Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media Paratexts [Paperback]

Jonathan Gray (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 1, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0814731953 | ISBN-13: 978-0814731956

It is virtually impossible to watch a movie or TV show without preconceived notions because of the hype that precedes them, while a host of media extensions guarantees them a life long past their air dates. An onslaught of information from print media, trailers, internet discussion, merchandising, podcasts, and guerilla marketing, we generally know something about upcoming movies and TV shows well before they are even released or aired. The extras, or “paratexts,” that surround viewing experiences are far from peripheral, shaping our understanding of them and informing our decisions about what to watch or not watch and even how to watch before we even sit down for a show.

Show Sold Separately gives critical attention to this ubiquitous but often overlooked phenomenon, examining paratexts like DVD bonus materials for The Lord of the Rings, spoilers for Lost, the opening credits of The Simpsons, Star Wars actions figures, press reviews for Friday Night Lights, the framing of Batman Begins, the videogame of The Thing, and the trailers for The Sweet Hereafter. Plucking these extra materials from the wings and giving them the spotlight they deserve, Jonathan Gray examines the world of film and television that exists before and after the show.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Show Sold Separately will rewrite the rules of what we look at when we want to understand how audiences make meaning of media franchises. Gray, who has long established himself in the top ranks of contemporary scholars of popular culture, writes with particularity about these varied media properties and their paratexts, yet also writes with a theoretical sophistication which feels effortless."
-Henry Jenkins,author of Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide

“Exploring the myriad connections and connotations of a wide array of paratextual materials ranging from movie trailers to action figures, Gray deftly challenges established conceptions of textuality, and opens up intriguing and important new dimensions in media and cultural studies. This is an invaluable contribution, and will change how we think about, and make, media.”
-Derek Kompare,author of Rerun Nation: How Repeats Invented American Television

About the Author

Jonathan Gray is associate professor of media and cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of Television Entertainment and Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality and co-editor of Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era and Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World (both available from NYU Press).

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (January 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814731953
• ISBN-13: 978-0814731956
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.8 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #978,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at University of Wisconsin, Madison, where I teach and research television entertainment; comedy, parody, and satire; audiences; convergence; international media; textuality, intertextuality, and paratextuality; and a bunch of other things that catch my interest along the way.

I grew up in various countries -- Canada, England, Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong -- and learned to study a country and what made it tick by studying its pop culture. Thus, after two degrees studying "high" culture and literature, I turned to examining the socio-cultural importance of television, film, new media, and everyday culture.