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.

Goodnight, John Boy is a memory book of The Waltons, the number-one television show of its time. Filled with behind-the-scenes anecdotes and profiles of people who appeared on the show, it introduces readers to the Hamner family members who later became characters on The Waltons, suggests events and locales that inspired many of the episodes, and traces Earl Hamner's life as a writer from Virginia to New York to Hollywood. Included is a description of each episode plus reminiscences, comments, and personal feelings from numerous people connected with the series - writers, actors, directors, producers, family, and fans. Heavily illustrated with publicity shots and personal photographs taken by cast, crew, and others, Goodnight, John Boy will be a welcomed book by millions of loyal fans.

This is a reflective, funny account of one of the most popular TV sitcoms ever made: "Seinfeld "(1990-1998). Ostensibly a show "about nothing," its creator Larry David decreed that it should contain "no hugging, no learning." Nicholas Mirzoeff explores Seinfeld's obsession with the rules of everyday life in the key areas of comedy itself: dating, relationships, Jewishness and how to be a New Yorker, wherever you happen to live. Mirzoeff situates Seinfeld as an expression of Clinton-era America, from its consistently ironic take on social life, to the changing culture of sexuality and ethnicity. This is a reflective, funny and occasionally digressive account of what it is to watch television.

This collection of scholarly essays examines reality television. The first show, Survivor, inspired a national craze when it aired in the summer of 2000. Ever since, successors and copycats have been on each of the four largest networks. The basics stay the same: put a group of people into situations bound to cause conflict, and watch them squirm. Rather than criticize the series' voyeuristic appeal, this work evaluates what goes on within the text of such shows and how they reflect or affect our larger culture. Contributors include researchers from communications, sociology, political science, and psychology. The contributions cover such topics as reality television's relationships with cultural identity, publicity rights, historical perspectives, trust, decision-making strategies, political rationality, office politics, and primitivism. Each chapter includes a bibliography. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

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.

Edge of Darkness (BBC, 1985) is a conspiracy thriller, a psychological drama, and a mythic tale of the death and regeneration of the planet. Written by Troy Kennedy Martin, directed by Martin Campbell, and produced by Michael Wearing, it marks one of the points of a British television drama, which was both popular in its generic appeal and groundbreaking in its narrative style. Broadcast at a time of high paranoia about the secret state, the hazards of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons proliferation, Edge of Darkness start Bob Peck as Craven, a CID detective investigating the death of his environmental activist daughter, played by Joanne Whalley. His search for the truth leads him into a murky world of conspiracy involving the nuclear industry and the CIA (Joe Don baker in a bravura performance as the CIA agent Darius Jedburgh). John Caughie's insightful study of the series situates it in the political context of the 1980s and in the context of British television drama in transition. He traces Edge of Darkness's exploration of the pathology of grief, developing notions of paranoia, myth and magical thinking to highlight the ways in which Troy Kennedy Martin takes the political thriller beyond politics. The book includes an Afterword by the screenwriter, Troy Kennedy Martin. John Caughie is Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow. he is the author of Television Drama: Realism, Modernism and British Culture (2000), a member of the Editorial Board of Screen and General Editor, with Charlotte Brunsdon, of the Oxford Television Studies series.

Curly Watts is a TV icon - for twenty years appearing on millions of TV screens around the country in Coronation Street. Kevin Kennedy is one of the UK's most successful soap actors, although behind the scenes and high-profile appearances, he faced a painful personal battle. Kevin shares his experiences of alcoholism, rehab and IVF as well stories from the set and stars he worked with during some of the brightest, and darkest moments of his life, through to his music career and current roles. This brutally honest autobiography provides a rare glimpse into life behind the scenes, the power of addiction, and his battle with recovery.

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.

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.

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.

At last, a collection in one volume informing the citizenry about a phenomenon that has existed for nearly a quarter century: community television represents our single source for media access in the United States. With more than 2,000 community groups providing some 15,000 hours of original programming each week--more than the annual output of ABC, CBS, and NBC combined--Community Television compares and contrasts broadcasting and grassroots cablecasting in the form of public, educational, and government (PEG) access. Fuller describes community television in terms of its history, its technical characteristics, and its legal, economic, political, and social concerns, highlighting the work of more than 150 related organizations and local television efforts from 100 cities and towns. She analyzes how competing exigencies and emerging communication technologies might threaten access in the future. Students, scholars, and professionals in television, communications, and public policy will find this reference a definitive one.

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.

The study of music in commercials is well-suited for exploring the persuasive impact that music has beyond the ability to entertain, edify, and purify its audience. This book focuses on music in commercials from an interpretive text analytical perspective, answering hitherto neglected questions: What characterizes music in commercials compared to other commercial music and other music on TV? How does music in commercials relate to music outside the universe of commercials? How and what can music in commercials signify? Author Nicolai Graakjaer sets a new benchmark for the international scholarly study of music on television and its pervading influence on consumer choice.

Television has historically been largely ineffective at representing queerness in its various forms. In the 21st century, however, as same-sex couples have seen increasing mainstream acceptance, and a broader range of queer characters has appeared in the media, it seems natural to assume TV portrayals of queerness have become more enlightened. But have they? This collection of fresh essays analyzes queerness as depicted on TV from 2000 to the present. Examining Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The L Word, Modern Family, The New Normal, Queer as Folk, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, RuPaul's Drag Race, Spartacus and Will & Grace, among others, the contributors demonstrate that queer characters in general have achieved visibility at the expense of minimizing much of their queerness-with a few eye-opening exceptions.

Television, Religion, and Supernatural examines the text of the CW network television series Supernatural, a program based in the horror genre that offers viewers myriad religious-based antagonists through the portrayals of monsters, which its two main characters "hunt" and destroy, as well as storylines based on the Bible. Even as the series' producers claim a nonreligious perspective, the authors contend that story arcs and outcomes of episodes actually forward a hegemonic portrayal of Christianity that portrays a good-versus-evil motif regarding the superiority of Catholicism. The depiction of its protagonist brothers, Dean and Sam Winchester of Lawrence, Kansas, provides a pro-American perspective regarding a more generalized fight against evil in contemporary times.

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.

This innovative collection investigates the ways in which television programs around the world have highlighted modernization and encouraged nation-building. It is an attempt to catalogue and better understand the contours of this phenomenon, which took place as television developed and expanded in different parts of the world between the 1950s and the 1990s. From popular science and adult education shows to news magazines and television plays, few themes so thoroughly penetrated the small screen for so many years as modernization, with television producers and state authorities using television programs to bolster modernization efforts. Contributors analyze the hallmarks of these media efforts: nation-building, consumerism and consumer culture, the education and integration of citizens, and the glorification of the nation's technological achievements.

This book challenges social science to address the most important social change since the industrial revolution: the mediated communication order. More of our everyday lives and social institutions reflect the compelling media logic that resonates through conversation, interaction, marketing, as well as social programs, issues and foreign policy. We are beyond the time when people take into account media matters; rather, media matters are now incorporated as a kind of social form in routine and extraordinary activities. This thesis was first laid out in 'Media Logic', co-authored with Robert P. Snow in 1979. Thirty-five years on, Altheide discusses his recent thinking about how media logic and mediation is a basic element in constructing social reality. From the internet to the NSA, he shows how media logic has transformed audiences into personal networks guided by social media. He argues that we have reached the media edge as social media have all but eviscerated the audience as a significant factor in the communication equation; mediated communication is increasingly about media performances and individual selection to promote identity.

Here, philosophers wittily and expertly uncover amazing philosophical insights from the endlessly fascinating TV show, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Greg Littmann shows how the values of the gang are the same as those of Homeric heroes. Christopher Ketcham argues that the Church should make Charlie a saint, partly because It's Always Sunny is "all about free will." Russ Hamer shows how closely the gang's activities comply with the scientific method. Kyle Alkema and Adam Barkman analyze the way the gang perceives happiness and how they try to get it. Charlotte Knowles considers whether Heidegger would consider members of the gang authentic or inauthentic -- and concludes that they're a bit of both. Skyler King examines the morality of the gang's behavior by the standard of how they respond to extreme suffering. Ethan Chambers agrees that each of the five central characters is a terrible person, but argues that they are not truly to blame for their actions. Fenner Tanswell demonstrates that many of the gang's wrong actions result not from immoral motives but from illogical thinking. And Robert Arp compiles a hilarious list of historical examples where people acted even more foolishly than the Philadelphia Five.

Originally published in 1996, ethnic minorities in the UK made up over 5% of the population yet were hardly represented in the hundreds of hours of terrestrial broadcast television each week. The blatant racism of The Black and White Minstrel Show was over, but more subtle forms of racism were piped into our living rooms in an endless stream of white-dominated programming. 'Comedies' and soaps presented non-whites as a sort of joke humanity - stereotypical, simple and amusingly childish. Serious programmes swelled on the negative aspects of ethnicity: race as a problem, cultural clashes and language barriers. Above all - not white equals not normal. For many years critics of popular television argued that such imbalance was harmful. The lack of positive non-white TV role models for children to identify with was leading to growing alienation and disaffection. Ethnic minorities increasingly defined themselves in opposition to white institutions. They were turning towards separate channels - narrow-casting - provided to meet their own TV needs. Based on both extensive survey research and interviews with actual viewers, Not a Pretty Picture investigates the whole issue of TV and ethnic minority viewers at the time: their viewing choices, their criticisms, their feeling about the way they are portrayed. The conclusions are damning: for most of Britain's ethnic minority communities TV was a white medium, predominantly controlled by whites, portraying white culture and denying non-whites a voice. Not a Pretty Picture, however, provides a voice for these views and a valuable insight into the way ethnic minorities see TV. Today it can be read in its historical context, to see how far we have come, as well as what still needs to be done.

Australians have become increasingly visible outside of the country as speakers and actors in radio and television, their media moguls have frequently bought up foreign companies, and people around the world have been able to enjoy such Australian productions as The Flying Doctors, Neighbours, and Kath and Kim. The origins, early development, and later adaptations of radio and television show how Australia has gone from being a minor and rather parochial player to being a significant part of the international scene. The A to Z of Australian Radio and Television provides essential facts and information concerning the Australian radio and television industry. This is accomplished through the use of a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on directors, producers, writers, actors, television and radio series, and television and radio stations.

This book presents a review of research on reaction processes and attention as it has evolved over the last 40 years in the context of the information processing tradition in cognitive psychology. It is argued and demonstrated that issues of reaction processes and attention are closely interconnected. Their common conceptualization can be seen in terms of limited processing capacity on the one hand, and stage analysis on the other. This volume concludes that, at present, a stage analysis metaphor offers better prospects as a conceptual starting point; the limited capacity metaphor was strongly tied to the digital computers of the 60s. The emphasis of the book is on behavioral research, but summaries of related findings on evoked potentials and other psychophysiological variables are included as well. From this perspective, it may be of interest to neuropsychologists who want to learn about the present state of cognitive experimental paradigms. Elements of Human Performance also addresses the question of the relationship between basic research and applications in the said areas. This is particularly urgent in view of the now common notion that the results of many simplified laboratory tasks may be artifactual and of little applied value. A back-to-back research strategy is outlined to assess the validity of basic research results for real-life tasks.

The British television director Alan Clarke is primarily associated with the visceral social realism of such works as his banned borstal play Scum, and his study of football hooliganism, The Firm. This book uncovers the full range of his work from the mythic fantasy of Penda's Fen, to the radical short film on terrorism, Elephant. Dave Rolinson uses original research to examine the development of Clarke's career from the theatre and the 'studio system' of provocative television play strands of the 1960s and 1970s, to the increasingly personal work of the 1980s, which established him as one of Britain's greatest directors. Alan Clarke examines techniques of television direction, and proposes new methodologies as it questions the critical neglect of directors in what is traditionally seen as a writer's medium. It raises crucial issues in television studies, including aesthetics, authorship, censorship, the convergence of film and television, drama-documentary form, narrative and realism. -- .