1st Edition
Global Entertainment Media Between Cultural Imperialism and Cultural Globalization
A critical cultural materialist introduction to the study of global entertainment media.
In Global Entertainment Media, Tanner Mirrlees undertakes an analysis of the ownership, production, distribution, marketing, exhibition and consumption of global films and television shows, with an eye to political economy and cultural studies. Among other topics, Mirrlees examines:
- Paradigms of global entertainment media such as cultural imperialism and cultural globalization.
- The business of entertainment media: the structure of capitalist culture/creative industries (financers, producers, distributors and exhibitors) and trends in the global political economy of entertainment media.
- The "governance" of global entertainment media: state and inter-state media and cultural policies and regulations that govern the production, distribution and exhibition of entertainment media and enable or impede its cross-border flow.
- The new international division of cultural labor (NICL): the cross-border production of entertainment by cultural workers in asymmetrically interdependent media capitals, and economic and cultural concerns surrounding runaway productions and co-productions.
- The economic motivations and textual design features of globally popular entertainment forms such as blockbuster event films, TV formats, glocalized lifestyle brands and synergistic media.
- The cross-cultural reception and effects of TV shows and films.
- The World Wide Web, digitization and convergence culture.
Biography
Tanner Mirrlees is an Assistant Professor in the Communication Program at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT).
"Mirrlees explains in clear and lively language how the most popular and ubiquitous movies, TV formats, and brands are made and consumed—and he also explains why this matters. In a world where media continue to increase their hold on resources and their place in our lives, Global Entertainment Media is a must-read for media activists and students of culture." —John McCullough, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Film, York University
"Comprehensive and tactically plain-spoken, Dr. Mirrlees’s cultural-economic study maps out the complex networks of production, consumption, and regulation that structure today’s culture industry, and offers a key for unlocking its meanings and functions in a neoliberal age dominated by neo-imperial corporations. In the process, this teachable text provides a primer—ideal for undergraduates—on key ‘macro’ concepts in media and cultural studies, like discourse, globalization, intellectual property, and postcolonialism." —Mark A. McCutcheon, Assistant Professor of Literary Studies, Athabasca University
"Mirrlees presents a meticulously well researched, original, and insightful overview of an expansive field. Global Entertainment Media surveys a complex and ever-changing global media landscape, navigating the terrain with great clarity and authority. Mirrlees’s methodological approach, his deft theoretical analysis, and his wide-ranging and up-to-date use of examples and case studies make this a foundational work that brings global media studies scholarship firmly into the twenty-first century." —Ian Reilly, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Concordia University
