Overview
- Offers a methodological blueprint for large-scale comparative research on global audiences
- Showcases the potential utility of Q methodology for media and communication studies
- Breaks new ground in charting the evolution of audience responses to serialised media content
- Documents the impact of new cinematic technologies on viewers’ experiences
- Reveals an emerging fan resistance to the ‘blockbusterisation’ of shared cultural properties
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
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Table of contents (10 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book explores the evolution of audience receptions of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy (2012-14) as an exemplar of the contemporary blockbuster event film franchise. Drawing on findings from a unique cross-cultural and longitudinal study, the authors argue that processes and imperatives associated with Hollywood ‘blockbusterisation’ shaped the trilogy’s conditions of production, format, content, and visual aesthetic in ways that left many viewers progressively disenchanted. The chapters address public and private prefigurations of the Hobbit trilogy, modes of reception, new cinematic technologies and the Hobbit hyperreality paradox, gender representations, adaptation and the transformation of cinematic desire, and the role of social and cultural location in shaping audience engagement and response. This book will appeal to audience researchers, Q methodologists, scholars and students in film and media studies, Tolkien scholars, and Hobbit fans and critics alike.
Reviews
“A smart book, adroitly deploying the best traditions of audience, fan and critical media scholarship to explain how the Hobbit film trilogy embodied politically significant shifts in global media culture. The authors blend a flair for cultural history with an enviable methodological skill, producing what will surely become a blueprint for many future projects on media industries and audiences, at every level of scholarship.” (Andy Ruddock, Senior Lecturer, Communications & Media Studies, Monash University; author of Understanding Audiences: Theories and Methods, 2001, Investigating Audiences, 2007, Youth and Media, 2013)
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Carolyn Michelle is Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, and director of the University’s Audience Research Unit. Her current research explores modes of reception and their relationship to aspects of social location.
Charles H. Davis is Professor in the RTA School of Media at Ryerson University, Canada, where he holds the E.S. Rogers Sr. Research Chair in Media Management and Entrepreneurship. He also serves as Associate Dean for Scholarly Research and Creative Activities in Ryerson’s Faculty of Communication & Design.
Ann L. Hardy is Senior Lecturer in the Screen and Media Studies programme at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Her research focuses on New Zealand-based media products as they balance local and international imperatives, particularly those relating to intersections of culture and religion.
Craig Hight is Associate Professor in Creative Industries at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His current research focuses on the relationships between digital media technologies and documentary practice, especially the variety of factors shaping online documentary cultures.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Fans, Blockbusterisation, and the Transformation of Cinematic Desire
Book Subtitle: Global Receptions of The Hobbit Film Trilogy
Authors: Carolyn Michelle, Charles H. Davis, Ann L. Hardy, Craig Hight
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59616-1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-59615-4Published: 18 December 2017
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-59616-1Published: 24 November 2017
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVI, 344
Number of Illustrations: 7 b/w illustrations
Topics: Film Theory, Cultural Theory, Global Cinema and TV