Broadcasting Hollywood

Reviews / Votes

"Broadcasting Hollywood unpacks a convoluted postwar industrial trail to presciently detail the complexities of Hollywood and TV's deep, awkward, but ultimately long-lasting affiliation. Dispensing with the idea of a studio-vs-network throw-down, Jennifer Porst shows how historical change is driven instead by the interactions of multiple stakeholders and intermediaries. This book shows why film histories must reckon with intermedia, and helps push reductive contemporary theories of convergence, transmedia, and disruption off their lazy perches as one-stop explanations for the digital era. A must-read for those interested in film history, digital media, and media industries."- John T. Caldwell, Distinguished Research Professor, UCLA, author of Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Cri
"A compelling and incisive argument that to understand media convergence today we need to explore the past. Porst brings alive all that was at stake in the first real disruption of Hollywood. Part courtroom drama, part detective story, Broadcasting Hollywood brings to life current debates between studios, networks, creatives, the government. Want to prepare for the future of media? Read this book."- Miranda Banks, author of The Writers: A History of American Screenwriters and Their Guild
"Drawing on a trove of unexplored archival sources, Jennifer Porst has written a brilliant new addition to the field of media industry studies. Focused on the past but with revealing insights about the present-and future-Broadcasting Hollywood should be required reading for media students and researchers across film, television, and digital media."- Michele Hilmes, Professor Emerita, University of Wisconsin-Madison