Watching While Black: Centering the Television of Black Audiences

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Watching While Black

Centering the Television of Black Audiences

Herausgegeben von: Beretta E. Smith-Shomade
Mit Beiträgen von: Robin Means Coleman , Andre Cavalcante , Kristen J. Warner , Christine Acham , Devorah Heitner , TreaAndrea M. Russworm , Jennifer Fuller , Kim M. LeDuff , Racquel Gates , Nghana Lewis , Mark D. Cunningham , Deborah Elizabeth Whaley , Reighan Gillam , Nsenga Burton , Timothy Havens und Eric Pierson

Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 2013

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Television scholarship has substantially ignored programming aimed at Black audiences despite a few sweeping histories and critiques. In this volume, the first of its kind, contributors examine the televisual diversity, complexity, and cultural imperatives manifest in programming directed at a Black and marginalized audience.

Watching While Black considers its subject from an entirely new angle in an attempt to understand the lives, motivations, distinctions, kindred lines, and individuality of various Black groups and suggest what television might be like if such diversity permeated beyond specialized enclaves. It looks at the macro structures of ownership, producing, casting, and advertising that all inform production, and then delves into television programming crafted to appeal to black audiences—historic and contemporary, domestic and worldwide.

Chapters rethink such historically significant programs as Roots and Black Journal, such seemingly innocuous programs as Fat Albert and bro’Town, and such contemporary and culturally complicated programs as Noah’s Arc, Treme, and The Boondocks. The book makes a case for the centrality of these programs while always recognizing the racial dynamics that continue to shape Black representation on the small screen. Painting a decidedly introspective portrait across forty years of Black television, Watching While Black sheds much-needed light on under-examined demographics, broadens common audience considerations, and gives deference to the the preferences of audiences and producers of Black-targeted programming.

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BERETTA E. SMITH-SHOMADE is an associate professor and chair of the communication department at Tulane University. She is the author of Shaded Lives: African-American Women and Television (Rutgers University Press) and Pimpin Ain’t Easy: Selling Black Entertainment Television.

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"An important contribution to the scholarship on black television representations, Watching While Black fills a gap in the literature by placing recent shows aimed at black audiences front and center."

— Darnell M. Hunt, editor of Channeling Blackness: Studies on Television and Race in America

"Reading this collection is like channel surfing and landing on the black spaces. This is what television scholarship looks like and the televisual experience feels like when the fullness of black life is made central to television."

— Herman Gray, University of California, Santa Cruz

"Beretta E. Smith-Shomade has assembled a timely, necessary contribution to and intervention within the literature on television and blackness."

— Cinema Journal

"This well-written volume should appeal not only to historians of African American experience, but also Black Studies scholars and those in contemporary Media Studies."

— Journal of African America History

Fachgebiete

Kulturwissenschaften Kulturtheorie Allgemeine Kulturtheorie

Frontmatter Öffentlich zugänglich PDF downloaden	i
Contents Öffentlich zugänglich PDF downloaden	vii
Acknowledgments Öffentlich zugänglich PDF downloaden	ix
Introduction: I See Black People Beretta E. Smith-Shomade Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	1
PART I. PRODUCING BLACKNESS
1. The Importance of Roots Eric Pierson Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	19
2. Two Different Worlds: Television as a Producer’s Medium Robin R. Means Coleman und Andre M. Cavalcante Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	33
3. A Black Cast Doesn’t Make a Black Show: City of Angels and the Plausible Deniability of Color-blindness Kristen J. Warner Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	49
4. Blacks in the Future: Braving the Frontier of the Web Series Christine Acham Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	63
PART II. BLACKNESS ON DEMAND
5. “Regular Television Put to Shame by Negro Production”: Picturing a Black World on Black Journal Devorah Heitner Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	77
6. “HEY, HEY, HEY!” Bill Cosby’s Fat Albert as Psychodynamic Postmodern Play Treaandrea M. Russworm Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	89
7. Gimme a Break! and the Limits of the Modern Mammy Jennifer Fuller Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	105
8. Down in the Treme . . . Buck Jumping and Having Fun?: The Impact of Depictions of Post-Katrina New Orleans on Viewers’ Perceptions of the City Kim M. Leduff Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	121
PART III. NEW JACK BLACK
9. Keepin’ It Reality Television Racquel Gates Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	141
10. Prioritized: The Hip Hop (Re)Construction of Black Womanhood in Girlfriends and The Game Nghana Lewis Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	157
11. Nigger, Coon, Boy, Punk, Homo, Faggot, Black Man: Reconsidering Established Interpretations of Masculinity, Race, and Sexuality Through Noah’s Arc Mark D. Cunningham Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	172
12. Graphic Blackness/Anime Noir: Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks and the Adult Swim Deborah Elizabeth Whaley Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	187
PART IV. WORLDWIDE BLACKNESS
13. Resistance Televised: The TV da Gente Television Network and Brazilian Racial Politics Reighan Alexandra Gillam Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	207
14. South African Soapies: A “Rainbow Nation” Realized? Nsenga K. Burton Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	220
15. Minority Television Trade as Cultural Journey: The Case of New Zealand’s bro’Town Timothy Havens Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	232
Notes on Contributors Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	247
Index Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert	251

Informationen zur Veröffentlichung

Seiten und Bilder/Illustrationen im Buch

eBook veröffentlicht am:

10. Januar 2013

eBook ISBN:

9780813553887

Seiten und Bilder/Illustrationen im Buch

Inhalt:

280

Weitere:

33 photographs

https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813553887

eBook ISBN: 9780813553887

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Professional and scholarly;

Watching While Black

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