Department: Entertainment and Media Studies

Abstract: Recently, there has been a growing number of celebrity-focused video games. These games have functioned as promotional tools for celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Brittany Spears, Katy Perry, Jason Stratham, Lindsay Lohan, and Shakira. Celebrity games typically empower players to perform the work of aspirational fame, while promoting the title […]

Abstract: Written for the theoretical section of this edited book, this chapter maps the conceptual terrain for the concept of “transcultural subjectivity.” It offers new insights into thinking about the idea, practice and constructed personhood in contemporary global media forms in post-colonial contexts. It draws on the literature of post-colonial studies, transnational media studies and […]

Abstract: This paper is a textual analysis of the media culture (music videos, performances, advertising, visual/ viral culture) around the greatest exponent of the Sufi musical form called “Qawalli,” through the life and work of the Pakistani maestro Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1948-1997). Using insights from post-colonial theory, cultural studies, ethno-musicology and identity politics, it […]

Abstract: This reflexive auto-ethnographic essay of eco-criticism tells the story of the authors visit to Cheung Eeok Killing fields in Cambodia focusing on themes of peace, place, and the politics of cultural renewal in a country devastated by the Khmer Rouge. Informed by the literature of post-colonialism, cultural studies, and identity politics, it offers a […]

Abstract: After World War II, changes in film production finance encouraged US studios to take advantage of foreign financial incentives and locations. Bhowani Junction (1956) typifies many of these runaway productions, but an explanation of its financial logic provides only a US-centric perspective, failing to account for Hollywood’s increasingly global position. Archival material provides the […]

Abstract: Recent years have seen changes to the video game industry and the image of video game players. There are more games on the market and larger variety of ways to play those games. Yet, despite market shifts, authors such as Shaw (2012)demonstrate that there are still tensions surrounding gamer identification. Even as next-generation systems […]

Abstract: This article examines the often-overlooked industrial ecosystem of performer labor. A complex economy surrounds the work of “being an actor” in Los Angeles. In their quest to be cast in film and television roles, many actors come in contact with ancillary businesses, which support and facilitate the central production and distribution goals of the […]

Abstract: Because “mainstream” and “alternative” journalism are treated too often in discussions of digital journalism as separate spheres, comparatively less has been written about the insufficiency of positing separate spheres, despite the theoretical and empirical necessity of doing so. This chapter critiques separate spheres and theorizes hybrid news practices, in which features heretofore allocated into “mainstream” […]

Abstract: The scary stories we tell have meaning. The things that go bump in the night, the things we are terrified by, the monsters that creep under our beds and lurk outside our windows – those are the monsters that have both personal meaning and cultural relevance. Yet medium is also a factor that dictates […]

Abstract: In their chapter, the authors look at the ways in which three different videogames create a link to former products, be they television, film or music. This intertextuality, as the process is known, tries to generate specific audiences for the game by drawing on their previous knowledge and culture. What becomes interesting is to […]