Since the first series of Pop Idol aired in the UK just over a decade ago, Idols television shows have been broadcast in more than forty countries all over the world. In all those countries the global Idols format has been adapted to local cultures and production contexts, resulting in a plethora of different versions, ranging from the Dutch Idols to the Pan-Arab Super Star and from Nigerian Idol to the international blockbuster American Idol. Despite its worldwide success and widespread journalistic coverage, the Idols phenomenon has received only limited academic attention. Adapting Idols: Authenticity, Identity and Performance in a Global Television Format brings together original studies from scholars in different parts of the world to identify and evaluate the productive dimensions of Idols. As one of the world's most successful television formats, Idols offers a unique case for the study of cultural globalization. Chapters discuss how Idols shows address particular national or regional identity politics and how Idols is consumed by audiences in different territories. This book illustrates that even though the same television format is used in countries all over the globe, practices of adaptation can still result in the creation of unique local cultural products.

Since the first series of Pop Idol aired in the UK just over a decade ago, Idols television shows have been broadcast in more than forty countries all over the world. In all those countries the global Idols format has been adapted to local cultures and production contexts, resulting in a plethora of different versions, ranging from the Dutch Idols to the Pan-Arab Super Star and from Nigerian Idol to the international blockbuster American Idol. Despite its worldwide success and widespread journalistic coverage, the Idols phenomenon has received only limited academic attention. Adapting Idols: Authenticity, Identity and Performance in a Global Television Format brings together original studies from scholars in different parts of the world to identify and evaluate the productive dimensions of Idols. As one of the world's most successful television formats, Idols offers a unique case for the study of cultural globalization. Chapters discuss how Idols shows address particular national or regional identity politics and how Idols is consumed by audiences in different territories. This book illustrates that even though the same television format is used in countries all over the globe, practices of adaptation can still result in the creation of unique local cultural products.

Place, Power, Media: Mediated Responses to Globalization is a compelling, interdisciplinary exploration of how media practices and communication rituals are connected to larger economic, social, and political processes in a globalizing world. Through a rich variety of media texts, authors examine how daily, mundane, and interpersonal processes help shape 'our' place in the world, a placement that is integrally connected to social relations at the global level. Denoting a sense of geography as well as demarcating diverse social positionings, place is understood as the result of historical and contemporary discourses occurring on a range of scales and within different cultural, aesthetic, and political contexts. The authors argue that the construction, restoration, configuration, and representation of place is an important project at multiple levels; what meanings are derived from it, what meanings are infused, who the key players are, what power struggles are inherent-these issues offer rich areas of study for global media scholars interested in the place-making powers of media.

Place, Power, Media: Mediated Responses to Globalization is a compelling, interdisciplinary exploration of how media practices and communication rituals are connected to larger economic, social, and political processes in a globalizing world. Through a rich variety of media texts, authors examine how daily, mundane, and interpersonal processes help shape 'our' place in the world, a placement that is integrally connected to social relations at the global level. Denoting a sense of geography as well as demarcating diverse social positionings, place is understood as the result of historical and contemporary discourses occurring on a range of scales and within different cultural, aesthetic, and political contexts. The authors argue that the construction, restoration, configuration, and representation of place is an important project at multiple levels; what meanings are derived from it, what meanings are infused, who the key players are, what power struggles are inherent-these issues offer rich areas of study for global media scholars interested in the place-making powers of media.