Search results for ""author helen wood""
University of Illinois Press Talking with Television: Women, Talk Shows, and Modern Self-Reflexivity
Over the past decade, television talk shows have proliferated and diversified in style. One of the most demonized of television genres, talk shows have fueled debates about television's faltering role as a medium for social interaction. Overlooked in all this discussion is the fact that many viewers don't just absorb the shows but react to them and even talk back to their televisions. Focusing on the political and everyday nature of talk, Talking with Television explores the relationship between talk on TV, talk about TV, and, most dynamically, talk with TV. By observing and analyzing the daily viewing habits of a dozen women viewers, Helen Wood captures how television dynamically unfolds alongside the viewers' own personal opinions, experiences, and life stories. She interprets these experiences as daily rituals of self-reflexivity, focusing on the performance of gender as a doubling of place in contemporary conditions of modernity. Offering a critical analysis of the ritual communication of talk television, Wood argues for a more sustained focus on the mechanics of mediated interaction in media studies, particularly as the field attempts to theorize the characteristics of "old" and "new" media. Directly challenging the fundamental assumption that new media forms are uniquely interactive, Talking with Television reveals that televisual styles, particularly talk-based TV, have always sought to encourage a participatory relationship with viewers at home.
£21.99
Taylor & Francis Ltd The Wedding Spectacle Across Contemporary Media and Culture: Something Old, Something New
This book interrogates the hyper-visibility and stubborn endurance of the wedding spectacle across media and culture in the current climate.The wide-ranging chapters consider why the symbolic power of weddings is intensifying at a time when marriage as an institution appears to be in decline – and they offer new insights into the shifting and complex gender politics of contemporary culture. The collection is a feminist project but does not straight-forwardly renounce the wedding spectacle. Rather, the diverse contributions offer close analyses of the myriad forms and practices of the wedding spectacle, from reality television and cinematic film to wedding videography and bridal boutiques. Drawing on feminist and queer theory, the chapters illuminate the paradoxes, contradictions, disappointments, cruelties and pleasures that are intimately bound up with the wedding spectacle. Written by leading and emerging feminist scholars, the chapters range across different national and cultural contexts to explore how the gender politics of weddings are changing and adapting to a new cultural and social landscape. This in-depth analysis of the wedding spectacle will appeal to academics and researchers in the fields of gender and mass media, cultural studies, feminist studies, and intercultural communication.
£37.99
