Dislike-Minded: Media, Audiences, and the Dynamics of Taste

Jonathan Gray

Published by New York University Press 2021

Dislike-Minded

Media, Audiences, and the Dynamics of Taste

Jonathan Gray

Volume 37 in the series Critical Cultural Communication

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479809998.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

Explains why audiences dislike certain media and what happens when they do

The study and discussion of media is replete with talk of fans, loves, stans, likes, and favorites, but what of dislikes, distastes, and alienation?

Dislike-Minded draws from over two-hundred qualitative interviews to probe what the media’s failures, wounds, and sore spots tell us about media culture, taste, identity, representation, meaning, textuality, audiences, and citizenship. The book refuses the simplicity of Pierre Bourdieu’s famous dictum that dislike is (only) snobbery. Instead, Jonathan Gray pushes onward to uncover other explanations for what it ultimately means to dislike specific artifacts of television, film, and other media, and why this dislike matters.

As we watch and listen through gritted teeth, Dislike-Minded listens to what is being said, and presents a bold case for a new line of audience research within communication, media, and cultural studies.

Author / Editor information

Gray Jonathan :

Jonathan Gray is Hamel Family Distinguished Chair in Communication Arts, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and author and editor of numerous books, including Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media Paratexts (2010), Fandom, Second Edition (2017), Keywords for Media Studies (2017), and Satire TV (2009), as well as Television Studies (with Amanda D. Lotz), and A Companion to Media Authorship (with Derek Johnson).Jonathan Gray is Hamel Family Distinguished Chair in Communication Arts, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and author and editor of numerous books, including Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media Paratexts (2010), Fandom, Second Edition (2017), Keywords for Media Studies (2017), and Satire TV (2009), as well as Television Studies (with Amanda D. Lotz), and A Companion to Media Authorship (with Derek Johnson).

Reviews

In Dislike-Minded, [Gray] makes a deeply compelling argument to stare directly into the face of an idea that we find distasteful and inappropriate, but in the name of bettering ourselves, through an entertaining, yet thoroughly complex piece of research that is indeed worthy of its name.

A critical and incisive expansion of Jonathan Gray’s foundational work on antifandom, Dislike-Minded offers a nuanced and theoretically rich model for understanding the motivations and mechanics of dislike. Gray’s insightful exploration of taste cultures and the ways in which degrees of privilege shape our relationships to media objects makes this an essential book for better understanding our deeply polarized culture. As Gray’s robust ethnographies make clear, there are many things to dislike about our contemporary media landscape, but I am happy to report I found nothing to dislike about this book.

Dislike-Minded offers rich theories and much-needed vocabularies for understanding our complex relationships with media that annoy, bother, and haunt us. It helps us make sense of anti-fans, media failure, involuntary reception, second-hand media exposure, and all those negative feelings generated by media engagements. Rooted in lived experience, it explores routine audience practices in their social contexts and uncovers the reasons why we consume media we simply do not like. Clearly written and evocatively argued, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in audience research, media affect, and everyday life.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Media Studies: Click Dislike Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 The Audience for Dislike Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
2 What’s Wrong and What’s Missing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
3 Fallen from Grace, or, When Sequels Attack Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
4 Performing Identity through Dislike Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
5 The Multiplicities of Dislike Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
Conclusion The Rhythms of Dislike Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Keywords: audiences; taste; failure; television; fans; Pierre Bourdieu

eBook

Published: June 22, 2021
ISBN: 9781479809998