What happens to our sense of agency, our general ability to perform actions in our lifeworlds, in the course of media reception and appropriation? Whilst considering media communication as a special form of social action, this work reconsiders the key concepts of social action theory, pragmatism, communication theory, as well as film, game, and television theory. It thus integrates agency as the key to understanding doing media and at the same time conceptualizes agency as a specific mode of involvement across media boundaries. This approach amalgamates miscellaneous ideas and conceptions such as interactivity, participation, cognitive control, play or empowerment and applies the theoretical considerations on the basis of textual analyses of the films "Inception" and "The Proposal," the TV shows "Lost" and "I m a Celebrity" and the video games "Grand Theft Auto IV," and "The Walking Dead.""

Fernsehserien wie Alias, CSI, Fringe, Grey's Anatomy, Six Feet Under, Heroes, Lost, Private Practice, The Shield, The Sopranos, Dexter, True Blood, 24, Ugly Betty oder The Wire erfreuen sich weltweiter Beliebtheit. Gerade die letzte Dekade brachte eine Vielzahl an Formaten hervor, die unter dem Label Quality TV sowohl ein breites Publikum als auch Kritiker und eingeschworene Fangemeinden begeisterten. Der vorliegende Band versammelt Beitrage, die sich der Asthetik und Narration dieser neuen Serien ebenso widmen wie den veranderten Rezeptionsweisen, und die neue theoretische Aspekte der Serienkultur diskutieren.
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