This collection brings together the work of a range of scholars from around the world with different perspectives on one simple question: How can we assess the value of various entertainment products and forms? Entertainment is everywhere. The industries that produce it earn billions of dollars each year and employ hundreds of thousands of people. Its pervasiveness means almost everyone has something to say about entertainment, too, whether it be our opinion on the latest Hollywood blockbuster, a new celebrity couple, or our concerns over its place in the world of politics. And yet, in spite of its significance, entertainment has too-often been dismissed with surprising ease within the academy as a 'mindless', 'lowbrow' - even 'dangerous' - form of culture, and therefore unworthy of serious appraisal (let alone praise). Entertainment Values challenges this assumption, offering a better understanding of what entertainment is, why we should take it seriously, as well as helping us to appreciate the significant and complex impact it has on our culture.

Autorentext

Stephen Harrington is Associate Professor in Journalism, Media and Communication at the Queensland University of Technology, and has published widely on the transforming relationships between politics, journalism, and popular media. 

Inhalt

1. How can we value entertainment? And, why does it matter? Stephen Harrington.- 2. What is Entertainment? The value of industry definitions: Christy Collis.-3. From toyetic to toyesis: the cultural value of merchandising: Jason Bainbridge.- 4. Screaming on a Ride To Nowhere: What Roller Coasters Teach Us about Being Human: Dana Anderson and Malcolm Burt.-5. Entertainment for the Mind, Body and Spirit: Tyrha M. Lindsey-Warren.-6. Talking Miley: The Value of Celebrity Gossip: Toija Cinque and Sean Redmond.- 7. MasterChef Australia: educating and empowering through entertainment: Katherine Kirkwood.- 8. Public and private adolescent lives: the educational value of entertainment: Pilar Lacasa, Laura Méndez and Sara Cortés.- 9 From Moomba to The Dreaming: Indigenous Australia, Popular Music and Cultural Reconciliation: Andrew King.- 10. Entering The Newsroom: The Sociocultural Value of 'Semi-Fictional' Entertainment and Popular CommunicationChris Peters.- 11 What if 'journalism' is the problem?: Entertainment and the 'de-mediatization' of politics:Stephen Harrington.- 12 Spoof videos: Entertainment and Alternative Memory in China: Henry Siling Li.- 13. Decoding Memes: Barthes' Punctum, Feminist Standpoint Theory, and the Political Significance of #YesAllWomen: Whitney Phillips and Ryan M. Milner.- 14. Why I wasn't interested in Hitchcock until I turned 40: Valuing films as entertainment: Alan McKee.- 15. Fluff, frivolity and the fabulous Samantha Jones: Representations of public relations in entertainment: Ella Chorazy and Stephen Harrington.- 16. From Deep Throat to Don Jon: the pornographication of cinematic entertainment: Brian McNair.- 17 To Understand the Futures of Filmgoing, We Must Know Its Histories: Henry Jenkins.-