashion Part II: Creative Activism 4 Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is 5 Selling Out 6 Dragging Theory into Practice Epilogue: The Brightest Jewel in Our Crown Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWords Have a Past traces settler colonial narratives represented in newspapers produced in late nineteenth-century Indian boarding schools.Trade Review"Griffith has produced a nuanced exploration of the tensions and contradictions that not only marked the past in the form of the Residential School system, but has always existed and continues to exist in a web of related assumptions." -- Anne Lindsay * Prairie History *"[Words Have a Past] is a marvelous exploration of the language of colonialism, how the English language was cast as an innocent neutral force, and how this continues to be reflected in contemporary Canada. The book is easily accessible for all readers, well researched, and documented. It is simply a must-read that will aid in developing a deeper understanding of language, and colonialism roots and their ongoing impact in the present." -- Karl Hele, Mount Allison University * Anishinabek News *"Words Have a Past is an important contribution to the ongoing conversation on the assimilation policies of the Indigenous boarding school systems in North America, and importantly, Griffith’s message of settler responsibility and restitution for Indigenous linguicide and land loss is essential for all settlers to hear." -- Carling Beninger, University of Alberta * Canadian Journal of History *"Words Have a Past marks an important step in the study of residential school history by drawing our attention to newspapers as important historical sources, and the printing trade as an influential part of some students’ experiences. Further, in anchoring the book within critical Indigenous and Settler Colonial studies, Griffith provides a direction for scholarship on residential schooling that challenges approaches that situate the system wholly in the past; as a result of her conclusions, Griffith explicitly calls for justice and restitution—especially as it relates to language reclamation—for survivors and their communities. This is an essential read for those studying the residential school system, settler colonialism, history of media, and Canadian history." -- Natalie Cross and Thomas Peace, Huron University College * Journal of British Studies *"In this well researched and highly readable book, Jane Griffith analyzes six newspapers published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century by five Indian boarding schools." -- Shurli Makmillen, Claflin University * Discourse and Writing *Table of Contents1. Bury the Lede: Introduction 2. Printer’s Devil: The Trade of Newspapers 3. Indigenous Languages Did Not Disappear: English Language Instruction 4. "Getting Indian Words": Representations of Indigenous Languages 5. Ahead by a Century: Time on Paper 6. Anachronism: Reading the Nineteenth Century Today 7. Layout: Space, Place, and Land 8. Concluding Thoughts

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Book SynopsisUsing firsthand interviews, archival documents, and visual analysis, Superfluous Women explores the intersections between art, protest, and feminism in today's Ukraine.Trade Review"Superfluous Women is clearly a labor of empathy and solidarity with Ukrainians, and the inter-revolutionary generation in particular. As a path-blazing study on the topic, it should be valued as the result of a decade’s worth of intellectual production, which included numerous research trips and prolonged periods of work in the region, amassing an archive, as well as the work of cultural diplomacy, translating and representing Ukrainian artists and activists in the West." -- Sasha Razor * H-SHERA *"[Zychowicz] introduces several important art projects and movements that are indicative of a unique time in Ukraine’s post-independence history. The author’s connection with the artists through interviews enhances the images and descriptions of works of art, manifestos, and political responses—including repressions of artists—that make up much of the book’s content." -- Emily Channell-Justive, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute * H-Ukraine, H-Net Reviews *"Jessica Zychowicz’s Superfluous Women: Art, Feminism, and Revolution in Twenty-First-Century Ukraine is a groundbreaking study of feminist protest and how it is mediated in contemporary Ukraine. Examining the decade between 2004’s Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity (2013–14), Zychowicz traverses a dazzling array of media, objects, and methods to reveal the vibrant histories of feminist collectives in Ukraine—from the infamous Femen and its media strategies to Ofenzywa’s engagement with photography to the work of the curatorial collectives HudRada and REP. Zychowicz herself is present throughout, as an interlocutor, archivist, and guide whose bracing prose will make this study an invaluable resource for readers in Slavic studies, feminist studies, and visual and media studies alike." -- MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures Committee"[Zychowicz] seeks to examine the way feminism, as a concept and a set of practices, has shaped and continues to shape the political and cultural landscape of Ukraine … it will reach a welcome audience among scholars of feminism, art activism, contemporary art, cultural studies, and Slavic studies." -- Mayhill C. Fowler * The Russian Review *"Drawing attention to the protest spirit evident in Ukrainian society since the early 2000s as the consequence of the rejection of its bigger neighbor’s imperial ideology and aggression, the book reveals the artistic antecedents of Ukraine’s resistance against the Russian invasion in 2022." -- Halyna Kohut * Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte *"This book introduces many important urban struggles going on in Ukrainian art and activism to an anglophone audience." -- Vira Sachenko, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen * KULT_online *"Superfluous Women: Art, Feminism, and Revolution in Twenty-First-Century Ukraine is a significant study of the direct links between political context, protest actions, and art practices in this century … Zychowicz does not hesitate to introduce the reader to the complexities and ambiguities of the struggles for rights." -- Irina Genova * Aspasia *"Superfluous Women offers a valuable new contribution to the scarce English-language bibliography on contemporary Ukrainian art activism. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has sparked worldwide interest in Ukrainian history and culture, Zychowicz’s book gains an even more important role." -- Halyna Kohut, Ivan Franko National University * Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte *"Superfluous Women is remarkable for its blend of erudite theory, close analysis of visual culture, and personal experience. The author’s first-hand engagement with the people and events she discusses facilitates a unique and well-balanced insight that any scholar of contemporary Slavonic studies should welcome." -- Kathleen Mitchell-Fox, Princeton University * Slavonic and East European Review *Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgments Note on Translation and Transliteration of Terms Introduction 1. Performing Protest: Sexual Dissent Reinvented 2. An Anatomy of Activism: Virtual Body Rhetoric in Digital Protest Texts 3. The Image Is the Frame: Photography and the Feminist Collective Ofenzywa 4. Museum of Congresses: Biopolitics and the Self in Kyiv’s HudRada and R.E.P. Visual Art Collectives 5. Bad Myth: Picturing Intergenerational Experiences of Revolution and War Conclusion Bibliography

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Book SynopsisApplying media theory to late-Victorian print, Making Pictorial Print shows how popular illustrated magazines developed a new design interface that encouraged dynamic engagement and media literacy in the British public.Table of ContentsIntroduction: A History of Victorian Print Media Literacy and the Technological Imagination 1. The Illustrated London News, Popular Illustrated Journalism, and the New Media Landscape, 1885–1907 2. Imagining Consumer Culture: Reading Advertisements in the Illustrated London News and the Graphic, 1885–1902 3. Imagining Political Subjectivity: Reading Data Visualizations in Pearson’s Magazine, 1896–1902 4. Imagining Print Production: Making Scrapbook Media, c.1830–1918 5. Imagining New Media Platforms: Taking Snapshots for the Strand, 1896–1918 Conclusion: Victorian Media Literacies and the Genealogy of the Present

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Book SynopsisThis is the first cultural history of MAC Cosmetics and charts the originally Canadian company's philanthropy around HIV/AIDS awareness and fundraising during the revitalization of the Toronto fashion industry, the rise of the AIDS epidemic in North America, and the commodification of social causes during the 1980s and 1990s.Trade Review"The book makes important contributions to urban history, the history of queer life, the history of corporate social responsibility, Canadian business history and the history of beauty and fashion." -- Catherine Carstairs, University of Guelph * Canadian Business History Association *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Prologue: Rise Up Introduction: The Rules of Make-up Art Cosmetics Part I: Spaces of Original Possibilities 1 The Kitchen Sink 2 Fashion Capital 3 Caring Is Never Out of Fashion Part II: Creative Activism 4 Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is 5 Selling Out 6 Dragging Theory into Practice Epilogue: The Brightest Jewel in Our Crown Notes Bibliography Index

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