First published as: Watching while Black : centering the television of Black audiences. 2012. Edition statement from back cover. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
I feel conflicted as f*ck: Netflix's Dear White People and Re-presenting Black viewing communities / Jacqueline Johnson -- Introduction: I still see Black people ... everywhere / Beretta E. Smith-Shomade -- Notes on contributors. Audiences and the televisual slavery-narrative / Eric Pierson -- History, trauma, and healing in Ava DuVernay's 13th and When They See Us / Christine Acham -- Thinking about Watchmen with Jonathan W. Gray, Rebecca A. Wanzo, and Kristen Warner / Michael Boyce Gillespie -- From sitcom girl to drama queen: Soul Food's showrunner examines her role in creating TV's first successful Black-themed drama / Felicia D. Henderson -- Part II. Attending Black. Gaming as Trayvon: #BlackLivesMatter Machinima and the queer metagames of Black death / Treaandrea M. Russworm -- "Trying to find relief": seeing Black women through the lens of mental health and wellness in Being Mary Jane and Insecure / Nghana Lewis -- On air Black: The Breakfast Club, visual radio, and spreadable media / Adrien Sebro -- Part III. Monetizing Black. Black women, audiences, and the queer possibilities of the Black-cast melodrama / Alfred L. Martin Jr. -- In a '90s kind of world, I'm glad I got my shows! Digital streaming and Black nostalgia / Briana Barner -- Tyler Perry's Too Close to Home: Black audiences in the post-network era / Shelleen Greene -- Part IV. Feeling Black. "I'm trying to make people feel Black": affective authenticity in Atlanta / Brandy Monk-Payton -- I'm digging you: television's turn to dirty South Blackness / Beretta E. Smith-Shomade -- I feel conflicted as f*ck: Netflix's Dear White People and Re-presenting Black viewing communities / Jacqueline Johnson -- Notes on contributors.
Summary:
"Watching While Black Rebooted: The Television and Digitality of Black Audiences examines what watching while Black means in an expanded U.S. televisual landscape. In this updated edition, media scholars return to television and digital spaces to think anew about what engages and captures Black audiences and users and why it matters. Contributors traverse programs and platforms to wrestle with a changing television industry that has exploded and included Black audiences as a new and central target of its visioning. The book illuminates history, care, monetization, and affect. Within these frames, the chapters run the gamut from transmediation, regional revalence, and superhuman visioning to historical traumas and progress, queer possibilities, and how televisual programming cna make viewers feel Black. Mostly, the work tackles what the future looks like now for a changing televisual industry, Black media makers, and Black audiences. Chapters rethink such historically significant programs as Roots and Underground, such seemingly innocuous programs such as Soul Food, and such contemporary and culturally complciated programs as Being Mary Jane and Atlanta. 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 fourty years of Black televison, Watching While Black Rebooted sheds much-needed light on under examined demographics, broadens common audience considerations, and gives deference to the preferences of audiences and producers of Black-targetted programming"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.