The sexual politics of television culture is the territory covered by this ground-breaking book - the first to demonstrate the ways in which third wave feminist television studies approaches and illuminates mainstream TV. Leading voices in third wave feminism focus on innovative US television shows, including "The Sopranos", "Oz", "Six Feet Under", "The L Word" and the reality-TV show "The Bachelor" to take a closer look at the contradictions and reciprocities between feminism and television, engaging as they go in theoretical and critical conversations about media culture, third wave feminism, feminist spectatorship, the sex wars, and the politics of visual pleasure. The book offers an exuberant and accessible discussion of what television has to offer today's feminist fan. It also sets a new tone for future debate, turning away from a sober, near-pessimistic trend in much feminist media studies to reconnect with the roots of third wave feminism in riot grrrl culture, sexradical feminism, and black feminism, tracing too the narratives provided by queer theory in which pleasure has a less contested place.

This unique biography details the life of magician Marshall Brodien, most remembered for his long-running career as television's Wizzo the Wizard on WGN-TV's Bozo's Circus and The Bozo Show. Coverage begins in the late 1940s, when Brodien was a young magician in his first job as a Chicago magic shop demonstrator, then recounts Brodien's steady rise to show-business success, including details of his work as a performer at the Magic Lounge in Cicero and, as a nightclub hypnotist in Chicago's posh Cairo Supper Club. The work concludes with an examination of Brodien's current career as one of the most successful marketers of magic sets in the U.S.

The long-running BBC science fiction program Doctor Who has garnered an intense and extremely loyal fan base since its 1963 debut. This work examines the influences of psychology, literature, pop culture, and the social sciences on Doctor Who storylines and characters. Topics explored include how such issues as class, gender, and sexual attraction factor into the relationships between the Doctor and his companions; whether the Doctor suffers from multiple personality disorder or other psychological afflictions; and the role of the Doctor's native culture in shaping his sense of identity.

This book draws on a multi-method study of film and television narratives of global criminal networks to explore the links between audiovisual media, criminal networks and global audiences in the age of digital content distribution. Mapping out media representations of the ongoing war on drugs in Mexico and the United States, the author delves into the social, cultural and geopolitical impacts of distribution and consumption of these media. With a particular emphasis on the globalized Mexican cartels, this book investigates three areas - gender and racial representation in film and television, the digital distribution of content through the internet and streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix, and depictions of extreme violence in film, television and online spaces - to identify whether there are fundamental similarities and differences in how Hollywood productions reproduce stereotypes about race, gender and extreme violence. Some of the movies and television series analysed are Breaking Bad, Ozark, Weeds, Rambo: Last Blood, No Country for Old Men, Sicario and the Netflix series Narcos, Narcos: Mexico and El Chapo. Taking a unique interdisciplinary approach to the study of cartels in the media, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of media studies, film, television, security studies, Latin American and cultural studies.

Exploring the history of comic books adapted for the screen, the authors explain how the US TV show 'Heroes' has been affected by the decades of comic book superheroes before it. Also analysed are the archetypal characters of the show, its huge fan base and the link to other series such as 'Lost'.

Television Studies: The Key Concepts is the definitive reference guide to an area of rapidly expanding academic interest. Among those aspects of television studies covered in this comprehensive and up-to-date guide are:

• theoretical perspectives which have shaped the study of television - Marxism; semiology; feminism
• concepts which have shaped the study of television - narrative; representation; bias
• television genres - soap opera; news; science fiction
• methods used for understanding television - content analysis; audience research
• relevant social, economic and political phenomena - ownership; social policy.

This work offers a complete episode guide and comprehensive history of Second City Television. The influential Canadian sketch comedy series created dozens of memorable characters (i.e. station president Guy Caballero and showbiz mogul Johnny LaRue) and featured well-known performers such as John Candy, Catherine O'Hara, and Martin Short, at the height of their comedic careers. Presenting a thorough summary and review for each of SCTV's 135 episodes, the author traces the initial appearance and evolution of some of comedy's best known television characters and sketches. Two appendices provide guides to the program's compilation shows and recently released boxed sets on DVD.

In the summer of 2013 David Suchet will film his final scenes as Hercule Poirot. After 24 years in the role, he will have played the character in every story that Agatha Christie wrote about him (bar one, deemed unfilmable) and he will bid adieu to a role and a character that have changed his life. In Poirot and Me, David Suchet tells the story of how he secured the part, with the blessing of Agatha Christie's daughter, and set himself the task of presenting the most authentic Poirot that had ever been filmed. David Suchet is uniquely placed to write the ultimate companion to one of the world's longest running television series. Peppered with anecdotes about filming, including many tales of the guest stars who have appeared over the years, the book is essential reading for Poirot fans all over the world.

One of the most popular and award-winning television series of the sixties, ""I Spy"" was the first weekly broadcast to star both a white and a black actor. In 1964, though, producer Sheldon Leonard had, with heavy risk, financed the show himself, and his idea for a racially incorporated cast had earned his show the moniker ""Sheldon's Folley."" Pairing established white actor Robert Culp with Bill Cosby, a black comedian with barely an acting credit to his name, certainly turned some heads at NBC, and many wondered whether affiliates in the South would ever air the show. Only two years later, Cosby accepted the Emmy for leading actor - and I Spy cemented its role in history. This is a complete history of ""I Spy"" and the profound change it evoked in broadcasting, social ideals and racial equality. Rich with interviews and photographs, it discusses ""I Spy's"" unique approach to race, co-starring interracial actors as equals. It also describes how the show became the template for popular ""buddy genre"" shows and films that followed, covers the show's significance as the first series to shoot episodes around the world, and puts ""I Spy"" in context with other works within the spy genre at a time when spy books, shows and films exploded in popularity. A complete episode guide includes writers, directors, cast, crew, plot synopsis and commentary.

Most of the bright and talented actresses who made America laugh in the 1950s are off the air today, but their pioneering Hollywood careers irrevocably changed the face of television comedy. These smart and sassy women successfully negotiated the hazards of the male-dominated workplace with class and humor, and the work they did in the 1950s is inventive still by today's standards. Unable to fall back on strong language, shock value, or racial and sexual epithets, the female sitcom stars of the 1950s entertained with pure talent and screen savvy. As they did so, they helped to lay the foundation for the development of television comedy. This book pays tribute to 10 prominent television actresses who played lead roles in popular comedy shows of the 1950s. Each chapter covers the works and personalities of one actress: Lucille Ball (""I Love Lucy""), Gracie Allen (""The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show""), Eve Arden (""Our Miss Brooks""), Spring Byington (""December Bride""), Joan Davis (""I Married Joan""), Anne Jeffreys (""Topper""), Donna Reed (""The Donna Reed Show""), Ann Sothern (""Private Secretary"" and ""The Ann Sothern Show""), Gale Storm (""My Little Margie"" and ""The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna""), and Betty White (""Life with Elizabeth""). For each star, a career sketch is provided, concentrating primarily on her television work but also noting achievements in other areas. Appendices offer cast and crew lists, a chronology of 1950s female comedy feature events, and an additional biographical sketch of 10 less familiar actresses who deserve recognition.

Movies and television series are excellent tools for teaching political science and international relations. Understanding how stories in various film and television genres illustrate political ideas can better assist students and fans understand and appreciate the political subtext of these media products. This book will examine five genres and their variants. The first is gangster movies, focusing on American and other organized crime, which reached its zenith in the films of Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. Second are political thriller and action movies and television series. Superhero films and TV deal more with modern characters who seek to serve society as they deal with personal struggles and their individual identities. Fourth are war movies, which tend to promote positive images of wars when wars are perceived as successful, but can include antiwar messages when wars turn badly. Fifth are Western movies, which fell out of favor in the 1970s and 1980s, but have undergone a renaissance since the 1990s. Westerns can be taken as either political parables, or as meditations on policing, anarchy, community organization and informal leadership. These genres all offer escape, but can also offer political lessons.

In the first four years of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War (1961-64), Hollywood did not dramatize the current military conflict but rather romanticized earlier ones. Cartoons reflected only previous trends in U.S. culture, and animators comically but patriotically remembered the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and both World Wars. In the early years of military escalation in Vietnam, Hollywood was simply not ready to illustrate America's contemporary radicalism and race relations in live-action or animated films. But this trend changed when US participation dramatically increased between 1965 and 1968. In the year of the Tet Offensive and the killings of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert Kennedy, the violence of the Vietnam War era caught up with animators. This book discusses the evolution of U.S. animation from militaristic and violent to liberal and pacifist and the role of the Vietnam War in this development. The book chronologically documents theatrical and television cartoon studios' changing responses to U.S. participation in the Vietnam War between 1961 and 1973, using as evidence the array of artistic commentary about the federal government, the armed forces, the draft, peace negotiations, the counterculture movement, racial issues, and pacifism produced during this period. The study further reveals the extent to which cartoon violence served as a barometer of national sentiment on Vietnam. When many Americans supported the war in the 1960s, scenes of bombings and gunfire were prevalent in animated films. As Americans began to favor withdrawal, militaristic images disappeared from the cartoon. Soon animated cartoons would serve as enlightening artifacts of Vietnam War-era ideology. In addition to the assessment of primary film materials, this book draws upon interviews with people involved in the production Vietnam-era films. Film critics responding in their newspaper columns to the era's innovative cartoon sociopolitical commentary also serve as invaluable references. Three informative appendices contribute to the work.

Law and Order Special Victims Unit (SVU) is more popular than any other American police procedural television series, but how does its unique focus on sex crimes reflect contemporary popular culture and feminist critique, whilst also recasting the classic crime narrative? All-American TV Crime Drama is the first dedicated study of SVU and its treatment of sexual violence, gender and criminality. The book uses detailed textual and visual analyses of episodes to illuminate the assumptions underpinning the programme. Although SVU engages with issues pertaining to feminism and gender it still relies upon traditional and misogynistic tropes such as false rape charges and the monstrous mother to undermine positive views of the feminine. The show, and its backdrop, New York City thus become a stage on which national concerns about women, gender roles, the family and race are carried out. Moorti and Cuklanz unpack how the show has become a crucible for examining current attitudes towards these issues and include an analysis of its reception by its many fans in over 30 countries.

On September 26, 1968, ""Hawaii Five-O"" premiered on CBS. The show's exotic locale and quality writing and acting made it a fixture in the network's line-up for the next 12 years. Today the detective series continues to be very popular in syndication. The show's history is covered first, focusing on its development and its stars. Complete casts and credits for all regulars are provided for each season; the episode guide gives the title, original air date, director, producer, guest stars, a detailed synopsis of each show, and information on Honolulu residents who appeared in it.

TV and Cars offers a compelling lens on television in a mobile media era. Cars are vehicles for television, a fixture of the shows and ads that drive TV. In this original approach to contemporary television, Paul Grainge looks beyond questions of speed, spoilers and cylinders to explore the small screen intimacy of cars - the way people interact, sing and dwell in the habitat of automobiles. Considering the industrial, cultural and aesthetic relation between TV and cars, Grainge examines how comedy entertainment such as sitcoms, talk shows, web series and vlogs have been drawn to the practice of 'passengering'. Getting under the bonnet of popular 'drive-and-talk' series like The Trip, Carpool Karaoke, Peter Kay's Car Share and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, this engaging interdisciplinary excursion finds new ways to look at both television and the social life of cars.

The Children's Television Community presents a cutting-edge analysis of the children's television community-the organizations, major players, and approaches to programming-and gives an overview of the history, current state, and future of children's programming. Leading children's television professionals and distinguished academicians come together in this volume to take a distinctive behind-the-scenes look at how children's television is created, programmed, and sold. This thought-provoking work emphasizes the various actors whose creative, financial, political, and critical input go into children's television, and addresses advocacy for children's television from multiple approaches. By blending these diverse perspectives, editor J. Alison Bryant offers readers a comprehensive picture of children's television. Highlights include: * a community level approach to understanding children's television; * perspectives from colleagues in various aspects of the media industry; and * an eye-opening analysis of how decision-making affects what children are exposed to through television. The Children's Television Community is highly informative for educators, industry professionals, and practitioners in media, developmental psychology, and education.

Amid civil war, failing states, and terrorism, Arab liberals are growing in numbers and influence. Advocating a culture of equity, tolerance, good governance, and the rule of law, they work through some of the region's largest media outlets to spread their ideals within the culture. Broadcasting Change analyzes this trend by portraying the intersection of media and politics in two Arab countries with seismic impact on the region and beyond. In Saudi Arabia, where hardline clerics silenced their opponents for generations, liberals now dominate the airwaves. Their success in weakening clerics' grip over the public space would not only help develop the country; it would ensure that the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad exports a constructive understanding of Islam. In Egypt, home to a brutal government crackdown on Islamists and a bloodsport of attacks on Coptic Christians, local liberals are acting with courage on the ground and over the airwaves. Through TV talk shows, drama, and comedy, they play off the government's anti-Islamist agenda to more thoughtfully advocate religious reform. Author Joseph Braude, himself a voice in Arabic-language broadcasts and publications, calls for international assistance to the region's liberals, particularly in the realm of media. Local civic actors and some reform-minded autocrats welcome a new partnership with media experts and democratic governments in North America, Europe, and the Far East. Broadcasting Change argues that support for liberal reform through Arabic media should be construed as an international "public good" - on par with military peacekeeping and philanthropy.

Whether you're a novice compositor or a well-versed one moving over from After Effects or Shake, this is THE book for you to learn the ins and outs of the powerful compositing software, Nuke. In addition to covering all of the menus, buttons, and other software-specific topics, it also offers critical lessons in compositing theory, including working in 2.5D and stereoscopic 3D. Through a tutorial-based approach, augmented by video footage and image files provided on the downloadable resources, this book will have you up and running in Nuke in just hours. The book features over 300 4-color images, industry insider sidebars, as well as an entire chapter dedicated to real-world Nuke case studies. The downloadable resources files are available at http://www.focalpress.com/books/details/9780240820354/.

American viewers are attracted to what they see as the non-scripted, unpredictable freshness of reality television. But although the episodes may not be scripted, the shows are constructed within a deliberately designed framework, reflecting societal values. The political, economic and personal issues of reality TV are in many ways simply an exaggerated version of everyday life, allowing us to identify (perhaps more closely than we care to admit) with the characters onscreen. With 16 essays from scholars around the world, this volume discusses the notion of representation in reality television. It explores how both audiences and producers negotiate the gulf between representations and truth in reality shows such as ""Survivor"", ""The Apprentice"", ""Big Brother"", ""The Nanny"", ""American Idol"", ""Extreme Makeover"", ""Joe Millionaire"" and ""The Amazing Race"". Various identity categories and character types found in these shows are discussed and the accuracy of their television portrayal examined. Dealing with the concept of reality, audience reception, gender roles, minority portrayal and power issues, the book provides an in-depth look at what we see, or think we see, in ""reality"" TV.

"I am not in danger ...I am the danger." With those words, Breaking Bad's Walter White solidified himself as TV's greatest antihero. Wanna Cook? explores the most critically lauded series on television with analyses of the individual episodes and ongoing storylines. From details like stark settings, intricate camerawork, and jarring music to the larger themes, including the roles of violence, place, self-change, legal ethics, and fan reactions, this companion book is perfect for those diehards who have watched the Emmy Award - winning series multiple times as well as for new viewers. Wanna Cook? elucidates without spoiling, and illuminates without nit-picking. A must have for any fan's collection. Excerpt. (c) Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. From Wanna Cook's Episode Guide 1.01 Pilot/Breaking Bad Original air date: January 20, 2008 Written and directed by: Vince Gilligan "I prefer to see [chemistry] as the study of change ...that's all of life, right? It's the constant, it's the cycle. It's solution - dissolution, just over and over and over. It is growth, then decay, then - transformation! It is fascinating, really." - Walter White We meet Walter White, Jesse Pinkman, and Walt's family. Walt is poleaxed by some tragic news. With nothing to lose, Walt decides to try to make one big score, and damn the consequences. For that, however, he needs the help of Jesse Pinkman, a former student of Walt's turned loser meth cook and drug dealer. From the moment you see those khakis float down out of a perfectly blue desert sky, you know that you're watching a show like nothing else on television. The hard beauty and stillness of the American Southwest is shattered by a wildly careening RV driven by a pasty white guy with a developing paunch wearing only a gas mask and tighty-whities. What the hell? Like all pilots, this one is primarily exposition, but unlike most, the exposition is beautifully handled as the simple background of Walter's life. The use of a long flashback as the body of the episode works well, in no small part due to Bryan Cranston's brilliant performance in the opening, which gives us a Walter White so obviously, desperately out of his element that we immediately wonder how this guy wound up pantsless in the desert and apparently determined to commit suicide-by-cop. After the opening credits, the audience is taken on an intimate tour of Walt's life. Again, Cranston sells it perfectly. The viewer is presented with a middle-aged man facing the back half of his life from the perspective of an early brilliance and promise that has somehow imploded into a barely-making-ends-meet existence as a high school chemistry teacher. He has to work a lousy second job to support his pregnant wife and disabled teenage son and still can't afford to buy a hot water heater. Executive producer and series creator Vince Gilligan, along with the cast and crew (Gilligan & Co.), take the audience through this day in the life of Walt, and it's just one little humiliation after another. The only time Walt's eyes sparkle in the first half of the episode is when he is giving his introductory lecture to his chemistry class. Here Walt transcends his lower-middle-class life in an almost poetic outpouring of passion for this incredible science. Of course, even that brief joy is crushed by the arrogant insolence of the archetypal high school jackass who stays just far enough inside the line that Walt can't do a damn thing about him. So this is Walt and his life, as sad sack as you can get, with no real prospects of improvement, a brother-in-law who thinks he's a wuss, and a wife who doesn't even pay attention during birthday sex. Until everything changes. The sociologist and criminologist Lonnie Athens would likely classify Walt's cancer diagnosis as the beginning of a "dramatic self change," brought on by something so traumatic that a person's self - the very thoughts, ideas, and ways of understanding and interacting with the world - is shattered, or "fragmented," and in order to survive, the person must begin to replace that old self, those old ideas, with an entirely new worldview. (Athens and his theories are discussed much more fully in the previous essay, but since we warned you not to read that if you don't want to risk spoilage, the basic - and spoiler-free - parts are mentioned here.) Breaking Bad gives us this fragmentation beautifully. Note how from the viewer's perspective Walt is upside down as he is moved into the MRI machine, a motif smoothly repeated in the next scene with Walt's reflection in the top of the doctor's desk. Most discombobulating of all, however, is the consultation with the doctor. At first totally voiceless behind the tinnitus-like ambient soundtrack and faceless except for his chin and lips, the doctor and the news he is imparting are made unreal, out of place, and alien. As for Walt, in an exquisite touch of emotional realism, all he can focus on is the mustard stain on the doctor's lab coat. How many of us, confronted with such tragic news, have likewise found our attention focused, randomly, illogically, on some similar mundanity of life? It is from this shattered self that Walt begins to operate and things that would have been completely out of the question for pre-cancer Walt are now actual possibilities - things like finding a big score before he dies by making and selling pure crystal meth. Remember that Walt is a truly brilliant chemist, and knows full well what crystal meth is and what it does to people who use it. He may not know exactly what he's getting into, but he knows what he is doing. Enter Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul, best known previously for his role on Big Love), a skinny white-boy gangster wannabe, who under the name "Cap'n Cook" makes a living cooking and selling meth. He's also an ex-student of Walt's, and after being recognized by his former teacher during a drug bust, Walt has all the leverage he needs to coerce Jesse into helping him. Why does he need him? Because, as Walt says, "you know the business, and I know the chemistry." Symbolizing just how far beyond his old life Walt is moving, he and Jesse park their battered RV/meth lab in the desert outside of Albuquerque, far from the city and any signs of human life. All that is there is a rough dirt road and a "cow house" in the distance. The desert is a place without memory, a place outside of things, where secrets can be kept, and meth can be cooked. This is where Walt lives now. It is in this desert space that Walt becomes a killer, albeit in self defense. Ironically, the one thing that Walt views as holding the keys to the secret of life - chemistry - becomes the means to end lives. Walt, a father, teacher, and an integral part of an extended family - in other words, an agent of life and growth - has now become a meth cook, using chemical weapons to kill his enemies. Walter White has become an agent of death. The transformation is just beginning, but already Skyler (Anna Gunn, previously known for her roles on The Practice and Deadwood) is having some trouble recognizing her husband: "Walt? Is that you?" LAB NOTES Highlight: Jesse to Walt: "Man, some straight like you - giant stick up his ass all of a sudden at age what? Sixty? He's just going to break bad?" Did You Notice: This episode has the first (but not the last!) appearance of Walt's excuse that he's doing everything for his family. There's an award on the wall in Walt's house commemorating his contributions to work that was awarded the Nobel Prize back in 1985. The man's not a slouch when it comes to chemistry, so what's happened since then? At Walt's surprise birthday party, Walt is very awkward when he handles Hank's gun. Speaking of Hank (Dean Norris, whose other roles were in the TV series Medium, and the movies Total Recall, and Little Miss Sunshine), he waits until the school bus has left the neighborhood before ordering his team into the meth lab, showing what a good and careful cop he is. Maybe it's just us, but J.P. Wynne High School (where Walt teaches chemistry) seems to have the most well-equipped high school chemistry lab in the country. As Walt receives his diagnosis, the doctor's voice and all other sounds are drowned out by a kind of numbing ringing, signifying a kind of psychic overload that prevents Walt from being fully engaged with the external world. This effect will be used again several times throughout the series. Walt literally launders his money to dry it out, foreshadowing what's to come. Shooting Up: Thanks to John Toll, who served as cinematographer for the first season of Breaking Bad, the show has one of the most distinctive opening shots ever. Just watch those empty khaki pants flutter across a clear sky. Breaking Bad loves certain camera angles and this section is where we'll point out some of the shots that make the show stand out. Look at that taped non-confession Walt makes for his family when he thinks the cops are coming for him. We're used to watching recordings of characters - shows are filmed (or taped), but here, we're watching him recording himself on tape. Who's the real Walt? Title: Many pilot episodes share the name with the title of the show and Breaking Bad's pilot is no exception. Vince Gilligan, who grew up in Farmville, Virginia, has stated that "breaking bad" is a Southernism for going off the straight and narrow. When you bend a stick until it breaks, the stick usually breaks cleanly. But sometimes, sticks (and men) break bad. You can wind up in the hospital with a splinter in your eye, or you can wind up in Walter White's world. Either way, it's no kind of good. Interesting Facts: Show creator Vince Gilligan's early educational experience was at J. P. Wynne Campus School in Farmville, Virginia. He recycled the name for the high school in Breaking Bad. SPECIAL INGREDIENTS What Is Crystal Meth, Anyway? While there is some evidence that methamphetamine can be found naturally in several species of acacia plants, commercial meth making involves chemistry, not agriculture. The history of the drug dates back to 1893 when Japanese chemist Nagai Nagayoshi first synthesized the substance from ephedrine. The name "methamphetamine...

Best friends, boyfriends, high school and haute couture -- Gossip Girl has gone from a guilty pleasure to becoming the show everyone is talking about, from Rolling Stone to Vanity Fair, from gossip columnists to President Obama. From its not-so-humble beginnings as a bestselling book series set in the posh Upper East Side private schools of New York City, this show the Boston Herald deemed "every parent's nightmare" has catapulted into the pop culture stratosphere. In the first two seasons Gossip Girl has proved itself a popular and critical darling, influencing the culture it critiques and setting trends while providing biting social commentary on this generation of entitled, tech-savvy youth. In Spotted: Your One and Only Unofficial Guide to Gossip Girl, you'll find: * an episode-by-episode exploration of seasons 1 and 2, tracing the development of the characters and storylines * bios of the cast and the show's creators, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage * comparisons to the show's teen soap and literary predecessors, including how the Gossip Girl books were adapted * summaries of the movies that inspire each episode's title * sidebars of fun trivia * all the details on the music, the fashion, and the NYC locations where Gossip Girl films (complete with exclusive photos ) Chuck Bass. (And he's wearing purple.) Second only to a Blair Waldorf-inspired hair band, Spotted is the must-have accessory for any fan who says, "Not enough " when the end credits roll.

In the first two seasons of the HBO series Westworld, human guests pay exorbitant fees to spend time among cybernetic Hosts-partially sentient AI robots-and live out often violent fantasies. In Theology and Westworld, scholars from a range of disciplines within religious studies examine the profound questions that arise when the narrative of Westworld interacts with the study of religion. From transhumanism and personhood to morality and divinity, this book contributes to, confounds, and challenges ideas that are found in the study of religion and philosophy. Taken together, the chapters further our understanding of what it means to live in a world where the hard questions of human existence are explored through the medium of popular culture.

Praise for New Documentary: 'It's refreshing to find a book that cuts through the tired old debates that have surrounded documentary film and television. It heralds a welcome new approach.' Sight and Sound 'Documentary practice changes so fast that books on the subject are often out of date before they are published. Bruzzi's achievement is to have understood the genre as an activity based on performance rather than observation. This is a fresh perspective which illuminates the fundamental shifts that will continue to take place in the genre as it enters its second century.' John Ellis, Professor of Media Arts, Royal Holloway, University of London New Documentary provides a contemporary look at documentary and fresh and challenging ways of theorising the non-fiction film. As engaging as the original, this second edition features thorough updates to the existing chapters, as well as a brand new chapter on contemporary cinema release documentaries. This new edition includes: Contemporary films such as Capturing the Friedmans, Etre et avoir, Farenheit 9/11, The Fog of War and Touching the Void as well as more canonical texts such as Hoop Dreams and Shoah Additional interviews with influential practitioners, such as director Michael Apted and producer Stephen Lambert A comprehensively revised discussion of modern observational documentary, including docusoaps, reality television and formatted documentaries The work of documentary filmmakers such as Nicholas Barker, Errol Morris, Nick Broomfield, Molly Dineen and Michael Moore and the work of Avant-Garde filmmakers such as Chris Marker and Patrick Keiller Gender identity, queer theory, performance, race and spectatorship. Bruzzi shows how theories of documentary filmmaking can be applied to contemporary texts and genres, and discusses the relationship between recent, innovative examples of the genre and the more established canon of documentary.

How is the android Data like Shakespeare's character Hamlet? Is the vengeful Khan (original series episode ""Space Seed"" and the film ""Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"") an echo of Captain Ahab in Moby Dick? The links between ""Star Trek"" and literature are vast: themes and characters that reflect those in classic literature; characters that quote literature in their dialog; and an enormous body of nonfiction books, novels, articles that have grown from the saga. Finally, like literature, ""Star Trek"" seeks to help in the human endeavour of understanding the world and its place in the universe. This book explores all of those connections. The Next Generation's Captain Picard frequently quotes Shakespeare. Captain Janeway from Voyager reenacts literature in Holodeck novels. Jake Sisko, son of Deep Space Nine's Commander Benjamin Sisko, becomes an award-winning writer. Beginning with Captain James T. Kirk' first appearance in the original series, then continuing through four subsequent series and ten movies, this book draws parallels between ""Star Trek"" stories and literary classics such as ""Hamlet"", ""Paradise Lost"", ""Ulysses"", ""Dracula"", and the New Testament, and works by the likes of Booker T. Washington, Edgar Allan Poe and William Shakespeare. Appendices list the literary works discussed and the episodes and movies mentioned, each giving the chapters where references can be found.

Before the unprecedented televised presidential debates of 1960, most Americans were able to relate to their leaders in little more than an historical context. In the era of televised elections, however, the media have allowed Americans to witness the paternal, moral and intellectual qualities of their president up close. Television has been so critical to this process of political socialization that, for many Americans, the televised image of the president is the president. As the acclaimed television drama ""The West Wing"" demonstrates, fictional representations of the presidency can also be significant civic forces. This book examines how film and television drama contribute to shaping the presidency and the way most Americans understand it, and particularly the processes of political education. The text discusses ""The West Wing's"" didactic potential, its representation of White House politics, and its depiction of race and gender, with commentary on how fictional representations of the presidency become important elements of American political consciousness.