Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Complex TV: Authorship
I’m happy to announce that the next chapter of Complex TV has been posted. It’s focused on Authorship in contemporary serial television, and I think it’s all never-before-published material. I’ve been giving a talk based on this chapter for this spring, and have been really happy with the conversation it provokes – and I do intend [...]
Filed under: Books, Complex TV, MediaCommons, Narrative, Television, TV Industry, TV Shows, Viewers | Leave a Comment
Tags: authorship, breaking bad, buffy, community, Lost, The Wire
Complex TV: Orienting Paratexts
I’m pleased to post the next chapter of Complex TV, focused on the topic of Orienting Paratexts. Here’s the abstract: Along with shifts in the television industry and technologies, viewer practices have adapted to the digital era with new developments in how people consume narrative television. This chapter explores the range of paratexts that have [...]
Filed under: Books, Complex TV, Fandom, MediaCommons, Narrative, New Media, Television, TV Shows, Viewers | 1 Comment
Tags: complex television, Lost, lostpedia, paratext
Complex TV: Beginnings
I have decided to use my blog here in tandem with the site for Complex TV to offer context & references for each chapter as I release them this spring/summer. I hope this is useful in both promoting readership, and making it transparent how this book is coming together out of earlier pieces and new [...]
Filed under: Books, Complex TV, Media Studies, MediaCommons, Narrative, Television, TV Shows | Leave a Comment
Tags: alias, Arrested Development, awake, how i met your mother, pushing daisies, terriers, Twin Peaks, Veronica Mars
One of the great gifts of sabbatical is having the time to read books that are not immediately required for teaching or manuscript reviews. I’ve taken advantage of that by reading some fiction (and would highly recommend D.B. Weiss’s Lucky Wander Boy if you’re into classic videogames and/or metafiction), as well as some scholarship. In the [...]
Filed under: Academia, Books, Media Studies, Taste, Television, TV History | 9 Comments
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 [...]
Filed under: Academia, Books, Complex TV, Media Studies, MediaCommons, Narrative, Publishing, Television | 2 Comments
Tags: complex television
I’ve been thinking a lot about authorship lately, in a range of ways. Most practically, two long-gestating essays that I authored have come out in print – “All in the Game: The Wire, Serial Storytelling and Procedural Logic” is published in the beautifully put-together book Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives edited by Pat [...]
Filed under: Books, Narrative, Television, TV Shows | Leave a Comment
Tags: authorship, Battlestar, bsg, faith, Lost, The Wire
To Spread or To Drill?
I was invited by Henry Jenkins, Josh Green, and Sam Ford to contribute to a book project they are working on, Spreadable Media: Creating Value in a Network Culture.You can see an outline of the project posted serially on Henry’s blog, emerging from a research paper drafted as part of the Convergence Culture Consortium. The [...]
Filed under: Books, Fandom, Media Studies, Narrative, New Media, Television, Viewers | 16 Comments
Tags: Battlestar, bsg, complexity, Lost, lostpedia
My textbook, Television and American Culture, has hit the streets (or at least the postal system – order yours now!). I received my first copy yesterday, and am happy to say that it looks great. This is due not to my own work (I’m solely to blame for the content), but the excellent staff at [...]
Filed under: Books, Copyright, Fair Use, Television, TV Industry, TV Textbook | 6 Comments
Tags: abc, disney
New book on its way!
Observant visitors to the site might notice a new image on the right – the cover of my new book! Television & American Culture, the textbook I’ve been writing with intermittent furiousness for the past four years, has gone to press and will be released in mid-February. If you want to learn more, visit the [...]
Filed under: Books, Teaching, Television, TV Textbook | 1 Comment
As you might have heard, Dumbledore is gay. Or at least so says J.K. Rowling. I’m less interested in how this impacts our understanding of the world of Harry Potter, the relationships between Albus & other characters, or even the cultural controversies surrounding the series that this announcement has already inflamed. What interests me more [...]
Filed under: Books, Fandom, Narrative, Not Quite TV | 28 Comments
Tags: authorship, fan fiction, Harry Potter, Lost, sexuality
A Companion to Narrative
A bit of self-promotion here: check out an excellent new anthology, The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, edited by David Herman. The book is an introductory overview of the study of narrative across media and tackling a wide range of issues. My chapter, “Film and Television Narrative,” includes an analysis of two key examples, The Wizard [...]
Filed under: Academia, Books, Media Studies, Narrative, Television | Leave a Comment
Tags: Lost, Self-Promotion
I finished Deathly Hallows this morning. I have some things to say about the book, the series, the nature of storytelling, authorship, reading, faith, and the meaning of life. I’m not claiming that they are profound or original things – just things. So if you have finished the book or do not mind having some [...]
Filed under: Books, Narrative | 7 Comments
Tags: Harry Potter
No spoilers here for Deathly Hallows – I’m only 8 chapters in, and don’t think anything revealed herein will do anything but jog memories for people who’ve read the previous books. And that’s what I’ve been thinking about – how do the Harry Potter books negotiate the need to build upon intricate narrative information in [...]
Filed under: Books, Narrative | 5 Comments
Tags: Harry Potter
Thoughts on Deathly Hallows Eve
Before I hole up to read Deathly Hallows, a couple of thoughts & and a link of note. First, I’ve been intrigued by the spoiler hooplah from my perspectives both as a spoiler scholar and non-spoiling reader. One the one hand, I certainly believe that everyone should be able to have stories unfold per their [...]
Filed under: Books, Spoilers | 4 Comments
Tags: Harry Potter
Sorry for the blog silence, but the past week was spent on family vacation in Rhode Island. Not much more to say, but a few links for your trouble: First, I highly recommend The West Side, a new serialized online video co-created by a former student of mine, Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo. The program is a contemporary [...]
Filed under: Books, Narrative, New Media, Spoilers, TV Shows | 4 Comments
Tags: Harry Potter, Lost
random thoughts from media scholar Jason Mittell
Check out my books:
Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling
Television & American Culture
Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture-
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