Pablo J. Boczkowski and Eugenia Mitchelstein
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019835
- eISBN:
- 9780262318181
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019835.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
The sites of major media organizations—CNN, USA Today, the Guardian, and others—provide the public with much of the online news they consume. But although a large proportion of the top stories these ...
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The sites of major media organizations—CNN, USA Today, the Guardian, and others—provide the public with much of the online news they consume. But although a large proportion of the top stories these sites disseminate cover politics, international relations, and economics, users of these sites show a preference (as evidenced by the most viewed stories) for news about sports, crime, entertainment, and weather. In this book, Pablo Boczkowski and Eugenia Mitchelstein examine this gap and consider the implications for the media industry and democratic life in the digital age. Drawing on analyses of more than 50,000 stories posted on twenty news sites in seven countries in North and South America and Western Europe, Boczkowski and Mitchelstein find that the gap in news preferences exists regardless of ideological orientation or national media culture. They show that it narrows in times of heightened political activity (including presidential elections or government crises) as readers feel compelled to inform themselves about public affairs but remains wide during times of normal political activity. Boczkowski and Mitchelstein also find that the gap is not affected by innovations in Web-native forms of storytelling such as blogs and user-generated content on mainstream news sites. Keeping the account of the news gap up to date, in the book’s coda they extend the analysis through the 2012 U.S. presidential election. Drawing upon these findings, the authors explore the news gap’s troubling consequences for the matrix that connects communication, technology, and politics in the digital age.Less
The sites of major media organizations—CNN, USA Today, the Guardian, and others—provide the public with much of the online news they consume. But although a large proportion of the top stories these sites disseminate cover politics, international relations, and economics, users of these sites show a preference (as evidenced by the most viewed stories) for news about sports, crime, entertainment, and weather. In this book, Pablo Boczkowski and Eugenia Mitchelstein examine this gap and consider the implications for the media industry and democratic life in the digital age. Drawing on analyses of more than 50,000 stories posted on twenty news sites in seven countries in North and South America and Western Europe, Boczkowski and Mitchelstein find that the gap in news preferences exists regardless of ideological orientation or national media culture. They show that it narrows in times of heightened political activity (including presidential elections or government crises) as readers feel compelled to inform themselves about public affairs but remains wide during times of normal political activity. Boczkowski and Mitchelstein also find that the gap is not affected by innovations in Web-native forms of storytelling such as blogs and user-generated content on mainstream news sites. Keeping the account of the news gap up to date, in the book’s coda they extend the analysis through the 2012 U.S. presidential election. Drawing upon these findings, the authors explore the news gap’s troubling consequences for the matrix that connects communication, technology, and politics in the digital age.
Fiona Hobden and Amanda Wrigley (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474412599
- eISBN:
- 9781474449526
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474412599.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
Ancient Greece has inspired television producers and captivated viewing audiences in the United Kingdom for over half a century. By examining how and why political, social and cultural narratives of ...
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Ancient Greece has inspired television producers and captivated viewing audiences in the United Kingdom for over half a century. By examining how and why political, social and cultural narratives of Greece have been constructed through television’s distinctive audiovisual languages, and also in relation to its influential sister-medium radio, this volume explores the nature and function of these public engagements with the written and material remains of the Hellenic past. Through ten case studies drawn from feature programmes, educational broadcasts, children’s animations, theatre play productions, dramatic fiction and documentaries broadcast across the decades, this collection offers wide-ranging insights into the significance of ancient Greece on British television.Less
Ancient Greece has inspired television producers and captivated viewing audiences in the United Kingdom for over half a century. By examining how and why political, social and cultural narratives of Greece have been constructed through television’s distinctive audiovisual languages, and also in relation to its influential sister-medium radio, this volume explores the nature and function of these public engagements with the written and material remains of the Hellenic past. Through ten case studies drawn from feature programmes, educational broadcasts, children’s animations, theatre play productions, dramatic fiction and documentaries broadcast across the decades, this collection offers wide-ranging insights into the significance of ancient Greece on British television.
Richard Farmer
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719091889
- eISBN:
- 9781526109644
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719091889.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
The utility dream palace is a cultural history of cinemagoing and the cinema exhibition industry in Britain during the Second World War, a period of massive audiences in which vast swathes of the ...
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The utility dream palace is a cultural history of cinemagoing and the cinema exhibition industry in Britain during the Second World War, a period of massive audiences in which vast swathes of the British population went to the pictures on a regular basis. Yet for all that wartime films have received a great deal of academic attention, and have been discussed in terms of the escapist pleasures they offered, the experiential pleasures offered by the cinemas in which such films were watched were inextricably connected to the places and times in which they operated. British cinemas – and the people who worked in, owned and visited them – were acutely sensitive to their spatial and temporal locations, unable to escape the war and intimately bound up in and contributing to the public’s experience of it. Combining oral history, extensive archival research, and a wealth of material gathered from contemporary trade papers, fan magazines and newspapers, this book is the first to provide a comprehensive analysis of both the cinema’s position in wartime society, and the impact that the war had on the cinema as a social practice. Dealing with subjects as diverse as the blackout, the blitz, evacuation, advertising, staffing and conscription, Entertainments Tax, showmanship and clothes rationing, The utility dream palace asserts that the cinema was, for many people, a central feature of wartime life, and argues that the history of British cinemas and cinemagoing between 1939 and 1945 is, in many ways, the history of wartime Britain.Less
The utility dream palace is a cultural history of cinemagoing and the cinema exhibition industry in Britain during the Second World War, a period of massive audiences in which vast swathes of the British population went to the pictures on a regular basis. Yet for all that wartime films have received a great deal of academic attention, and have been discussed in terms of the escapist pleasures they offered, the experiential pleasures offered by the cinemas in which such films were watched were inextricably connected to the places and times in which they operated. British cinemas – and the people who worked in, owned and visited them – were acutely sensitive to their spatial and temporal locations, unable to escape the war and intimately bound up in and contributing to the public’s experience of it. Combining oral history, extensive archival research, and a wealth of material gathered from contemporary trade papers, fan magazines and newspapers, this book is the first to provide a comprehensive analysis of both the cinema’s position in wartime society, and the impact that the war had on the cinema as a social practice. Dealing with subjects as diverse as the blackout, the blitz, evacuation, advertising, staffing and conscription, Entertainments Tax, showmanship and clothes rationing, The utility dream palace asserts that the cinema was, for many people, a central feature of wartime life, and argues that the history of British cinemas and cinemagoing between 1939 and 1945 is, in many ways, the history of wartime Britain.
Allison K. Deutermann
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474411264
- eISBN:
- 9781474422154
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474411264.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Early modern drama was in fundamental ways an aural art form. How plays should sound and how they should be heard were questions vital to the formal development of early modern drama, and ...
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Early modern drama was in fundamental ways an aural art form. How plays should sound and how they should be heard were questions vital to the formal development of early modern drama, and particularly to two of its most popular genres: revenge tragedy and city comedy. Simply put, theatregoers were taught to hear these plays differently. Revenge tragedies by William Shakespeare and Thomas Kyd imagine sound stabbing, piercing and slicing into listeners' bodies on and off the stage; while comedies by Ben Jonson and John Marston imagine it being sampled selectively and according to taste. Listening for Theatrical Form in Early Modern England traces the interconnected development of these two genres and auditory modes over six decades of commercial theatre history, combining surveys of the theatrical marketplace with focused attention to specific plays and to the non-dramatic literature that gives this interest in audition texture: anatomy texts, sermons, music treatises and manuals on rhetoric and poetics.Less
Early modern drama was in fundamental ways an aural art form. How plays should sound and how they should be heard were questions vital to the formal development of early modern drama, and particularly to two of its most popular genres: revenge tragedy and city comedy. Simply put, theatregoers were taught to hear these plays differently. Revenge tragedies by William Shakespeare and Thomas Kyd imagine sound stabbing, piercing and slicing into listeners' bodies on and off the stage; while comedies by Ben Jonson and John Marston imagine it being sampled selectively and according to taste. Listening for Theatrical Form in Early Modern England traces the interconnected development of these two genres and auditory modes over six decades of commercial theatre history, combining surveys of the theatrical marketplace with focused attention to specific plays and to the non-dramatic literature that gives this interest in audition texture: anatomy texts, sermons, music treatises and manuals on rhetoric and poetics.
Graham Bullock
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036429
- eISBN:
- 9780262340984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036429.003.0006
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
Chapter 6’s discussion of the outcomes of information-based governance strategies begins with a comparison of three initiatives that evaluate electronics products – ENERGY STAR, EPEAT, and TCO. It ...
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Chapter 6’s discussion of the outcomes of information-based governance strategies begins with a comparison of three initiatives that evaluate electronics products – ENERGY STAR, EPEAT, and TCO. It introduces different conceptions of effectiveness, and emphasizes that different actors may have different definitions and perceptions of effectiveness. The chapter discusses a range of hypotheses and evidence related to the effects of information on consumers, businesses, government agencies, advocacy organizations, and researchers. While some evidence shows that a few existing programs have indeed created tangible social and environmental benefits, the database of 245 cases reveals that the vast majority of information-based governance strategies have failed to provide such information about their effectiveness to the public. The chapter ends with a discussion of promising and problematic practices for tracking the environmental outcomes and benefits of information-based governance strategies.Less
Chapter 6’s discussion of the outcomes of information-based governance strategies begins with a comparison of three initiatives that evaluate electronics products – ENERGY STAR, EPEAT, and TCO. It introduces different conceptions of effectiveness, and emphasizes that different actors may have different definitions and perceptions of effectiveness. The chapter discusses a range of hypotheses and evidence related to the effects of information on consumers, businesses, government agencies, advocacy organizations, and researchers. While some evidence shows that a few existing programs have indeed created tangible social and environmental benefits, the database of 245 cases reveals that the vast majority of information-based governance strategies have failed to provide such information about their effectiveness to the public. The chapter ends with a discussion of promising and problematic practices for tracking the environmental outcomes and benefits of information-based governance strategies.
Ralina L. Joseph
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479862825
- eISBN:
- 9781479818426
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479862825.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Chapter 4 begins part two of the book, which analyzes the words of Black women who are behind and speaking back to their screens, and postulates about what happens when postracial resistance and ...
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Chapter 4 begins part two of the book, which analyzes the words of Black women who are behind and speaking back to their screens, and postulates about what happens when postracial resistance and strategic ambiguity are not available as strategies for success. Chapter 4 focuses on how the young women constructed their community through identifying against strategic ambiguity. This chapter begins by defining the contours of this women-of-color, feminist audience study. Joseph introduces the members of the study to the readers, and takes them through some of their critiques including how they identify against televisual images, how they refute tokenism, and how they enact racialized resistance by “hate-watching.”Less
Chapter 4 begins part two of the book, which analyzes the words of Black women who are behind and speaking back to their screens, and postulates about what happens when postracial resistance and strategic ambiguity are not available as strategies for success. Chapter 4 focuses on how the young women constructed their community through identifying against strategic ambiguity. This chapter begins by defining the contours of this women-of-color, feminist audience study. Joseph introduces the members of the study to the readers, and takes them through some of their critiques including how they identify against televisual images, how they refute tokenism, and how they enact racialized resistance by “hate-watching.”
Ralina L. Joseph
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479862825
- eISBN:
- 9781479818426
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479862825.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Chapter 5 is the second of the two audience reception chapters in the books, which continues documenting a group of young women flow of commentary before, during, and after watching a full season of ...
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Chapter 5 is the second of the two audience reception chapters in the books, which continues documenting a group of young women flow of commentary before, during, and after watching a full season of their favorite television program, America’s Next Top Model. These young women claimed agency in the face of what they interpreted to be racist and sexist media representations, and they subsequently produced counter-narratives to strategic ambiguity. This chapter looks at how the young women flouted the corporate notion of the management of difference in their viewing community by flouting respectability politics, calling out colorism, rejecting code-switching, and, overall, rejecting postrace.Less
Chapter 5 is the second of the two audience reception chapters in the books, which continues documenting a group of young women flow of commentary before, during, and after watching a full season of their favorite television program, America’s Next Top Model. These young women claimed agency in the face of what they interpreted to be racist and sexist media representations, and they subsequently produced counter-narratives to strategic ambiguity. This chapter looks at how the young women flouted the corporate notion of the management of difference in their viewing community by flouting respectability politics, calling out colorism, rejecting code-switching, and, overall, rejecting postrace.
Lynn Spigel and Max Dawson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748626014
- eISBN:
- 9780748670673
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748626014.003.0018
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
In this chapter, Lynn Spiegel and Max Dawson show how American television remained the central medium not just for entertainment, but for discussion of gender roles, race relations, family life and ...
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In this chapter, Lynn Spiegel and Max Dawson show how American television remained the central medium not just for entertainment, but for discussion of gender roles, race relations, family life and other major moral and social issues of the day. They examine the new emphasis on taste and lifestyle in network programming, as well as the continuing under-representation of Latino and other ethnic groups on prime-time shows. They also examine the rise of reality television, the development of a new scheduling policy based on the ‘social arrhythmia’ of the 24-hour information economy, and the rising importance of time-shifting by the end of the period. Finally, they argue that viewers now form a part of television audiences that transcend the old boundaries of the nation-state – even though worldwide audiences continue to interpret programmes in the light of their own local contexts and national concerns.Less
In this chapter, Lynn Spiegel and Max Dawson show how American television remained the central medium not just for entertainment, but for discussion of gender roles, race relations, family life and other major moral and social issues of the day. They examine the new emphasis on taste and lifestyle in network programming, as well as the continuing under-representation of Latino and other ethnic groups on prime-time shows. They also examine the rise of reality television, the development of a new scheduling policy based on the ‘social arrhythmia’ of the 24-hour information economy, and the rising importance of time-shifting by the end of the period. Finally, they argue that viewers now form a part of television audiences that transcend the old boundaries of the nation-state – even though worldwide audiences continue to interpret programmes in the light of their own local contexts and national concerns.
Brett Mills
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748637515
- eISBN:
- 9780748671229
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637515.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
This chapter argues the sitcom is an especially important genre for thinking about television audiences because comedy is a form of communication that relies on audience response for its effect. The ...
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This chapter argues the sitcom is an especially important genre for thinking about television audiences because comedy is a form of communication that relies on audience response for its effect. The chapter examines sitcom tropes such as the laugh track, to examine how the audience is signalled within the genre. It also explores audience reactions via complaints, and examines what such complaints tell us about audience expectations for the genre. This is also linked to issues of broadcasting regulations. The chapter draws on primary research with comedy audiences carried out for this book.Less
This chapter argues the sitcom is an especially important genre for thinking about television audiences because comedy is a form of communication that relies on audience response for its effect. The chapter examines sitcom tropes such as the laugh track, to examine how the audience is signalled within the genre. It also explores audience reactions via complaints, and examines what such complaints tell us about audience expectations for the genre. This is also linked to issues of broadcasting regulations. The chapter draws on primary research with comedy audiences carried out for this book.
Kristyn Gorton
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748624171
- eISBN:
- 9780748670956
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624171.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter considers how we can understand the term 'audience' and critically outlines some of the ways in which the audience has been approached, theorised and researched. It argues that the ...
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This chapter considers how we can understand the term 'audience' and critically outlines some of the ways in which the audience has been approached, theorised and researched. It argues that the history of audience research is characterised by a division between powerful media and powerful viewers; that is, between understanding the media as capable of influencing and therefore affecting viewers and understanding viewers as capable of influencing and therefore affecting the media. This chapter also includes new developments in audience research.Less
This chapter considers how we can understand the term 'audience' and critically outlines some of the ways in which the audience has been approached, theorised and researched. It argues that the history of audience research is characterised by a division between powerful media and powerful viewers; that is, between understanding the media as capable of influencing and therefore affecting viewers and understanding viewers as capable of influencing and therefore affecting the media. This chapter also includes new developments in audience research.
Artel Great
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781496807045
- eISBN:
- 9781496807083
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496807045.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Continuing a television studies analysis of Perry, Artel Great argues in Chapter Eight that from both a critical and an industrial perspective, the sitcom Tyler Perry’s House of Payne(TBS, 2006-2012) ...
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Continuing a television studies analysis of Perry, Artel Great argues in Chapter Eight that from both a critical and an industrial perspective, the sitcom Tyler Perry’s House of Payne(TBS, 2006-2012) represents acomplex but no less problematic contribution to the history of Black televisual authorship. Precisely because there has been a pronounced dearth of Black representation on television, Great demonstrates that the politics of thirst best characterize how Black audiences engage the few existing images of televisual blackness. Despite several unprecedented industrial achievements (such as surpassing The Jeffersons[CBS, 1975-1985] as the longest running Black sitcom), when considered within the context of the history and formal structure of the Black sitcom, House of Payne digresses as itrejuvenates the narrative conventions and visual cues of uncritical Black minstrelsy. Rife with missed opportunities for teaching complex lessons about Black subjectivity, esteem, and interiority, Perry’s sitcom succeeded, then, mostly because of the continued omission of blackness on television.Less
Continuing a television studies analysis of Perry, Artel Great argues in Chapter Eight that from both a critical and an industrial perspective, the sitcom Tyler Perry’s House of Payne(TBS, 2006-2012) represents acomplex but no less problematic contribution to the history of Black televisual authorship. Precisely because there has been a pronounced dearth of Black representation on television, Great demonstrates that the politics of thirst best characterize how Black audiences engage the few existing images of televisual blackness. Despite several unprecedented industrial achievements (such as surpassing The Jeffersons[CBS, 1975-1985] as the longest running Black sitcom), when considered within the context of the history and formal structure of the Black sitcom, House of Payne digresses as itrejuvenates the narrative conventions and visual cues of uncritical Black minstrelsy. Rife with missed opportunities for teaching complex lessons about Black subjectivity, esteem, and interiority, Perry’s sitcom succeeded, then, mostly because of the continued omission of blackness on television.
Rita Berry
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9789622099579
- eISBN:
- 9789882206649
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622099579.003.0010
- Subject:
- Education, Educational Policy and Politics
Chapter 9 explains the numerous roles that reporting plays in learning and points out that communication is the essence of reporting. Teachers are made aware of the different audiences of reporting ...
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Chapter 9 explains the numerous roles that reporting plays in learning and points out that communication is the essence of reporting. Teachers are made aware of the different audiences of reporting and the importance of different reporting strategies. To support teachers in reporting practices, some reporting principles are mentioned, and various methods of reporting are illustrated with examples.Less
Chapter 9 explains the numerous roles that reporting plays in learning and points out that communication is the essence of reporting. Teachers are made aware of the different audiences of reporting and the importance of different reporting strategies. To support teachers in reporting practices, some reporting principles are mentioned, and various methods of reporting are illustrated with examples.
Laura Leante
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199811328
- eISBN:
- 9780199369539
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199811328.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music, Performing Practice/Studies
This chapter focuses on aspects of reception of North Indian classical music by North Indian audiences. In particular, it examines how ethnographic enquiries conducted among listeners can help shed ...
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This chapter focuses on aspects of reception of North Indian classical music by North Indian audiences. In particular, it examines how ethnographic enquiries conducted among listeners can help shed light on the processes of meaning construction in music and complement the more common investigation of musicians’ perspectives. Hindustani classical music tends to be described as an old and complex tradition and is believed to arouse profound emotions, which can be associated with spirituality and/or religious feelings. In this chapter I investigate how these ideas map onto the experience of listening to a specific raga. I present the outcome of a study based on ethnographic work carried out among Bengali concertgoers and music lovers, and I discuss how audience members, in verbal articulations of such experiences, embody sounds as patterns of movement, while at the same time drawing upon common discursive tropes and referring to local cultural practices.Less
This chapter focuses on aspects of reception of North Indian classical music by North Indian audiences. In particular, it examines how ethnographic enquiries conducted among listeners can help shed light on the processes of meaning construction in music and complement the more common investigation of musicians’ perspectives. Hindustani classical music tends to be described as an old and complex tradition and is believed to arouse profound emotions, which can be associated with spirituality and/or religious feelings. In this chapter I investigate how these ideas map onto the experience of listening to a specific raga. I present the outcome of a study based on ethnographic work carried out among Bengali concertgoers and music lovers, and I discuss how audience members, in verbal articulations of such experiences, embody sounds as patterns of movement, while at the same time drawing upon common discursive tropes and referring to local cultural practices.
Kenneth Cohen
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781501705496
- eISBN:
- 9781501714214
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501705496.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
Although investors in the early national period originally hoped to build a sporting culture that granted them both profit and prestige, the demand for profit-seeking created by the economic culture ...
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Although investors in the early national period originally hoped to build a sporting culture that granted them both profit and prestige, the demand for profit-seeking created by the economic culture of the post-Revolutionary years ultimately forced them to decide whether to maximize revenue by appealing to the largest possible audience or craft prestige for themselves by making sure that venues and content emphasized exclusivity and celebrated the elite. The social history of attending sporting events in the early national period reveals how demands from nonelite audiences pushed investors and professionals to prioritize profit over prestige. It then concludes by detailing how white men united to limit the confrontation that resulted from broader accessibility by erecting gender and racial barriers to full participation, and how politicians then borrowed from sport to construct a white male republic rooted in the pursuit of manhood and profit. In sum, then, this chapter highlights how elites and investors responded to popular opposition to exclusive elitism by conceding their desire for social and cultural authority and focusing on deference earned through wealth and white male brotherhood.Less
Although investors in the early national period originally hoped to build a sporting culture that granted them both profit and prestige, the demand for profit-seeking created by the economic culture of the post-Revolutionary years ultimately forced them to decide whether to maximize revenue by appealing to the largest possible audience or craft prestige for themselves by making sure that venues and content emphasized exclusivity and celebrated the elite. The social history of attending sporting events in the early national period reveals how demands from nonelite audiences pushed investors and professionals to prioritize profit over prestige. It then concludes by detailing how white men united to limit the confrontation that resulted from broader accessibility by erecting gender and racial barriers to full participation, and how politicians then borrowed from sport to construct a white male republic rooted in the pursuit of manhood and profit. In sum, then, this chapter highlights how elites and investors responded to popular opposition to exclusive elitism by conceding their desire for social and cultural authority and focusing on deference earned through wealth and white male brotherhood.
Kenneth Cohen
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781501705496
- eISBN:
- 9781501714214
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501705496.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
The final chapter explores the experience of participating in mass sporting culture. It begins by introducing the notion of “cultural mobility,” a concept which describes how white men took advantage ...
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The final chapter explores the experience of participating in mass sporting culture. It begins by introducing the notion of “cultural mobility,” a concept which describes how white men took advantage of both the accessibility created in the early national period as well as the re-introduction of standardized genteel and rough sporting spaces to challenge class stereotypes by moving easily between claims of genteel and raw masculine superiority. Political parties then drew from the cultural mobility at sporting events to appeal to the white male electorate through a new “mass politics” that continued to borrow heavily from sporting culture to emphasize democratic experiences despite widening disparities of wealth and hardening class lines. In the end, then, white men negotiated a sporting culture that rejected elitism but excluded others while crafting a reverence for wealth and a sense of equal opportunity. Because of sporting culture’s political salience in the white male republic, understanding this negotiation helps us understand not just the nature of sport but the nature and limits of democracy and power in the early nineteenth century.Less
The final chapter explores the experience of participating in mass sporting culture. It begins by introducing the notion of “cultural mobility,” a concept which describes how white men took advantage of both the accessibility created in the early national period as well as the re-introduction of standardized genteel and rough sporting spaces to challenge class stereotypes by moving easily between claims of genteel and raw masculine superiority. Political parties then drew from the cultural mobility at sporting events to appeal to the white male electorate through a new “mass politics” that continued to borrow heavily from sporting culture to emphasize democratic experiences despite widening disparities of wealth and hardening class lines. In the end, then, white men negotiated a sporting culture that rejected elitism but excluded others while crafting a reverence for wealth and a sense of equal opportunity. Because of sporting culture’s political salience in the white male republic, understanding this negotiation helps us understand not just the nature of sport but the nature and limits of democracy and power in the early nineteenth century.
Kenneth Cohen
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781501705496
- eISBN:
- 9781501714214
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501705496.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
The Epilogue surveys continuities and changes in sporting culture since 1860. While recognizing the increasing inclusion of white women and African Americans over the course of the twentieth century, ...
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The Epilogue surveys continuities and changes in sporting culture since 1860. While recognizing the increasing inclusion of white women and African Americans over the course of the twentieth century, recent attendance statistics indicate the continued centrality of white male audiences. In addition, recent psychological, sociological, and anthropological studies suggest that the motives behind male audience participation have remained shockingly similar to the status-based concerns over masculinity that motivated men in early America. Given the importance of manhood, the remaining privilege of whiteness, and the return of the so-called “sportification” of politics over the last twenty years, the epilogue concludes by suggesting how sporting culture contributed to the rise of Donald Trump.Less
The Epilogue surveys continuities and changes in sporting culture since 1860. While recognizing the increasing inclusion of white women and African Americans over the course of the twentieth century, recent attendance statistics indicate the continued centrality of white male audiences. In addition, recent psychological, sociological, and anthropological studies suggest that the motives behind male audience participation have remained shockingly similar to the status-based concerns over masculinity that motivated men in early America. Given the importance of manhood, the remaining privilege of whiteness, and the return of the so-called “sportification” of politics over the last twenty years, the epilogue concludes by suggesting how sporting culture contributed to the rise of Donald Trump.
Richard Farmer
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719091889
- eISBN:
- 9781526109644
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719091889.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Social History
What did the cinema mean to people in wartime Britain? How did the community make use of the cinema and what did they expect it to do for them? These questions form the basis of the final chapter of ...
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What did the cinema mean to people in wartime Britain? How did the community make use of the cinema and what did they expect it to do for them? These questions form the basis of the final chapter of the book. Looking at the cinema’s position as a source of entertainment, and emotional facilitator (especially in the ways in which cinemagoers made use of popular melodramas and documentary-realist feature films) and as a collective experience, the chapter argues that there is no single way of conceptualising the cinema in this period. Rather, there were competing or complementary narratives that altered in response to the needs of the individual patron and the changing fortunes of the war. Using ‘escapism’ as a framework through which to discuss cinemagoing in wartime, the chapter asks if the cinema operated in such terms, and, indeed, whether or not patrons and audiences wanted it to.Less
What did the cinema mean to people in wartime Britain? How did the community make use of the cinema and what did they expect it to do for them? These questions form the basis of the final chapter of the book. Looking at the cinema’s position as a source of entertainment, and emotional facilitator (especially in the ways in which cinemagoers made use of popular melodramas and documentary-realist feature films) and as a collective experience, the chapter argues that there is no single way of conceptualising the cinema in this period. Rather, there were competing or complementary narratives that altered in response to the needs of the individual patron and the changing fortunes of the war. Using ‘escapism’ as a framework through which to discuss cinemagoing in wartime, the chapter asks if the cinema operated in such terms, and, indeed, whether or not patrons and audiences wanted it to.
Allison K. Deutermann
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474411264
- eISBN:
- 9781474422154
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474411264.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The book’s introduction maps out its contribution to ongoing critical conversations surrounding literary form, the history of the body and the senses, the experience and effects of sound, and ...
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The book’s introduction maps out its contribution to ongoing critical conversations surrounding literary form, the history of the body and the senses, the experience and effects of sound, and historical phenomenology. Through brief readings of The Revenger’s Tragedy and Epicoene, it introduces the two forms, and the two auditory models, that are at the heart of this analysis. How these two forms developed, and how and why hearing became so central to their content, plot, and structure, are introduced as the key questions that motivate this study.Less
The book’s introduction maps out its contribution to ongoing critical conversations surrounding literary form, the history of the body and the senses, the experience and effects of sound, and historical phenomenology. Through brief readings of The Revenger’s Tragedy and Epicoene, it introduces the two forms, and the two auditory models, that are at the heart of this analysis. How these two forms developed, and how and why hearing became so central to their content, plot, and structure, are introduced as the key questions that motivate this study.
Charles Burnetts
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748698196
- eISBN:
- 9781474434881
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748698196.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Chapter Three focuses on the critical functions of comedy in relation to sentimental narrative structures in the early and classical Hollywood eras, focusing on how humour is both celebrated and ...
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Chapter Three focuses on the critical functions of comedy in relation to sentimental narrative structures in the early and classical Hollywood eras, focusing on how humour is both celebrated and critiqued in terms of its counter-balancing, compensation for, or even negation of the sentimental in film. Charles Chaplin’s early work is analysed with reference to the critical opposition to his features on the part of intellectuals wedded to a more ‘naturalistic’ cinema or to Chaplin’s more ‘anarchic’ deployment of slapstick, such as the American writer Gilbert Seldes and the early work of Siegfried Kracauer. The discussion turns to the classical genres of Hollywood’s 1930s and 1940s period, using sequences from John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939) as an exemplary negotiation of sentiment and slapstick. Focus is maintained on the way that such categories are influenced by sentimental codes, particularly in terms of the persistence of genteel sensibilities and/or moralistic narrative structures. The chapter draws in such respects on key theorists of film comedy of that era, such as Stanley Cavell, Henry Jenkins and Lea Jacobs.Less
Chapter Three focuses on the critical functions of comedy in relation to sentimental narrative structures in the early and classical Hollywood eras, focusing on how humour is both celebrated and critiqued in terms of its counter-balancing, compensation for, or even negation of the sentimental in film. Charles Chaplin’s early work is analysed with reference to the critical opposition to his features on the part of intellectuals wedded to a more ‘naturalistic’ cinema or to Chaplin’s more ‘anarchic’ deployment of slapstick, such as the American writer Gilbert Seldes and the early work of Siegfried Kracauer. The discussion turns to the classical genres of Hollywood’s 1930s and 1940s period, using sequences from John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939) as an exemplary negotiation of sentiment and slapstick. Focus is maintained on the way that such categories are influenced by sentimental codes, particularly in terms of the persistence of genteel sensibilities and/or moralistic narrative structures. The chapter draws in such respects on key theorists of film comedy of that era, such as Stanley Cavell, Henry Jenkins and Lea Jacobs.
Mary Sue Welsh
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037368
- eISBN:
- 9780252094545
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037368.003.0016
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This chapter focuses on the achievements of Edna Phillips and Sam Rosembaum after the war. Sam did indeed pick up the strands of his career after he returned from the war, and his achievements in ...
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This chapter focuses on the achievements of Edna Phillips and Sam Rosembaum after the war. Sam did indeed pick up the strands of his career after he returned from the war, and his achievements in later life were impressive. At the end of 1948, the U.S. Secretary of Labor Maurice J. Tobin named him to the position of independent trustee of the Music Performance Trust Funds for the Recording Industries. Edna Phillips never stepped out of the world of music despite leaving the orchestra. She continued to commission works for the harp and work with composers to polish them, an ongoing responsibility and commitment, and she performed the premieres of the compositions with orchestras and other ensembles. She was also devoted to two community projects involving children and music: Young Audiences and the Settlement Music School.Less
This chapter focuses on the achievements of Edna Phillips and Sam Rosembaum after the war. Sam did indeed pick up the strands of his career after he returned from the war, and his achievements in later life were impressive. At the end of 1948, the U.S. Secretary of Labor Maurice J. Tobin named him to the position of independent trustee of the Music Performance Trust Funds for the Recording Industries. Edna Phillips never stepped out of the world of music despite leaving the orchestra. She continued to commission works for the harp and work with composers to polish them, an ongoing responsibility and commitment, and she performed the premieres of the compositions with orchestras and other ensembles. She was also devoted to two community projects involving children and music: Young Audiences and the Settlement Music School.
