This book makes a unique contribution to the field of media studies by analyzing the perpetuation of sexual scripts through news articles, films, TV shows, lifestyle magazines, advertisements, and other forms of popular mediated culture. Focusing on cultural differences between North America and Europe, the book catalogues and contextualizes common sexual scripts by looking at the ways in which people have or do not have sex, eroticize each other's bodies, penetrate each other's bodies, and give meaning to all these activities. Other such analyses have explored whether, when, and why people decide to have sex, and so on. This book instead focuses on how the sexual interaction itself is culturally scripted to occur - what sequence of events takes place after a couple have decided to have sex. While the first half of the book catalogues sexual scripts in a general way, based on geography and sexual orientation, the second half is framed around sexual discourses associated with some degree of shame and social stigmatization. The book ends by addressing the hegemonic perpetuation of mediated sexual scripts across cultures and the role of sexuality in fourth-wave feminism. Mediated Eros is suitable as the primary or secondary text in seminars on media, culture, and sexuality, and would also be of interest to journalists and freelance writers whose work explores the sociocultural construction of sex and the sexual self.

Test your expertise on Friends -- from the characters and food, to Central Perk, quotable lines and the funniest, most awkward situations -- with a one-of-a-kind trivia collection based on the classic episode "The One with the Embryos." First, brush up on your knowledge with the Friends A to Z Guide, a book packed with encyclopedic entries on the show's characters, inanimate objects, places, and situations, featuring full-colour photography throughout. The book is 3x5", 88 pages, and paperback.Next, gather your own favourite friends for a lightning round of trivia with a set of cards featuring hundreds of questions to test your skills. The set is based on the game created by Ross in the episode "The One with the Embryos."Keep it all together in the full-colour printed magnetic closure box.

In September 1960 a television show emerged from the mists of prehistoric time to take its place as the mother of all animated sitcoms. The Flintstones spawned dozens of imitations, just as, two decades later, The Simpsons sparked a renaissance of primetime animation. This fascinating book explores the landscape of television animation, from Bedrock to Springfield, and beyond.
The contributors critically examine the key issues and questions, including: How do we explain the animation explosion of the 1960s? Why did it take nearly twenty years following the cancellation of The Flintstones for animation to find its feet again as primetime fare? In addressing these questions, as well as many others, essays in the first section examine the relation between earlier, made-for-cinema animated production (such as the Warner Looney Toons shorts) and television-based animation; the role of animation in the economies of broadcast and cable television; and the links between animation production and brand image. Contributors also examine specific programmes like The Powerpuff Girls, Daria, The Simpsons, Ren and Stimpy and South Park from the perspective of fans, exploring fan cybercommunities, investigating how ideas of 'class' and 'taste' apply to recent TV animation, and addressing themes such as irony, alienation, and representations of the family.

This book explores a hybrid model of broadcasting and takes a close look at public TV broadcasting operating in a market-driven environment. While media and media institutions play an important role in democratic societies, their management is a complex process and has to coordinate the various demands of the public, the owners, advertisers and society. Managing media institutions also has to take into account technological developments, changes in the regulatory framework and social trends. Whereas media performance reflects social developments, their management often represents catching the uncatchable: providing for the public good and offering attractive market products.

There are two ages in the history of television: before HBO and after HBO. Before the launch of Home Box Office in 1972, the industry had changed little since the birth of broadcast network television in the late 1940s. The arrival of the premium cable channel began a revolution in the business and programming of TV. For the generation that has grown up with the vast array of viewing choices available today, it is almost inconceivable that our ever-expanding media universe began with a few hours of unimpressive programming on a single cable channel. This is the story of HBO's reconfiguration of television and the company's continual reinvention of itself in a competitive and dynamic industry.

While some have argued that we live in a 'postfeminist' era that renders feminism irrelevant to people's contemporary lives this book takes 'feminism', the source of eternal debate, contestation and ambivalence, and situates the term within the popular, cultural practices of everyday life. It explores the intimate connections between the politics of feminism and the representational practices of contemporary popular culture, examining how feminism is 'made sensible' through visual imagery and popular culture representations. It investigates how popular culture is produced, represented and consumed to reproduce the conditions in which feminism is valued or dismissed, and asks whether antifeminism exists in commodity form and is commercially viable. Written in an accessible style and analysing a broad range of popular culture artefacts (including commercial advertising, printed and digital news-related journalism and commentary, music, film, television programming, websites and social media), this book will be of use to students, researchers and practitioners of International Relations, International Political Economy and gender, cultural and media studies.

Television Brandcasting examines U. S. television's utility as a medium for branded storytelling. It investigates the current and historical role that television content, promotion, and hybrids of the two have played in disseminating brand messaging and influencing consumer decision-making. Juxtaposing the current period of transition with that of the 1950s-1960s, Jennifer Gillan outlines how in each era new technologies unsettled entrenched business models, an emergent viewing platform threatened to undermine an established one, and content providers worried over the behavior of once-dependable audiences. The anxieties led to storytelling, promotion, and advertising experiments, including the Disneyland series, embedded rock music videos in Ozzie & Harriet, credit sequence brand integration, Modern Family's parent company promotion episodes, second screen initiatives, and social TV experiments. Offering contemporary and classic examples from the American Broadcasting Company, Disney Channel, ABC Family, and Showtime, alongside series such as Bewitched, Leave it to Beaver, Laverne & Shirley, and Pretty Little Liars, individual chapters focus on brandcasting at the level of the television series, network schedule, "Blu-ray/DVD/Digital" combo pack, the promotional short, the cause marketing campaign, and across social media. In this follow-up to her successful previous book, Television and New Media: Must-Click TV, Gillan provides vital insights into television's role in the expansion of a brand-centric U.S. culture.

What can depictions of psychotherapy on screen teach us about ourselves? In Eavesdropping, a selection of contributions from internationally-based film consultants, practicing psychotherapists and interdisciplinary scholars investigate the curious dynamics that occur when films and television programmes attempt to portray the psychotherapist, and the complexities of psychotherapy, for popular audiences. The book evaluates the potential mismatch between the onscreen psychotherapist, whose raison d'etre is to entertain and engage global audiences, and the professional, real-life counterpart, who becomes intimately involved with the dramas of their patients. While several contributors conclude that actual psychotherapy, and the way psychotherapists and their clients grapple with notions of fantasy and reality, would make a rather poor show, Eavesdropping demonstrates the importance of psychotherapy and psychotherapists on-screen in assisting us to wrestle with the discomfort - and humour - of our lives. Offering a unique insight into perceptions of psychotherapy, Eavesdropping will be essential and insightful reading for analytical psychologists, psychoanalysts, academics and students of depth psychology, film and television studies, media studies and literature, as well as filmmakers.

Recent years have seen a rise in the popularity and quantity of 'quality' television programs, many of which featuring complicated versions of masculinity that are informed not only by the women's movement of the sixties and seventies, but also by several decades of backlash and debate about the effects of women's equality on men, masculinity, and the relationship between men and women. Drawing upon studies of contemporary television programs, including popular series viewed internationally such as Mad Men, The League, Hung, Breaking Bad, Louie, and Girls, this book explores the ways in which popular cultural texts address widely circulating discourses of the ostensible 'crisis of masculinity' in contemporary culture. A rich study of masculinity and its representation in contemporary television, Masculinity in Contemporary Quality Television will appeal to scholars and students of cultural and media studies, popular culture, television studies and cultural sociology with interests in gender, masculinities, and sexuality.

This book employs actor-network theory in order to examine how representations of crime are produced for contemporary prime-time television dramas. As a unique examination of the production of contemporary crime television dramas, particularly their writing process, Making Crime Television: Producing Entertaining Representations of Crime for Television Broadcast examines not only the semiotic relations between ideas about crime, but the material conditions under which those meanings are formulated. Using ethnographic and interview data, Anita Lam considers how textual representations of crime are assembled by various people (including writers, directors, technical consultants, and network executives), technologies (screenwriting software and whiteboards), and texts (newspaper articles and rival crime dramas). The emerging analysis does not project but instead concretely examines what and how television writers and producers know about crime, law and policing. An adequate understanding of the representation of crime, it is maintained, cannot be limited to a content analysis that treats the representation as a final product. Rather, a television representation of crime must be seen as the result of a particular assemblage of logics, people, creative ideas, commercial interests, legal requirements, and broadcasting networks. A fascinating investigation into the relationship between television production, crime, and the law, this book is an accessible and well-researched resource for students and scholars of Law, Media, and Criminology.

Created around the world and available only on the Web, internet ""television"" series are independently produced, mostly low budget shows that often feature talented but unknown performers. Typically financed through crowd-funding, they are filmed with borrowed equipment and volunteer casts and crews, and viewers find them through word of mouth or by chance. The third of five volumes on Internet TV series, this book covers 335 alphabetically arranged gay and lesbian programs, giving casts, credits, story lines, episode descriptions, websites, dates and commentary. A complete index lists program titles and headings for gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender and drag queen shows.

Black Women in Reality Television Docusoaps explores representations of Black women in one of the most powerful, popular forms of reality television - the docusoap. Viewers, critics, and researchers have taken issue with what they consider to be unflattering, one-dimensional representations. This book discusses images of Black women in reality television during the 2011 viewing year, when much criticism arose. These findings provide a context for a more recent examination of reality television portrayals during 2014, following many reality stars' promises to offer new representations. The authors discuss the types of images shown, potential readings of such portrayals, and the implication of these reality television docusoap presentations. The book will be useful for courses examining topics such as popular culture; mass media and society; women's studies; race and media; sex and gender; media studies; African American issues in mass communication; and gender, race and representation, as well as other graduate-level classes.

Netflix's Speculative Fictions: Financializing Platform Television argues that Netflix's scaled expansion has hinged upon its ability not only to create, but more importantly to communicate, new forms and flows of potential value in platform capitalism, wherein capital is mobilized not only from direct revenue streams but also the new value assigned to inputs and investments of data, debt, attention, behavior, taste, time, sociality, and speculation. To interpret and critique these new communications and projections of value, Colin Jon Mark Crawford performs a discursive analysis of the platform television industry leader Netflix and its 'investor lore': the multi-sited narrative of value found in the company's investor relations materials and corporate communications, such as letters to shareholders, financial earnings reports, executive interviews, press releases, and blog posts. Netflix best represents the increasingly ubiquitous nexus of culture, tech, and finance industries that is platform television. To better understand the emergent financial logics of this relatively new media industry, we must first understand the speculative narratives and discourses of value which organize it. Scholars of media studies, television studies, technology studies, and economics will find this book particularly useful.

World Television: From Global to Local, a new assessment of the interdependence of television across cultures and nations brings together the most current research and theories on the subject. By examining recent developments in the world system of television as well as several theories of culture, industry, genre, and audience, author Joseph D. Straubhaar offers new insights into the topic. He argues that television is being simultaneously globalized, regionalized, nationalized, and even localized, with audiences engaging it at multiple levels of identity and interest; therefore the book looks at all these levels of operation.

Key Features"Draws upon both international communication and cultural studies perspectives: " Presents a new model is presented that attempts to move beyond the current controversies about imperialism and globalization."Looks at historical patterns: " Historical patterns across cultures and countries help compare where television has been and where it is going."Takes a contemporary focus: "Uses of technology, flows and patterns of program development, genres of television, the interaction of producers and audiences, and patterns of audience choice among emerging alternatives are examined. "Explores how the audience for these evolving forms of television is structured: "The effects of these forces or patterns of television have on both cultural formations and individual identities are identified.

Intended Audience

This is an excellent text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Globalizatiion and Culture, Global Media, Television Studies, Television Criticism, and International Media.

Russia, one of the most ethno-culturally diverse countries in the world, provides a rich case study on how globalisation and associated international trends are disrupting, and causing the radical rethinking of approaches to, inter-ethnic cohesion. The book highlights the importance of television broadcasting in shaping national discourse and the place of ethno-cultural diversity within it. It argues that television's role here has been reinforced, rather than diminished, by the rise of new media technologies. Through an analysis of a wide range of news and other television programmes, the book shows how the covert meanings of discourse on a particular issue can diverge from the overt significance attributed to it, just as the impact of that discourse may not conform with the original aims of the broadcasters. The book discusses the tension between the imperative to maintain security through centralised government and overall national cohesion that Russia shares with other European states, and the need to remain sensitive to, and to accommodate, the needs and perspectives of ethnic minorities and labour migrants. It compares the increasingly isolationist popular ethnonationalism in Russia, which harks back to "old-fashioned" values, with the similar rise of the Tea Party in the United States and the UK Independence Party in Britain. Throughout, this extremely rich, well-argued book complicates and challenges received wisdom on Russia's recent descent into authoritarianism. It points to a regime struggling to negotiate the dilemmas it faces, given its Soviet legacy of ethnic particularism, weak civil society, large native Muslim population and overbearing, yet far from entirely effective, state control of the media.

With over twenty different casts, multiple spin-off series, and five international locations, The Real Housewives franchise is a television phenomenon. The women on these shows have reinvented the soap opera diva and in doing so, have offered television viewers a new opportunity to embrace a loved, yet waning, genre. As the popularity and prevalence of the docu-drama genre of reality TV continues to increase, the time is ripe for a collection of this sort. The Fantasy of Reality: Critical Essays on 'The Real Housewives' explores the series and the women of The Real Housewives through the lens of race, class, gender, sexuality, and place. The contributing authors use an expansive and impressive array of methodological approaches to examine particular aspects of the series, offering rich analysis and insight along the way. This collection takes seriously what some may mock and others adore. Chapters are both fun and informative, lending themselves well to Housewives fans and media scholars alike.

Since the "Automatic Binding Bricks" that LEGO produced in 1949, and the LEGO "System of Play" that began with the release of Town Plan No. 1 (1955), LEGO bricks have gone on to become a global phenomenon, and the favorite building toy of children, as well as many an AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO). LEGO has also become a medium into which a wide number of media franchises, including "Star Wars," "Harry Potter," "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Batman," "Superman," "Lord of the Rings," and others, have adapted their characters, vehicles, props, and settings. The LEGO Group itself has become a multimedia empire, including LEGO books, movies, television shows, video games, board games, comic books, theme parks, magazines, and even MMORPGs.

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LEGO Studies: Examining the Building Blocks of a Transmedial Phenomenon "is the first collection to examine LEGO as both a medium into which other franchises can be adapted and a transmedial franchise of its own. Although each essay looks at a particular aspect of the LEGO phenomenon, topics such as adaptation, representation, paratexts, franchises, and interactivity intersect throughout these essays, proposing that the study of LEGO as a medium and a media empire is a rich vein barely touched upon in Media Studies.

Since the "Automatic Binding Bricks" that LEGO produced in 1949, and the LEGO "System of Play" that began with the release of Town Plan No. 1 (1955), LEGO bricks have gone on to become a global phenomenon, and the favorite building toy of children, as well as many an AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO). LEGO has also become a medium into which a wide number of media franchises, including "Star Wars," "Harry Potter," "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Batman," "Superman," "Lord of the Rings," and others, have adapted their characters, vehicles, props, and settings. The LEGO Group itself has become a multimedia empire, including LEGO books, movies, television shows, video games, board games, comic books, theme parks, magazines, and even MMORPGs.

"

LEGO Studies: Examining the Building Blocks of a Transmedial Phenomenon "is the first collection to examine LEGO as both a medium into which other franchises can be adapted and a transmedial franchise of its own. Although each essay looks at a particular aspect of the LEGO phenomenon, topics such as adaptation, representation, paratexts, franchises, and interactivity intersect throughout these essays, proposing that the study of LEGO as a medium and a media empire is a rich vein barely touched upon in Media Studies.

Binge and Bingeability: The Antecedents and Consequences of Binge Watching Behavior examines how the television industry has transformed over time to create the circumstances in which binge watching as a mass behavior can emerge, and what role audiences have played in the rising prevalence of this behavior. Arienne Ferchaud, recognizing that this behavior did not spring, fully formed, from streaming services, ties cultural approaches to binge watching with media psychology-oriented theories, including the concept of "bingeability"-the likelihood that a specific sow will be binge watched-alongside the psychological impacts binge watching may have on viewers over time. Scholars of media studies, television studies, sociology, cultural studies, and psychology will find this book particularly useful.

Ever since John Grierson popularized the term "documentary," British non-fiction film has been renowned, sometimes reviled, but seldom properly appreciated. "100 British Documentaries "provides a uniquely accessible, occasionally provocative introduction to a rich and surprisingly varied tradition by considering 100 examples taken from across a century's worth of output.
The 100 films range from the Victorian period to the present day. Alongside such classics as "Night Mail "and "Touching the Void "are documentaries that illustrate the many uses to which it has been put--from pro-gram-filler to political propaganda to classroom teaching aid--and the many styles and viewpoints it has embraced. While the focus is on the documentary "film," several television productions are included, indicating how the genre has developed on the small screen.

This original book asks how, in an age of convergence, when 'television' no longer means a box in the corner of the living room that we sit and watch together, do we remember television of the past? How do we gather and archive our memories? Kristyn Gordon and Joanne Garde-Hansen explore these questions through first person interviews with tv producers, curators and archivists, and case studies of popular television series and fan communities such as 'Cold Feet' and 'Doctor Who'. Their discussion takes in museum exhibitions, popular televison nostalgia programming and 'vintage' tv websites.

Global News explores how media representation is conceived and enacted in a world of diversity and transborder flows. Among the 'new media' crowding the global mediascape are influential television outlets that promise viewers alternative vantage points to those of established Western broadcasters. The different worlds depicted by Al Jazeera English and Russia Today are compared with those of CNN International and BBC World. At a time when media organizations are slashing their budgets for international reporting, these channels represent a spectrum of financing solutions and relations to political power, being variously privately-, publicly-, or state-owned, backed by corporations, democratic states, authoritarian regimes, and ruling dynasties. Despite their differences, however, they have much in common. Their journalists espouse the universal values of professionalism and objectivity and speak to their global audiences in English. This book explores the different theoretical worlds of global media studies, takes a rare look at content, has a comparative perspective, and moves beyond the conflict frame that has dominated much of the literature in the field.

Combining thematic analysis and stimulating close readings, 'The Collar' is a wide-ranging study of the many ways - heroic or comic, shrewd or dastardly - in which Christian clergy have been represented in literature, from George Herbert and Laurence Sterne, via Anthony Trollope, G.K. Chesterton, T.S. Eliot, and Graham Greene, to Susan Howatch and Robertson Davies, and in film and television, such as 'Pale Rider', 'The Thorn Birds', 'The Vicar of Dibley', and 'Father Ted'. Since all Christians are expected to be involved in ministry of some type, the assumptions of secular culture about ministers affect more than just clergy. Ranging across several nations (particularly Britain, the U.S., and Canada), denominations, and centuries, 'The Collar' encourages creative and faithful responses to the challenges of Christian leadership and develops awareness of the times when leadership expectations become too extreme.Using the framework of different media to make inquiries about pastoral passion, frustration, and fallibility, Sue Sorensen's well-informed, sprightly, and perceptive book will be helpful to anyone who enjoys evocative literature and film as well as to clergy and those interested in practical theology.

The past decade and a half has seen an impressive resurgence of popular interest in the Middle Ages. In particular, television presents us with a wide and diverse array of ""medieval"" offerings. Yet, there exists very little scholarship on the image of the Middle Ages in television. Unlike film, whose use of the medieval has been examined repeatedly by scholars, television medievalism has garnered little critical attention. This collection begins to fill this gap by focusing on the depiction and utilization of the Middle Ages in popular culture and by questioning the role of television in shaping contemporary ideas about past and present. Each of the ten essays that make up the volume celebrates the currency and power of television medievalism, emphasizing the need for anyone interested in contemporary medievalism to pay attention to its manifestations on the small screen. Despite this shared common goal, each contributor addresses the topic from a unique perspective, and the collection covers a wide range of issues such as genre, gender, sexuality--amongst others--in Anglophone and European programs. The collection's ten chapters thus complement each other, collaborating and engaging with one another to bring to light the very special nature of television medievalism.

- A concise and engaging textbook for students offering an original perspective on a concept that is a site of much industry and scholarly debate. - Combining work on both political media and entertainment, with an emphasis on social media, this is ideal for a range of undergraduate courses, particularly those exploring media audiences, media industries, social media and society and political engagement. - Each chapter includes a brief introduction, a conclusion with key points, sub headings, and a broad range of international case studies that show how the points of the chapter can work in practice for media engagement analysis.