Description
Book SynopsisPoint of Sale examines media retail as a vital component in the study of popular culture. It brings together fifteen essays by top media scholars that show how retail matters as a site of significance to culture industries as well as a crucial locus of meaning and participation for consumers.
Trade Review"Herbert, Johnson, and their authors valuably expand our understanding of media retail—a largely overlooked node of media circulation. The book offers an excellent range of cases, themes, and issues that both ground these processes historically and address adjustments introduced by digital distribution." -- Amanda Lotz * author of We Now Disrupt This Broadcast *
"Attention media shoppers! Do not miss this truly original, eloquent argument for retail as an enduring, vital, and complex cultural space in entertainment’s digital age."
-- Jennifer Holt * author of Empires of Entertainment *
"A valuable resource. Recommended." * Choice *
"[A] signal and important contribution to Media Studies...Herbert and Johnson, and their contributors, have done great service to our understanding on how to link media consumption with Retail Studies." * Television and New Media *
Table of ContentsContents
Introduction: Media Studies in the Retail Apocalypse
Derek Johnson and Daniel Herbert
Part I: Retail and New Media Technologies Chapter 1: Industrial Crossroads or Cross Purposes? Circuit City, DIVX, and the History of Multi-functional Media Retailers
Daniel Herbert
Chapter 2: Amazon, Bookseller: Disruption and Continuity in Digital Capitalism
Emily West
Chapter 3: The First Sale Doctrine and U.S. Media Retail
Gregory Steirer
Chapter 4: Game Retail and Crowdfunding
Heikki Tyni and Olli Sotamaa
Chapter 5: The App Store: Female Consumers, Shopping, and Digital Culture
Elizabeth Affuso
Part II: Media and the Politics of Constructing Retail Space Chapter 6: Shelf Flow: Spatial Logics, Product Categorizations, and Media Brands at Retail
Avi Santo
Chapter 7: Get Your Cape On: Target’s Invitation to the DC Universe
Ethan Tussey and Meredith Bak
Chapter 8: Shop, Makeover, Love: Transformative Paratexts and Aspirational Fandom for Female-Driven Franchises
Courtney Brannon Donoghue
Chapter 9: Female Treble: Gender, Record Retail, and a Play for Space
Tim J. Anderson
Chapter 10: “It’s Not Just Commerce, It’s Community”: Erotic Media and the Feminist Sex-Toy Store Revolution
Lynn Comella
Part III: Practices and Participation in Media Retail Communities Chapter 11: Comic Book Stores as Sites of Struggle
Benjamin Woo and Nasreen Rajani
Chapter 12: From Dealer’s Room to Exhibit Hall: Comic Retailing and the San Diego Comic-Con
Erin Hanna
Chapter 13: The Changing Scales of Diasporic Media Retail
Evan Elkins
Chapter 14: Delivering Media: The Convenience Store as Media Mix Hub
Marc Steinberg
Chapter 15: Retail Wizardry: Constructing Media Fantasies from the Point of Sale
Derek Johnson
