Point of Sale: Analyzing Media Retail

by Daniel Herbert (Editor), Derek Johnson (Editor), Daniel Herbert (Contribution by), Derek Johnson (Contribution by), Emily West (Contribution by)

Overview

Point of Sale offers the first significant attempt to center media retail as a vital component in the study of popular culture.  It brings together fifteen essays by top media scholars with their fingers on the pulse of both the changes that foreground retail in a digital age and the history that has made retail a fundamental part of the culture industries.  The book reveals why retail matters as a site of transactional significance to industries as well as a crucial locus of meaning and interactional participation for consumers. In addition to examining how industries connect books, DVDs, video games, lifestyle products, toys, and more to consumers, it also interrogates the changes in media circulation driven by the collision of digital platforms with existing retail institutions.  By grappling with the contexts in which we buy media, Point of Sale uncovers the underlying tensions that define the contemporary culture industries. 
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813595528
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	12/13/2019
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

DANIEL HERBERT is an associate professor in the department of film, television, and media at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  He is the author of Videoland: Movie Culture at the American Video Store and Film Remakes and Franchises.
 
DEREK JOHNSON is professor of media and cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He is the author of Media Franchising: Creative License and Collaboration in the Culture Industries and Transgenerational Media Industries: Adults, Children, and the Reproduction of Culture. 
 

Table of Contents

Introduction: Media Studies in the Retail Apocalypse Derek Johnson Daniel Herbert 1

Part I Retail and New Media Technologies

1 Industrial Crossroads or Cross Purposes? Circuit City, DIVX, and the History of Multifunctional Media Retailers Daniel Herbert 23

2 Amazon, Bookseller: Disruption and Continuity in Digital Capitalism Emily West 40

3 The First Sale Doctrine and US. Media Retail Gregory Steirer 58

4 Game Retail and Crowdfunding Heikki Tyni Olli Sotamaa 75

5 The App Store: Female Consumers, Shopping, and Digital Culture Elizabeth Affuso 91

Part II Media and the Politics of Constructing Retail Space

6 Shelf Flow: Spatial Logics, Product Categorizations, and Media Brands at Retail Avi Santo 109

7 Get Your Cape On: Targets Invitation to the DC Universe Ethan Tussey Meredith Bak 125

8 Shop, Makeover, Love: Transformative Paratexts and Aspirational Fandom for Female-Driven Franchises Courtney Brannon Donoghue 142

9 Female Treble: Gender, Record Retail, and a Play for Space Tim J. Anderson 160

10 "It's Not Just Commerce, Its Community": Erotic Media and the Feminist Sex-Toy Store Revolution Lynn Comella 175

Part III Practices and Participation in Media Retail Communities

11 Comic Book Stores as Sites of Struggle Benjamin Woo Nasreen Rajani 191

12 From Dealers' Room to Exhibit Hall: Comic Retailing and the San Diego Comic-Con Erin Hanna 209

13 The Changing Scales of Diasporic Media Retail Evan Elkins 225

14 Delivering Media: The Convenience Store as Media Mix Hub Marc Steinberg 239

15 Retail Wizardry: Constructing Media Fantasies from the Point of Sale Derek Johnson 256

Index 275

Notes on Contributors 287

Editorial Reviews

"Attention media shoppers! Do not miss this truly original, eloquent argument for retail as an enduring, vital, and complex cultural space in entertainment’s digital age."   
 

author of Empires of Entertainment - Jennifer Holt

"A valuable resource. Recommended."

Choice

"[A] signal and important contribution to Media Studies...Herbert and Johnson, and their contributors, have done great service to our understanding on how to link media consumption with Retail Studies."

Television and New Media

"Herbert, Johnson, and their authors valuably expand our understanding of media retail—a largely overlooked node of media circulation. The book offers an excellent range of cases, themes, and issues that both ground these processes historically and address adjustments introduced by digital distribution."

author of We Now Disrupt This Broadcast - Amanda Lotz