Where does myth end and truth begin?A boy and his… Sword?Thirteen year old Cale Tannor has always dreamed of finding adventure. When a Spirit Sword, the last of an ancient race of sentient weapons, falls into his hands, adventure finds him. Now infernal hordes are stirring in the dark, and this adventure may be more than Cale bargained for. On the way he finds new friends in the Indian huntress Jazreal Bloodmoon, and mysterious Ranger Vyk Draco. Together they must work to r...

Where does myth end and truth begin?A boy and his… Sword?Thirteen year old Cale Tannor has always dreamed of finding adventure. When a Spirit Sword, the last of an ancient race of sentient weapons, falls into his hands, adventure finds him. Now infernal hordes are stirring in the dark, and this adventure may be more than Cale bargained for. On the way he finds new friends in the Indian huntress Jazreal Bloodmoon, and mysterious Ranger Vyk Draco. Together they must work to r...

Today more than ever, series finales have become cultural touchstones that feed watercooler fodder and Twitter storms among a committed community of viewers. While the final episodes of The Fugitive and M*A*S*H continue to rank among the highest rated broadcasts, more recent shows draw legions of binge-watching fans. Given the importance of finales to viewers and critics alike, Howard and Bianculli along with the other contributors explore these endings and what they mean to the audience, ...

Spreadable Media maps fundamental changes taking place in our contemporary media environment, a space where corporations no longer tightly control media distribution and many of us are directly involved in the circulation of content. It contrasts “stickiness”—aggregating attention in centralized places—with “spreadability”—dispersing content widely through both formal and informal networks,some approved, many unauthorized. Stickiness has been the measure of success in the broadcas...

The soap opera, one of U.S. television's longest-running and most influential formats, is on the brink. Declining ratings have been attributed to an increasing number of women working outside the home and to an intensifying competition for viewers' attention from cable and the Internet. Yet, soaps' influence has expanded, with serial narratives becoming commonplace on most prime time TV programs. The Survival of Soap Opera investigates the causes of their dwindling popularity, des...

The First How-To Strategy Guide to Transmedia Storytelling“Phillips’s book is a powerful tool for anyone who wants to make a career for him- or herself within the world of transmedia. Through her guidance, the reader is able to understand the fundamentals of transmedia and the power it can have when used with a compelling and strong story."—David Gale, Executive Vice President, MTV Cross Media“Transmedia storytelling is a bold and ex...

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine"s Home for Peculiar Children , an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine"s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob...

Henry Jenkins at Authors@Google (video)Winner of the 2007 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Katherine Singer Kovacs Book Award2007 Choice Outstanding Academic TitleConvergence Culture maps a new territory: where old and new media intersect, where grassroots and corporate media collide, where the power of the media producer and the power of the consumer interact in unpredictable ways.Henry Jenkins, one of ...

Trenchantly on point and bursting with insight, anthropologist Grant McCracken shows American corporations how keeping a finger on the pulse of contemporary cultural trends can change their business practices for the better -- and ahead of the curve.Levi-Strauss, the jeans and apparel maker, missed out on the hip-hop trend. They didn't realize that those kids in baggy jeans represented a whole new -- and lucrative -- market opportunity, one they could have seen com...

Television entertainment rules supreme, one of the world’s most important disseminators of information, ideas, and amusement. More than a parade of little figures in a box, it is deeply embedded in everyday life, in how we think, what we think and care about, and who we think and care about it with.But is television entertainment art? Why do so many love it and so many hate or fear it? Does it offer a window to the world, or images of a fake world? How is it political and how does ...

The movie industry is changing rapidly, due in part to the adoption of digital technologies. Distributors now send films to theaters electronically. Consumers can purchase or rent movies instantly online and then watch them on their high-definition televisions, their laptops, or even their cell phones. Meanwhile, social media technologies allow independent filmmakers to raise money and sell their movies directly to the public. All of these changes contribute to an “on-demand culture,” a sh...

In Kids Rule! Sarah Banet-Weiser examines the cable network Nickelodeon in order to rethink the relationship between children, media, citizenship, and consumerism. Nickelodeon is arguably the most commercially successful cable network ever. Broadcasting original programs such as Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Rugrats (and producing related movies, Web sites, and merchandise), Nickelodeon has worked aggressively to claim and maintain its po...