Synopses & Reviews
This collection looks at the postandndash;network television industryandrsquo;s heady experiments with new forms of interactive storytellingandmdash;or wired TVandmdash;that took place from 2005 to 2010 as the networks responded to the introduction of broadband into the majority of homes and the proliferation of popular, participatory Web 2.0 companies like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Contributors address a wide range of issues, from the networksandrsquo; sporadic efforts to engage fans using transmedia storytelling to the production inefficiencies that continue to dog network television to the impact of multimedia convergence and multinational, corporate conglomeration on entrepreneurial creativity. With essays from such top scholars as Henry Jenkins, John T. Caldwell, and Jonathan Gray and from new and exciting voices emerging in this field, Wired TV elucidates the myriad new digital threats and the equal number of digital opportunities that have become part and parcel of todayandrsquo;s post-network era. Readers will quickly recognize the familiar television franchises on which the contributors focusandmdash; including Lost, The Office, Entourage, Battlestar Gallactica, The L Word, and Heroesandmdash;in order to reveal their impact on an industry in transition.
While it is not easy for vast bureaucracies to change course, executives from key network divisions engaged in an unprecedented period of innovation and collaboration with four important groups: members of the Hollywood creative community who wanted to expand televisionandrsquo;s storytelling worlds and marketing capabilities by incorporating social media; members of the Silicon Valley tech community who were keen to rethink television distribution for the digital era; members of the Madison Avenue advertising community who were eager to rethink ad-supported content; and fans who were enthusiastic and willing to use social media story extensions to proselytize on behalf of a favorite network series.
In the aftermath of the lengthy Writers Guild of America strike of 2007/2008, the networks clamped down on such collaborations and began to reclaim control over their operations, locking themselves back into an aging system of interconnected bureaucracies, entrenched hierarchies, and traditional partners from the past. Whatandrsquo;s next for the future of the television industry? Stay tunedandmdash;or at least online.
Contributors: Vincent Brook, Will Brooker, John T. Caldwell, M. J. Clarke, Jonathan Gray, Henry Jenkins, Derek Johnson, Robert V. Kozinets, Denise Mann, Katynka Z. Martandiacute;nez, and Julie Levin Russo
Review
andquot;With contributions from prominent scholars, Wired TV offers rigorous and exacting essays that address the dramatic shift occurring in a business that produces, sells, and resells mass entertainment.andquot;
Review
andquot;
Wired TV offers rich, creative, and original thinking about televisionandrsquo;s digital era. It is essential reading for anyone following contemporary media industries.andquot;
Review
andquot;Media scholar Denise Mann has gathered engaging essays that discuss the ways that television programming has changed as a result of the Internet. Recommended.andquot;
Review
andquot;Provides tremendously valuable insights by top scholars in television studies. The essays are grounded in strong, compelling research and collectively provide a rich snapshot of the tensions, anxieties, and especially failures of this particular moment in US televisionand#39;s development.andquot;
Synopsis
Hollywood Independents explores the crucial period from 1948 to 1962 when independent film producers first became key components of the modern corporate entertainment industry. Denise Mann examines the impact of the radically changed filmmaking climate—the decline of the studios, the rise of television, and the rise of potent talent agencies like MCA—on a group of prominent talent-turned-producers including Burt Lancaster, Joseph Mankiewicz, Elia Kazan, and Billy Wilder.
In order to show how these newly independent filmmakers negotiated through an increasingly fraught, reactionary creative atmosphere, Mann analyzes the reflexive portraits of their altered working conditions in such films as A Face in the Crowd, Sweet Smell of Success, and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? These artists, she shows, took on the corporate middle-managers at television networks and talent agencies as a way of challenging the status quo without risking censorship or blacklisting.
This period saw the evolution of film production from the studio-governed system to one of entrepreneurs. Out of this new arrangement, which encouraged greater creative freedom, emerged a nascent form of independent art cinema that sowed the seeds of the Hollywood Renaissance that followed.
Denise Mann is associate professor of film, TV and digital media at UCLA. She is coeditor of Private Screenings: Television and the Female Consumer (Minnesota, 1992).
Synopsis
Wired TV looks at the postandndash;network television industryandrsquo;s experiments with new forms of interactive storytelling that took place from 2005 to2010 as broadband was introduced into the majority of homes and the use of Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter soared. Essays address such issues as the networksandrsquo; sporadic efforts to engage fans using transmedia storytelling, production inefficiencies, and the effect of corporate conglomeration on entrepreneurial creativity. The television franchises discussed include Lost, The Office, Entourage, and Battlestar Gallactica.
Table of Contents
Acknolwedgments
Introduction: When Television and New Media Work Worlds Collide
Denise Mann
1. Authorship Up for Grabs: Decentralized Labor, Licensing, and the Management of Collaborative Creativity
Derek Johnson
2. In the Game: The Creative and Textual Constraints of Licensed Video Games
Jonathan Gray
3. Going Pro: Gendered Responses to the Incorporation of Fan Labor as User-Generated Content
Will Brooker
4. Labor of Love: Charting The L Word
Julie Levin Russoand#160;
5. The Labor Behind the Lost ARG: WGA's Tentative Foothold in the Digital Age
Denise Mann
6. Post-Network Reflexivity: Viral Marketing and Labor Management
John T. Caldwell
7. Fan Creep: Why Brands Suddenly Need andquot;Fansandquot;
Robert V. Kozinets
8. Outsourcing The Office
M. J. Clarke
9. Convergent Ethnicity and the Neo-Platoon Show: Recombining Difference in the Post-Network Era
Vincent Brook
10. Translating Telenovelas in a Neo-Network Era: Finding an Online Home for MyNetwork Soaps
Katynka Z. Martandiacute;nez
11. The Reign of the andquot;Mothershipandquot;: Transmedia's Past, Present, and Possible Futures
Henry Jenkins
Notes on Contributors
Index