Craig Hight

Charles H. Davis

Carolyn Michelle

Ann L. Hardy

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.

Global Receptions of The Hobbit Film Trilogy

Fans, Blockbusterisation, and the Transformation of Cinematic Desire

Jane Roscoe

The first major study of mock-documentary - one of a number of screen forms that play with the assumed boundaries between 'fact' and 'fiction'. Examines mock-documentary through the specific relationship which the form has with documentary. Part of a wider discussion of the increasingly fragile association between factual codes and conventions and the discourses which underpin the documentary genre. Includes detailed discussions of a number of key mock-documentary texts, ranging from Woody Allen's Zelig, Peter Greenaway's The Falls, and the Beatles spoof The Rutles through to such classic examples as Bob Roberts, This is Spinal Tap and Man Bites Dog. Opens out this relatively new media form and by doing so throws light on the status of the documentary itself.

Mock-documentary and the subversion of factuality

Faking it

This book offers the first major study of mock-documentary. The authors examine the relatively new form along with the association between factual codes and conventions, and the discourses which underpin the genre. The analysis includes detailed explorations of Woody Allen's Zelig, Peter Greenaway's The Falls, the Beatles' spoof The Rutles as well as Bob Roberts, This is Spinal Tap, and Man Bites Dog.

Mock-Documentary and the Subversion of Factuality

Faking It

Ramaswami Harindranath

Although many digital platforms continue to appropriate and reconfigure familiar forms of media experience, this is an environment which no longer consistently constructs an identifiable 'mass' audience in the terms understood by twentieth century audience researchers. The notion of 'audiencing' takes on different characteristics within a digital environment where platforms encourage users to upload, share and respond to content, while the platforms themselves monetise the digital traces of this activity. This environment demands new ways of thinking about audience and user engagement with media technologies, and raises significant questions on methods of conceiving and researching audience-users. This volume addresses ongoing debates in the field of audience research by exploring relevant conceptual and methodological issues concerning the systematic study of digital audiences. Drawing from work conducted by researchers based in Australia and New Zealand, the book uses theoretical frameworks and case study material which are of direct relevance to audience researchers globally.

Craig Hight

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