TV and society Books

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

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Book SynopsisA Level Media Studies is a comprehensive guide to the subject content of AS and A Level Media Studies, across all examining boards. It is specifically designed to meet the needs of both students and teachers with an accessible writing style, helpful notes on key theories and theorists and a range of learning exercises.The book's overall approach is gradual immersion, assuming no prior knowledge of the subject. Starting with an overview of the discipline, the book moves on to develop increasingly sophisticated ideas whilst repeatedly reinforcing the basic principles of media studies. Each component of media studies is illustrated with practical examples and guided exercises that demonstrate the application of theories and concepts. In addition, numerous case studies offer examples of media studies in practice. Working through these examples, students will acquire the skill set and confidence to tackle the analysis of media products and the discussion of media iTable of ContentsList of figures. List of tables. Chapter 1. This Is Media Studies Chapter 2. Media Language: Analysing a Media Product: An Introduction to Semiotics Chapter 3. Fictions and Realities: A Television Case Study Chapter 4. Media in a Historical Context Chapter 5. Theory and Debates: The Media Audience Chapter 6. Media Language and Representations: Inequality and Difference Chapter 7. Social and Cultural Contexts Chapter 8. Persuasion: Advertising, Marketing and Propaganda Chapter 9. Media in an Economic Context Chapter 10. Theory and Debates in Hypermodern Times: Where Does Meaning Come From? Chapter 11. Media in a Political Context Chapter 12. Media Shorts: A Collection of Readings Index

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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 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 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 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 SynopsisIn this critical primer, Michael Z. Newman introduces newcomers to the key concepts, issues, and vocabulary of media studies. Across ten chapters, Newman examines topics from text and audience to citizenship and consumerism, drawing on a myriad of examples of media old and new. Film and TV rub shoulders with mobile games and social media, and popular music and video sharing platforms with journalism and search engines. While the book takes a critical, cultural approach, it covers topics that apply across many kinds of media scholarship, bridging the humanities and the social sciences and looking at media as a global phenomenon. It considers media in relation to society and its unequal structures of power, and relates media representations to their conditions of production in media industries and consumption in the everyday lives of audiences and users. Spanning the historical periods of mass media and online participatory culture, it also probes assumptions about media that wTrade Review"Bravo to Michael Newman for expertly rendering the dense and sometimes unwieldy discipline of media studies into an approachable and useable form for instructors and students. Having studied and taught media studies for a quarter of a century, this is the first book I have encountered that adequately captures and explains a media studies approach for undergraduate students. Deeply grounded in key classic and contemporary work of the field, Newman deftly explores the broad range of media with which today’s students engage. Critical questions related to race, gender, and sexuality are impressively integrated throughout the book. Finally, the ‘toolkit' approach makes this an infinitely flexible text for instructors and students."Kathleen Battles, Professor and Chair, Department of Communication, Journalism, and Public Relations, Oakland University, USA"The Media Studies Toolkit skillfully breaks down its many approaches and concepts, producing always accessible, smart and up-to-date discussions. Keeping in mind the politics of media, Michael Z. Newman demystifies and brings alive the critical complexities of media studies, whether focusing on "‘legacy"’ media, the buzz of participatory culture, or doing a textual analysis. Ranging from the classic model of industry-text-audience, to key issues of media regulation, representation and globalisation, this accomplished book really is a one-stop source of clear-headed wisdom, analysis and ‘how-to’ guidance."Matt Hills, Professor of Journalism and Media, University of Huddersfield, UK "Michael Z. Newman's The Media Studies Toolkit is a welcome addition to the field of film and media studies. Newman's accessible and engaging writing in addition to the many varied examples that assist in explaining the foundational concepts of the field make this text a valued contribution to training up students to become more critically literate consumers and creators." Kristen J. Warner, Associate Professor of Journalism and Creative Media, University of Alabama, USA"Michael Newman accomplishes the seemingly impossible: offering an accessible, engaging, and inclusive overview of media studies. Skillfully blending classic concepts with contemporary examples drawn across a wide range of media forms, The Media Studies Toolkit provides students with a welcoming introduction to where the field has been and where it is going. Equally important, Newman shows how to research, apply, and connect ideas drawn from both humanistic and social scientific studies of media."Alisa Perren, Associate Professor of Radio-Television-Film and Co-Director of the Center for Entertainment and Media Industries, The University of Texas at Austin, USATable of Contents1. Introduction 2. Industry 3. Text 4. Audience 5. Representation 6. Ideology 7. Policy and Regulation 8. Citizenship 9. Consumerism 10. Technology 11. Global and Local

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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 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 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 SynopsisThis all-new edition of the best-selling guide The TV Showrunner's Roadmap provides readers with the tools for creating, writing, and managing your own hit streaming series.Combining his 30+ years as a working screenwriter and professor, industry veteran Neil Landau expertly unpacks essential insights to the creation of a successful show and takes readers behind the scenes with exclusive and enlightening interviews with showrunners from some of TV's most lauded series, including Fargo, Better Call Saul, Watchmen, Insecure, Barry, Money Heist, Succession, Ozark, Schitt's Creek, Euphoria, PEN15, and many more.From conception to final rewrite, The TV Showrunner's Roadmap is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to create a series that won't run out of steam after the first few episodes. This groundbreaking guide features an eResource with additional interviews and bonus materials.So grab your laptop, dig out that stalTrade ReviewSince the moment I first read The TV Showrunners Roadmap, Neil Landau has been my TV writing guru. How fortunate am I to have had his mentorship while writing the original draft of the POSE pilot and to now call him friend. - Steven Canals, Emmy award nominated co-creator, executive producer, and showrunner, Pose on FX"Neil has done more than just create a roadmap… he’s written an essential guide that breaks it all down into clear, actionable steps that are valuable whether you’re beginning your writing career or are already established. This edition is chock-full of insider tips from some of the industry’s best and brightest. If you are serious about a career in television or streaming, I urge you to READ THIS BOOK."- Channing Dungey, Chairman, Warner Bros. Television GroupNeil is an expert storyteller with decades of experience. This book is filled with invaluable insights for everyone aspiring for a career in television, and all those already on their way. A must read for writers, directors, agents, execs and talent.- Dan McDermott, President, Original Programming, AMC Networks and President AMC StudiosThe showrunners might be providing the roadmap, but Landau couldn’t be a more impassioned and knowledgeable driver…. No one gets under the hood of what makes great television work better than he does.- Damon Lindelof, Emmy Award-winning Writer/Producer: Lost, The LeftoversFinally, a clear, concise and up-to-date book not only for aspiring TV writers but for industry professionals. Neil digs not only into the craft of creating a series, but also into the emotional journey of what it takes to find your voice as a TV writer. The interviews with current showrunners are useful, practical, and inspiring. - Cindy McCreery, Associate Professor, University of Texas at AustinPraise for TV Writing on DemandThis is like a masterclass in the art of creating television—both now and for whatever 'television' may become. Visionary, insightful and timely.- Issa Rae, Golden Globe-nominated Writer/Producer/Actress: Insecure, The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black GirlPraise for TV Outside the BoxTV Outside the Box blew my mind—and not just because I'm one of the fascinating interviews in the book. Check it out and expand your consciousness beyond the zeitgeist.- Dan Harmon, Emmy Award-winning Writer/Producer/Showrunner: Community, Rick and Morty"Since the moment I first read The TV Showrunner's Roadmap, Neil Landau has been my TV writing guru. How fortunate am I to have had his mentorship while writing the original draft of the Pose pilot and to now call him friend."- Steven Canals, Emmy Award nominated Co-Creator, Writer, Producer, Director, and Showrunner, Pose on FX"Neil has done more than just create a roadmap… he’s written an essential guide that breaks it all down into clear, actionable steps that are valuable whether you’re beginning your writing career or are already established. This edition is chock-full of insider tips from some of the industry’s best and brightest. If you are serious about a career in television or streaming, I urge you to READ THIS BOOK."- Channing Dungey, Chairman, Warner Bros. Television Group"Neil is an expert storyteller with decades of experience. This book is filled with invaluable insights for everyone aspiring for a career in television, and all those already on their way. A must read for writers, directors, agents, execs and talent."- Dan McDermott, President, AMC Entertainment and Studios"The showrunners might be providing the roadmap, but Landau couldn’t be a more impassioned and knowledgeable driver…. No one gets under the hood of what makes great television work better than he does."- Damon Lindelof, Emmy Award-winning Writer, Producer, Showrunner, Watchemen, Lost, The Leftovers"Finally, a clear, concise and up-to-date book not only for aspiring TV writers but for industry professionals. Neil digs not only into the craft of creating a series, but also into the emotional journey of what it takes to find your voice as a TV writer. The interviews with current showrunners are useful, practical, and inspiring." - Cindy McCreery, Associate Professor, Head of Screenwriting, University of Texas at AustinPraise for TV Writing on Demand"This is like a masterclass in the art of creating television – both now and for whatever 'television' may become. Visionary, insightful and timely."- Issa Rae, Emmy Award-nominated Writer, Producer, Actress, Showrunner, Insecure, The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black GirlPraise for TV Outside the Box"TV Outside the Box blew my mind – and not just because I'm one of the fascinating interviews in the book. Check it out and expand your consciousness beyond the zeitgeist."- Dan Harmon, Emmy Award-winning Writer, Producer, Showrunner, Community, Rick and MortyTable of ContentsAlso by Neil Landau Foreword How To Navigate This Book Introduction 1. From Concept to Pilot Script 2. Intellectual Property and Adaptation 3. World Building, Specificity of Setting, and Revising History 4. Fueling Your Story Engine: Central Questions and Central Mysteries 5. The Power of Empathy 6. The Value of Family Dynamics 7. Get to the Heart of Your Story 8. POV and Subtext 9. Antagonists 10. Defying Formulaic Structure 11. Theme 12. Cliffhangers 13. Life on the Cringe: Comedy and Culture 14. Pitching and Selling Acknowledgments About the Author Index

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Book SynopsisFor nearly 100 years, Indian boarding schools in Canada and the US produced newspapers read by white settlers, government officials, and Indigenous parents. These newspapers were used as a settler colonial tool, yet within these tightly controlled narratives there also existed sites of resistance. This book traces colonial narratives of language, time, and place from the nineteenth-century to the present day, post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 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 SynopsisHow are the structures of power and the notion of agency among Syrian women during the recent Syrian conflict connected? To explore this matter, Rand El Zein investigates gender politics around displacement, conflict, the body, and the nation. In doing so, she outstandingly reconciles critical media theory as myriad and productive with the theoretical concepts on subjectivity, power, performativity, neoliberalism, and humanitarian governance. The book examines how the Arab television news discursively represented the experiences of Syrian women during the conflict in relation to the four main concepts: violence, vulnerability, resilience, and resistance.

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Book SynopsisAgainst the background of the media commercialization reform since the 1990s in China and drawing on the case of "X-Change" (2006-2019), Wei Dong investigates the entanglements between emotion and subjectivity, ideology, identity and hegemonic power in the multimodal text of the program. The focus lies on the ways in which emotions are appropriated and disciplined by regimes of power and identity, and the ways in which affect -- in this case primarily kuqing (bitter emotions) communicated by the material and the body -- have the potential to challenge or exceed existing relations of power in the mediascape. Wei Dong shows how Chinese reality TV provides a historical and theoretical opportunity for understanding the affective structures of contemporary China in the dynamic process of fracture and integration.

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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 Synopsis* Bourdieu is well known as one of the most original and influential thinkers in the social sciences. * This book is one of the only things he wrote on the media - the bulk of the text is about television and the book includes an important essay about journalism.Trade Review"This unremitting assault on the impact and pretensions of television demolishes conventional arguments." Times Literary Supplement "Bourdieu not only presents a damming portrait of television as a domain of instant experts - les 'fast thinkers' - dedicated to the production of sensationalism and historical amnesia, he explains why this is so. Anyone who is seriously interested in journalism must read this book." Katha Pollitt, The Nation "As television became normal, so did its systematic corruption. This indispensable polemic, a little marvel of compression, is both a passionate call to resistance and a convincing account of its difficulties." Todd Gitlin, Columbia UniversityTable of ContentsPrologue Journalism and Politics Preface Part One In Front of the Camera and Behind the Scenes Part Two Invisible Structures and Their Effects The Power of Journalism Appendix The Olympics - An Agenda for Analysis Translator's Note Bibliography Notes Index

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Book SynopsisWhile highlighting the prevailing role of television in Western societies, Art vs. TV maps and condenses a comprehensive history of the relationships of art and television. With a particular focus on the link between reality and representation, Francesco Spampinato analyzes video art works, installations, performances, interventions and television programs made by contemporary artists as forms of resistance to and appropriation and parody of mainstream television. The artists discussed belong to different generations: those that emerged in the 1960s in association with art movements such as Pop Art, Fluxus and Happening; and those appearing on the scene in the 1980s, whose work aimed at deconstructing media representation in line with postmodernist theories; to those arriving in the 2000s, an era in which, through reality shows and the Internet, anybody could potentially become a media personality; and finally those active in the 2010s, whose work reflects on how old media like Trade ReviewWhat is and does a work of art? Art can only work framed in a context where it can be seen. Traditionally, that is the museum, gallery, sometimes public space. The space, the curator, then the viewer, become co-makers. With the advent of television, art is set to work in the private sphere. This changes the work of art profoundly. This pioneering study of the relationship between art and television includes reflections on resistance, political tensions, and other ways in which art descends from its isolating pedestal and participates fully in the lives of people. Francesco Spampinato lucidly and patiently lays out what that cultural change entails for what we consider “art” to be and do. * Mieke Bal, Professor Emerita in Literary Theory, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands *In this exhaustive, scholarly yet entertaining book, Francesco Spampinato traces several decades of relations between art and television. Contemporary artworks dealing with the TV function as a space in which to break down the barriers between high and low culture, explore identity or question power structures. In our current times of on-demand platforms, remembering that age in which television was the center of any home appears, not as an exercise in nostalgia, but as a way to reflect on where we come from and where we are now. Contemporary art here becomes the guiding thread from which to look at ourselves in the mirror of that black screen that will give rise to many others. * Julia Ramírez-Blanco, Lecturer in Art History, University of Barcelona, Spain *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Historical and Theoretical Frameworks 2. TV as a Mirror: Manipulations, Interruptions, and Re-presentations 3. Breaking News: Television Between Art and Activism 4. Artists as Media Stars 5. Disentertainment: Music Videos, Kid Shows, Humor, and Soap Operas 6. Art in the Age of Prosumers: Reality TV and the Internet Acknowledgements Works Cited Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAn engaging and original study of current research on television audiences and the concept of emotion, this book offers a unique approach to key issues within television studies. Topics discussed include: television branding; emotional qualities in television texts; audience reception models; fan cultures; ''quality'' television; television aesthetics; reality television; individualism and its links to television consumption.The book is divided into two sections: the first covers theoretical work on the audience, fan cultures, global television, theorising emotion and affect in feminist theory and film and television studies. The second half offers a series of case studies on television programmes such as Wife Swap, The Sopranos and Six Feet Under in order to explore how emotion is fashioned, constructed and valued in televisual texts. The final chapter features original material from interviews with industry professionals in the UK and Irish soap industries along with advice for students on how to conduct their own small-scale ethnographic projects.Table of ContentsIntroduction: why study television?; Part One: Theoretical Background; 1, 'Desperately Seeking the Audience': Models of Audience Reception; 2, Personal Meanings, Fandom & Sitting Too Close to the Television; 3, Global Meanings and Trans-cultural Understandings of 'Dallas'; 4, Theorising Emotion and Affect: Feminist Engagements; 5, Theorising Emotion: Television & Film Theory; Part Two: Case Studies; 6, A Sentimental Journey: Writing, Emotion & Television; 7, 'There's No Place Like Home': Emotional Exposure, Excess and Empathy on TV; 8, Emotional Rescue: 'Sopranos', 'ER' and 'State of Play'; 9, Feminising Television: The Mother Role in 'Six Feet Under' and 'Brothers & Sisters'; 10, Journey and Jeopardy: A Small-Scale Case Study of Emotion in the UK/Irish Television Soap Industry

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Book SynopsisWhy are some controversial issues covered in TV soaps and dramas and not others? How are decisions really made ''behind the scenes''? How do programme makers push boundaries without losing viewers? What do audiences take away from their viewing experience? Does TV fiction have a greater impact on public understandings than TV news? This exciting new book draws on unique empirical data to examine the relationship between popular television fiction and wider society.The book gives lively and engaging insights into how and why socially sensitive story lines were taken up by different TV programmes from the late 1980s to the 2000s. Drawing on a series of case studies of medicine, health, illness and social problems including breast cancer, mental distress, sexual abuse and violence it comprehensively traces the path of storylines from initial conception through to audience reception and uses contemporary examples to link practice to theory. For the first time, this book addresses production and reception processes across a range of programmes and clearly demonstrates the ways in which television fiction plays a vital and powerful role in reflecting and shaping socio-cultural attitudes.Trade ReviewThis is a very important book and is a rare event in media and cultural studies since its conclusions are based on extensive empirical work. It shows very convincingly the processes which underpin the production of television fiction and the powerful impacts which such programmes can have on public understanding. -- Greg Philo, Professor of Communications, University of Glasgow At last a book that bridges the gulf between the study of political communication and television fiction, and between research into media production and audience responses. Lesley Henderson is both original and illuminating. -- James Curran, Professor of Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London The book is clearly written, and represents a valuable contribution to work on media fiction... Social Issues in Television Fiction should also serve as an ideal means to prompt students to become more interested in the process through which such programmes are produced, as well as the importance of understanding how such 'issues' are incorporated into serial drama, and take the shape which they do. -- Joseph Burridge This is a very important book and is a rare event in media and cultural studies since its conclusions are based on extensive empirical work. It shows very convincingly the processes which underpin the production of television fiction and the powerful impacts which such programmes can have on public understanding. At last a book that bridges the gulf between the study of political communication and television fiction, and between research into media production and audience responses. Lesley Henderson is both original and illuminating. The book is clearly written, and represents a valuable contribution to work on media fiction... Social Issues in Television Fiction should also serve as an ideal means to prompt students to become more interested in the process through which such programmes are produced, as well as the importance of understanding how such 'issues' are incorporated into serial drama, and take the shape which they do.Table of ContentsPART I: MAPPING THE FIELD; 1. Television Fiction in Context: Education and Entertainment; PART II: INSIDE THE INDUSTRY; 2. Making 'Good' Television; PART III: STRUGGLES OVER TELEVISION PRODUCTION; General Introduction; 3. Family Secrets: Sexual Violence; 4. A Woman's Disease: Breast Cancer; 5. Casting the Outsiders: Mental Distress; 6. Social Issues, Production and Genre; PART IV: SOCIAL ISSUES AND TELEVISION AUDIENCES; 7. Public Understandings, Sexual Violence and Safe Spaces; PART V: TELEVISION FICTION AND PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE; 8. Conclusions.

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Book SynopsisThis book is a study of the 'Reality TV' format which, in less than a decade, has transformed network programming schedules, branded satellite and digital stations, become a favourite target for anti-television campaigners, and turned viewers into savvy readers of (and participants in) the mechanics of television production.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; Introduction: What Is Reality Television?; 1. Before Reality TV: From Candid Camera to Family Docs; 2. First-Generation Reality TV (1989-1999): The Camcorder Era; 3. Second-Generation Reality TV (1999-2000): Surveillance and Competition in Big Brother and Survivor; 4. The Second Generation Comes of Age (2001-2005): Challenge and Transformation; 5. Third-Generation Reality TV (2002- ): Economies of Celebrity; 6. Legacies: The New MTV Generation; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a detailed study of the three dominant Arab media channels - Al-Jazeera, Al-Hurra and Al-Arabia - and their role post-9/11.Table of Contents1. Overview of Arabic audio-visual media; 2. New Arab media, New discourse; 3. Al-Jazeera, Al-Hurra and Al-Arabia: different channels, or a face of the same coin; 4. Globalisation, Democracy and Arab media; 5. Arabic Media post 9/11.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a detailed study of the three dominant Arab media channels - Al-Jazeera, Al-Hurra and Al-Arabia - and their role post-9/11.Table of Contents1. Overview of Arabic audio-visual media; 2. New Arab media, New discourse; 3. Al-Jazeera, Al-Hurra and Al-Arabia: different channels, or a face of the same coin; 4. Globalisation, Democracy and Arab media; 5. Arabic Media post 9/11.

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