The Oscar-nominated Precious star and Empire actress delivers a riveting memoir that is wise, complex, smart, funny, and breaks the mold, just like Sidibe, herself. Gabourey Sidibe - "Gabby" to her legion of fans - skyrocketed to international fame in 2009 when she played the leading role in Lee Daniels' acclaimed movie Precious. In This Is Just My Face, she shares a one-of-a-kind life story in a voice as fresh and challenging as many of the unique characters she's played onscreen. With full-throttle honesty, Sidibe paints her Bed-Stuy/Harlem family life with a polygamous father and a gifted mother who supports her two children by singing in the subway. Sidibe tells the engrossing, inspiring story of her first job as a phone sex "talker". And she shares her unconventional (of course!) rise to fame as a movie star alongside "a superstar cast of rich people who lived in mansions and had their own private islands and amazing careers while I lived in my mom's apartment." Sidibe's memoir hits hard with self-knowing dispatches on friendship, depression, celebrity, haters, fashion, race, and weight ("If I could just get the world to see me the way I see myself," she writes, "would my body still be a thing you walked away thinking about?"). Irreverent, hilarious, and untraditional, This Is Just My Face will resonate with anyone who has ever felt different and with anyone who has ever felt inspired to make a dream come true.

This book launches a comprehensive detailing of the dramatic expansion of the geography of television production into new cities, states, provinces, and countries, and how those responsible for shaping the "landscape" of television have been forced to adapt, taking established strategies for engaging with space and place through mediated representation and renegotiating them to account for the new map of television production. Modelling media studies research that considers the intersection of production, textuality, distribution, and reception, Myles McNutt identifies how the expansion of where television is produced has intersected with the kinds of places represented on television, and how shifts in the production, distribution, and consumption of television content have shifted the burden of representing cities and countries both locally and internationally. Representing a cross-section of media industry studies, television studies, and cultural geography, this book will appeal to scholars and students within multiple areas of media studies, including media industry studies, production studies, and audience studies, in addition to television studies broadly In addition, the book also serves discussions of media within cultural geography

Joss Whedon may be primarily known for his numerous films and television series that feature villainous vampires, angry gods, and even bloggers who wish to rule the world, but what connects much of his work is the constant presence of a particular type of antagonist: the corporation. In this study of Whedon's work, from his early days as story editor for Roseanne to his relationship with Marvel, I trace his use of corporate culture as the primary antagonist under which all of his protagonists struggle, from the fast food horrors in Buffy and Roseanne, to the corporate-funded technology used in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers films, followed by an extensive case study of the multifaceted (and difficult to defeat) Rossum Corporation in Dollhouse. The proliferation of corporate actors allows Whedon and his team to provide explicit sociopolitical commentary on a real world in which corporations wield enormous control.

Between Habit and Thought in New TV Serial Drama: Serial Connections is a consideration of some of the key examples of serial television drama available via transnational streaming platforms in recent times. Through the individual works examined, the book exemplifies the ways in which aesthetics, technology, and capitalism weave a complex social fabric around the production of the respective television series, thus presenting this type of serial drama as a finely engineered cultural production. Taking Bernard Stiegler's notion of an "image warfare" as its starting point, the author critically investigates the strategies deployed by the shows' producers to navigate this dynamic, shaped by the "new spirit of capitalism". With creativity intrinsic to the process, on the one hand, and a highly efficient drive for capturing and fixing attention driven by algorithm and economic logic, on the other, the author maps the processes at work in the production of high-value serial drama and considers how, despite this tension, they manage to present meaningful insights into the experience of being in this world: A world shaped by trauma, a desire for justice, and a search for systems of belief that can offer a way through the vicissitudes of contemporary life. Framed by a detailed analysis of the multiple processes that shape these works is a sustained analysis of the serials Mr Robot, Billions, The Leftovers, Rectify, and Westworld, and the dynamics of despair and hope that ripple through them. As such, it will appeal to readers of film and television studies, cultural theory, and those interested in furthering a critical aesthetics for our time.

The heroine's journey echoes through ancient legend, as each young woman combats her dark side and emerges stronger. Of course, this quest is also a staple of the most American of mythologies-comic books. With her fabled birth, Wonder Woman exemplifies a new female-centric creation story. After this, the lasso or Witchblade or totem necklace offers each superhero semidivine power. Batgirl, Batwoman, and Black Widow discover their great enemy is the dark mother or shadow twin-all the savagery they've rejected in themselves. On her new television show, Supergirl has a similar struggle but must also restore harmony with her closest bond of all-her sister. From Jessica Jones and Catwoman to the new superwomen of cutting-edge webcomics, each heroine must descend into the darkest place of all, not to become a warrior-hero but a savior. Thus women like Captain Marvel and Storm sacrifice all to join the ranks of true superheroes. At the same time, their earthshaking feminine powers and dazzling costumes spin the most ancient tales, offering the world an extraordinary new popular mythos.

A captivating exploration of the television phenomenon that is Supernatural, with insights into characters, plots, and the show's impact on pop culture. When Supernatural first aired on the CW in 2005, it was dismissed by many for being "pretty guys fighting demons." Yet Supernatural persisted for 15 seasons to become the anchor of the network's line-up and the longest running genre series in US television history. In Supernatural: A History of Television's Unearthly Road Trip, Erin Giannini delves into the phenomenon of this cult series and its devoted fan base. Covering all 15 seasons, including the series finale that aired in 2020, this book examines the show's predecessors, characters, major storylines, and fan activism. It also revisits creator Eric Kripke's road to creating the series, draws surprising and revealing connections between the show and other series, and discusses the ways Supernatural responded to social and industry changes throughout its long run. Supernatural was the little show that could for 15 years, persisting beyond its original network's lifespan and surviving the departure of its creator and showrunner, in no small part due to its loyal fans. Inspired by shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and going on to influence many shows that followed, Supernatural offers insight into how a series can adapt and grow to become a mainstay of primetime television.

As entertaining as it is enlightening, Creating Dialogue for TV: Screenwriters Talk Television presents interviews with five Hollywood professionals who talk about all things related to dialogue - from naturalistic style to the building of characters to swearing and dialect. Screenwriters/showrunners David Mandel (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Veep), Jane Espenson (Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, Once Upon a Time), Robert Berens (Supernatural), Sheila Lawrence (Gilmore Girls, Ugly Betty, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel), and Doris Egan (Tru Calling, House, Reign) field a linguist's inquiries about the craft of writing dialogue. This book is for anyone who has ever wondered what creative processes and attitudes lie behind the words they encounter when tuning into their favourite television show. It provides direct insights into Hollywood writers' knowledge and opinions of how language is used in television narratives, and in doing so shows how language awareness, attitudes and the craft of using words are utilised to create popular TV series. The book will appeal to students and teachers in screenwriting, creative writing and linguistics as well as lay readers.

This book makes fascinating connections between the ways in which contemporary television serials cue cognitive operations, solicit emotional responses, and elicit aesthetic appreciation The discussions in this book will have much to add to debates on the emotional and cognitive effects of television dramas on their audiences, and thus larger questions of what should or should not be represented on screen The chapters explore a number of questions including: - How do the particularities of form and style in contemporary serial television engage us cognitively, emotionally, and aesthetically? - How do they foster cognitive and emotional effects such as feeling suspense, anticipation, surprise, satisfaction, and disappointment? - Why and how do we value some serials while disliking others? - What is it about the particularities of serial television form and style, in conjunction with our common cognitive, emotional, and aesthetic capacities, that accounts for serial television's cognitive, socio-political, and aesthetic value, and its current ubiquity in popular culture? This book will appeal to postgraduates and scholars working in television studies as well as film studies, cognitive media theory, media psychology, and the philosophy of art

- Constitutes the first textbook the field, written specifically in relation to sound design - Contributors are world-leading researchers in their fields and come from a variety of countries and institutions. - Marries the theoretical with the practical, by offering concrete examples and case studies throughout

- Constitutes the first textbook the field, written specifically in relation to sound design - Contributors are world-leading researchers in their fields and come from a variety of countries and institutions. - Marries the theoretical with the practical, by offering concrete examples and case studies throughout

This book documents the journey of regional language television channels in India. It looks at the evolution of regional channels in 14 different languages across India. This book will be of interest to departments of South Asian studies, and media & communication studies.

More than 400 films and 150 television series have featured time travel - stories of rewriting history, lovers separated by centuries, journeys to the past or the (often dystopian) future. This book examines some of the roles time travel plays on screen in science fiction and fantasy. Plot synopses and credits are listed for TV series from England, Canada, the UK and Japan, as well as for films from around the world. Tropes and plot elements are highlighted. The author discusses philosophical questions about time travel, such as the logic of timelines, causality (what's to keep time-travelers from jumping back and correcting every mistake?) and morality (if you correct a mistake, are you still guilty of it?).

The Lone Ranger has endured as an iconic figure in American popular culture, from his 1933 premier as a radio serial hero through a highly-rated television series (1949-1957) to a 2013 feature film. Created by script writer Fran Striker and radio station owner George W. Trendle, the character was meant to embody courage, fair play and honesty, and writers had to adhere to specific guidelines: "he never smokes ... he uses precise speech ... he never shoots to kill." The popularity of the Ranger and his companion Tonto inspired later crime fighting duos like Batman and Robin, and The Green Hornet and Kato. This book examines the franchise in detail, with summaries and production details of the original radio episodes.

This book offers a detailed analysis of the Islamic Republic of Iran's approach towards human rights in the media. It looks at the state-owned and state-controlled Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), employing content analysis and multimodal critical discourse analysis to explore its underlying strategies in portraying the international rights norms. The book also features analysis of surveys and interviews of recent Iranian migrants to determine the extent to which the Iranian public is aware of human rights principles and their views on whether and how the international rights norms are portrayed on IRIB.

Examining the ways in which the BBC constructed and disseminated British national identity during the second quarter of the twentieth century, this book is the first study that focuses in a comprehensive way on how the BBC, through its radio programs, tried to represent what it meant to be British. The BBC and national identity in Britain offers a revision of histories of regional broadcasting in Britain that interpret it as a form of cultural imperialism. The regional organization of the BBC, and the news and creative programming designed specifically for regional listeners, reinforced the cultural and historical distinctiveness of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The BBC anticipated, and perhaps encouraged, the development of the hybrid "dual identities" characteristic of contemporary Britain. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of nationalism and national identity, British imperialism, mass media and media history, and the "four nations" approach to British history. -- .

American society centers on individualism, celebrating personal choice even at the expense of collective progress. As part of this emphasis on agency, Americans value freedom for health decisions, and individual health professionals and consumers are held responsible for the nation's health, often at the expense of improving the overall healthcare system. Such individualistic discourse, disseminated and reinforced through American media, has created resistance and hostility toward health policy initiatives such as the Affordable Care Act and other legislation aimed to improve American healthcare. Television and Health Responsibility in an Age of Individualism examines the relationship between entertainment and health responsibility in the United States. Through the analysis of contemporary television medical dramas, Foss explores how these media texts help shape and perpetuate ideologies that have and continue to encourage resistance to healthcare reform that shifts responsibility away from individuals to government and other institutions.

This book offers a systematic study of media education in Latin America. As spending on technological infrastructure in the region increases exponentially for educational purposes, and with national curriculums beginning to implement media related skills, this book makes a timely contribution to new debates surrounding the significance of media literacy as a citizen's right. Taking both a topical and country-based approach, authors from across Latin America present a comprehensive perspective of the region and address issues such as the political and social contexts in which media education is based, the current state of educational policies with respect to media, organizations and experiences that promote media education.

This book examines the professional activity of public television journalists in Poland operating in the still unstable system of a post-communist state, to demonstrate how the media can work in the public interest to strengthen democracy Drawing on in-depth interviews with Telewizja Polska (TVP) journalists, the author shows how public television in Poland has become highly politicised and commercialised, and must defend against constant attacks on its autonomy Adding an important perspective on recently-developed media systems, this book will be an important resource for scholars and students of journalism, media studies, media industries, politics and media history

Winner of the 2001 Ray and Pat Browne National Book Award for Outstanding Textbook, given by the Popular Culture Association From Ken Burns's documentaries to historical dramas such as Roots, from A&E's Biography series to CNN, television has become the primary source for historical information for tens of millions of Americans today. Why has television become such a respected authority? What falsehoods enter our collective memory as truths? How is one to know what is real and what is imagined -- or ignored -- by producers, directors, or writers? Gary Edgerton and Peter Rollins have collected a group of essays that answer these and many other questions. The contributors examine the full spectrum of historical genres, but also institutions such as the History Channel and production histories of such series as The Jack Benny Show, which ran for fifteen years. The authors explore the tensions between popular history and professional history, and the tendency of some academics to declare the past "off limits" to nonscholars. Several of them point to the tendency for television histories to embed current concerns and priorities within the past, as in such popular shows as Quantum Leap and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. The result is an insightful portrayal of the power television possesses to influence our culture.

History on British television explores the production and consumption of factual history programming on British television. The chronological development of Western historiography is compared to phases of British television history production, highlighting how progressive developments in social and cultural trends have shaped what we make of the past and what the past makes of us. Charting the rise and dominance of television history as a popular cultural form, the book examines how the past has become a model for citizenship, prioritising certain groups and classes, marginalising others. Clearly defined chapters deal with the battle between the BBC and its commercial rivals to become the 'voice of the nation'. Engaging, informed and easy to read, the book is intended for researchers, teachers and students interested in television and historical studies, as well as readers keen to understand how collective memory, television and history have become a potent propaganda mixture of stylised myths reinforcing nationality, identity and citizenship. -- .

-examines the relationship between Brexit and its comedy, exploring how Brexit and comedy are connected in both Leave and Remain discourse -argues that both populism and comedy are rhetorical in nature and so are linked through their semantic structure and communicative potential -the author analyses the populism that has emerged from those incongruities in the form of ironic, ambiguous and dichotomous discourse -provides not just an advance in our understanding of political satire but also a clearer description of the nature of populism

This book examines the development of television broadcasting in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea. It explores the policy regimes guiding the development of television broadcasting as a powerful institution and the extent to which new forms of television have become part of each country's contemporary media mix. It analyses the interests involved in key policy decisions, the institutional dynamics promoting or inhibiting new media markets, and the relative importance in the different countries of cable, satellite, digital broadcasting, and the use of the Internet for purposes associated with television broadcasting. The nature of television regimes in each of the three countries is very different, and the contrasting situations provide great insights into how television is developing, and how it could develop further, both in East Asia and worldwide.

This pioneering study examines regional British television drama from its beginnings on the BBC and ITV in the 1950s to the arrival of Channel Four in 1982. It discusses the ways in which regionalism, regional culture and regional identity have been defined, outlines the history of regional broadcasting in the UK, and includes two detailed case studies - of Granada Television and BBC English Regions Drama - representing contrasting examples of regional television drama during what is often described as the 'golden age' of British television. The conclusion brings the study up to date by discussing recent developments in regional drama production, and by considering future possibilities. Written in a scholarly but accessible style, the book uncovers a forgotten history of British television drama that will be of interest to lecturers and students of media and cultural studies, as well as the general reader with an interest in the history of British television. -- .

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.

Students will find this book interesting and relevant as it offers the most up-to-date accounts of the Korean Wave examples and interdisciplinary analyses, including the 2019 film Parasite, the Korean boy band BTS and recent TV dramas, such as Kingdom (2019, 2020), Crash Landing on You (2020) and Mr. Sunshine (2018). With it's coverage of film, TV and popular music, this collection will have interdisciplinary appeal and can be used on courses in Korean and Asian studies as well as film, media, and cultural industries. Includes scholars from a range of disciplines and a series of case studies from Asia, the USA, Europe and the Middle East.