Synopses & Reviews
It is virtually impossible to watch a movie or TV show without preconceived notions because of the hype that precedes them, while a host of media extensions guarantees them a life long past their air dates. An onslaught of information from print media, trailers, internet discussion, merchandising, podcasts, and guerilla marketing, we generally know something about upcoming movies and TV shows well before they are even released or aired. The extras, or “paratexts,” that surround viewing experiences are far from peripheral, shaping our understanding of them and informing our decisions about what to watch or not watch and even how to watch before we even sit down for a show.
Show Sold Separately gives critical attention to this ubiquitous but often overlooked phenomenon, examining paratexts like DVD bonus materials for The Lord of the Rings, spoilers for Lost, the opening credits of The Simpsons, Star Wars actions figures, press reviews for Friday Night Lights, the framing of Batman Begins, the videogame of The Thing, and the trailers for The Sweet Hereafter. Plucking these extra materials from the wings and giving them the spotlight they deserve, Jonathan Gray examines the world of film and television that exists before and after the show.
Review
“This is a fascinating and important collection of articles by one of the most influential elder statesmen of social psychology. Not only does it provide valuable insights into the history of modern social psychology, it also points the way to a more significant future social psychology.”
-Morton Deutsch E.L. ,Thorndike Professor Emeritus, Teachers College, Columbia University
Review
“It is hopeful, in troubled times, to find a social scientist in his ninth decade writing lucidly, self-critically, and wisely about the essential problems and potentialities of his chosen field. And it is an additional pleasure to find that the humanistic values of his youth are burnished rather than tarnished in his old age.”
-Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences,
Review
“This is a fascinating and important collection of articles by one of the most influential elder statesmen of social psychology. Not only does it provide valuable insights into the history of modern social psychology, it also points the way to a more significant future social psychology.”
“It is hopeful, in troubled times, to find a social scientist in his ninth decade writing lucidly, self-critically, and wisely about the essential problems and potentialities of his chosen field. And it is an additional pleasure to find that the humanistic values of his youth are burnished rather than tarnished in his old age.”
Review
"Show Sold Separately will rewrite the rules of what we look at when we want to understand how audiences make meaning of media franchises. Gray, who has long established himself in the top ranks of contemporary scholars of popular culture, writes with particularity about these varied media properties and their paratexts, yet also writes with a theoretical sophistication which feels effortless."
-Henry Jenkins,author of Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide
Review
“Exploring the myriad connections and connotations of a wide array of paratextual materials ranging from movie trailers to action figures, Gray deftly challenges established conceptions of textuality, and opens up intriguing and important new dimensions in media and cultural studies. This is an invaluable contribution, and will change how we think about, and make, media.”
-Derek Kompare,author of Rerun Nation: How Repeats Invented American Television
Synopsis
A pivotal figure in social psychology and personality studies for more than half a century, M. Brewster Smith was the recipient of the Gold Medal Award of the American Psychological Foundation for Lifetime Contributions by a Psychologist to the Public Interest.
Smith has conducted groundbreaking work on the ways in which peoples opinions are influenced by their strategies for coping with the world, with their social relations, and with their inner conflicts. His pioneering book, Opinions and Personality, offered an in-depth treatment of how peoples political opinions reflect and are partly shaped by the ways those views contribute to the functioning of their personalities. More recently, Smith has drawn on psychological research to suggest ways to reduce the threat of nuclear war. Throughout his work, Smith has aspired to an interdisciplinary social psychology that is scientific in its respect for empirical evidence and which can be applied to the social issues of our time.
For a Significant Social Psychology collects Smith's most important writings, introduced by the author and presented thematically.
Synopsis
A pivotal figure in social psychology and personality studies for more than half a century, M. Brewster Smith was the recipient of the Gold Medal Award of the American Psychological Foundation for Lifetime Contributions by a Psychologist to the Public Interest.
Smith has conducted groundbreaking work on the ways in which people's opinions are influenced by their strategies for coping with the world, with their social relations, and with their inner conflicts. His pioneering book, Opinions and Personality, offered an in-depth treatment of how people's political opinions reflect and are partly shaped by the ways those views contribute to the functioning of their personalities. More recently, Smith has drawn on psychological research to suggest ways to reduce the threat of nuclear war. Throughout his work, Smith has aspired to an interdisciplinary social psychology that is scientific in its respect for empirical evidence and which can be applied to the social issues of our time.
For a Significant Social Psychology collects Smith's most important writings, introduced by the author and presented thematically.
About the Author
Jonathan Gray is associate professor of media and cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of Television Entertainment and Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality and co-editor of Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era and Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World (both available from NYU Press).