Description
Book SynopsisParasocial Politics explores how consumers form complex relationships with media texts and characters, and how these readings exist in the nexus between the real and fictional worlds. This collection of empirical studies analyzes how actual consumers read the text and the overt and covert political messages encoded in popular culture.
Trade ReviewParasocial Politics offers scholars and students of media audiences a well-rounded collection of original research studies from a variety of different methodological perspectives. It avoids the stale debates about audience autonomy by focusing on the phenomenology of audience activity—the ways in which audiences leverage their media experiences to help navigate their social and political world. This collection makes a valuable contribution to the field of audience studies and popular culture by skillfully linking audience interpretations of popular media to forms of political, racial, and religious identity. -- John Sullivan, Muhlenberg College
Jason Zenor has compiled an impressive and very timely collection of studies packed with ideas about the potential for entertainment—and entertainers—to influence political opinion. Each chapter offers insight into the ways we understand and communicate political meanings that are embedded in the media products we consume. This book will, I hope, inspire many more research projects on this important topic. -- Patricia Phalen, George Washington University
Table of ContentsIntroduction Jason Zenor Part I: Entertainment, Celebrity, and Politics Chapter 1: Reading the President: Audience Reception of The West Wing, Jason Zenor Chapter 2: Studying Audience Subjectivity: Reactions to Death of a President, James C. Rhoads Chapter 3: The Wire and Urban Life: Baltimore Responds to its Image, Gregory Adamo Chapter 4: Celebrity Persuasion in the Political Arena: A Study of Message Effects on Young Voters’ Political Opinions in the 2008 Election, Cynthia Nichols and Carly McKenzie Part II: Fandom, Fantasy, and Real Politics Chapter 5: Storytelling through World-Building: Audience Perceptions of Science Fiction Television, Laura Osur Chapter 6: Are You a Lebowski Achiever? The Fans of the Movie The Big Lebowski, Jungian Synchronicity, and the Iraq War, William Ashton Chapter 7: The Dark Knight of the Soul: Netnographic Exploration of Religion, Politics and Batman, Bryan J. Carr Part III: Millenials, Diversity, and Entertainment Chapter 8: Millenials, Citizenship, and How I Met Your Mother, Allison N. Novak Chapter 9: Talking Racial Politics Online: The Progressive Potential of Television Dramas in Postracial America and Parasocial Contact, Carole V. Bell Chapter 10: ‘Nigga You Gay!’ The Post-Racial Millennial Generation’s Reception of The Boondocks, David Moody and Jason Zenor
