Description
Lexington Books Parasocial Politics Audiences Pop Culture and Politics 2014 Edition by Jason Zenor, Gregory Adamo
The popularity of cable news, satire, documentaries, and political blogs suggest that people are often absorbing and dissecting direct political messages from informational media. But entertainment media also discusses the important political issues of our time, though not as overtly. Nonetheless, consumers still learn, debate, and form opinions on important political issues through their relationship with entertainment media. While many scholarly books examine these political messages found in popular culture, very few examine how actual audiences read these messages. Parasocial Politics explores how consumers form complex relationships with media texts and characters, and how these readings exist in the nexus between real and fictional worlds. This collection of empirical studies uses various methodologies, including surveys, experiments, focus groups, and mixed methods, to analyze how actual consumers interpret the texts and the overt and covert political messages encoded in popular culture. Table of contents :- IntroductionJason ZenorPart I: Entertainment, Celebrity, and PoliticsChapter 1: Reading the President: Audience Reception of The West Wing, Jason ZenorChapter 2: Studying Audience Subjectivity: Reactions to Death of a President, James C. RhoadsChapter 3: The Wire and Urban Life: Baltimore Responds to its Image, Gregory Adamo Chapter 4: Celebrity Persuasion in the Political Arena: A Study of Message Effects on Young Voters' Political Opinions in the 2008 Election, Cynthia Nichols and Carly McKenzie Part II: Fandom, Fantasy, and Real PoliticsChapter 5: Storytelling through World-Building: Audience Perceptions of Science Fiction Television, Laura Osur Chapter 6: Are You a Lebowski Achiever? The Fans of the Movie The Big Lebowski, Jungian Synchronicity, and the Iraq War, William AshtonChapter 7: The Dark Knight of the Soul: Netnographic Exploration of Religion, Politics and Batman, Bryan J. CarrPart III: Millenials, Diversity, and EntertainmentChapter 8: Millenials, Citizenship, and How I Met Your Mother, Allison N. Novak Chapter 9: Talking Racial Politics Online: The Progressive Potential of Television Dramas in Postracial America and Parasocial Contact, Carole V. BellChapter 10: 'Nigga You Gay!' The Post-Racial Millennial Generation's Reception of The Boondocks, David Moody and Jason Zenor