Complex Television: Come Discuss My Next Book!

01Mar11

I’m happy to announce the pre-publication of my next book has begun. Complex Television: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Narrative has not yet been written, but the writing and publication process has begun on MediaCommons, where I have posted the book proposal for an open “peer-to-peer review” process, running parallel of the tradition peer review process being coordinated by NYU Press. Please visit and offer any feedback!

I’ve blogged about this project many times, both through my writings on television narrative and through previous discussions on “Why a Book?” Last year, I asked this question about publishing, coming to the conclusion that I might make more of an impact publishing something less like a book than following the traditional monograph route. A year later, I’ve come up with a proposal that tries both to end up with a traditional print book (as many scholars told me that without a print copy, it would go unread by many) and a digital edition that takes advantage of that format’s flexibility, multimedia capabilities, and accessibility. The multiplatform idea is very much a work-in-progress, so I encourage people to weigh in about issues of both form and content at MediaCommons.

Thanks in advance…



2 Responses to “Complex Television: Come Discuss My Next Book!”

  1. 1 Ted Nannicelli

    Hi Jason,

    A quick note to let you know that I am very much looking forward to this book. I have come across your proposal just as I am starting to develop a course on contemporary American television for next semester, and it looks like the text we’ll use once it’s published.

    I also have a question that might be of interest to other readers: Do you know of anyone in media studies or elsewhere that has put together any sort of a business study of HBO? I think such a study would be really interesting for a variety of reasons…

    Best wishes,
    Ted

    • There are a few anthologies about HBO that have some good industrial info – check out The Essential HBO Reader by Edgerton & Jones, and It’s not TV : watching HBO in the post-television era, edited by Marc Leverette, Brian L. Ott, and Cara Louise Buckley. Neither is exclusively on the industry, but both could be helpful to understanding HBO’s role in the media landscape.

      Thanks for the comment!


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