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Demystifying the Big House
Exploring Prison Experience and Media Representations
Edited by Katherine A. Foss
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Book Presentation:
Essays in this volume illustrate how shows such as Orange Is the New Black and Oz impact the public’s perception of crime rates, the criminal justice system, and imprisonment. Contributors look at prison wives on reality television series, portrayals of death row, breastfeeding while in prison, transgender prisoners, and black masculinity. They also examine the ways in which media messages ignore an individual’s struggle against an all too frequently biased system and instead dehumanize the incarcerated as violent and overwhelmingly masculine. Together these essays argue media reform is necessary for penal reform, proposing that more accurate media representations of prison life could improve public support for programs dealing with poverty, abuse, and drug addiction—factors that increase the likelihood of criminal activity and incarceration.
Scholars from cultural and critical studies, feminist studies, queer studies, African American studies, media studies, sociology, and psychology offer critical analysis of media depictions of prison, bridging the media’s portrayals of incarcerated lives with actual experiences and bringing to light forgotten voices in prison narratives.
About the Author:
Katherine A. Foss is an associate professor in the School of Journalism at Middle Tennessee State University. She is the author of Breastfeeding and Media: Exploring Conflicting Discourses That Threaten Public Health and Television and Health Responsibility in an Age of Individualism.
Press Reviews:
"This collection of essays argue that a more accurate depiction of prison life could improve public support and opinion regarding the penal system, poverty, and drug addiction. Foss questions how characters are portrayed in crime television series, while also providing findings from scholars with backgrounds in feminist studies, cultural, and queer studies."—Kiana Moridi, Communication Booknotes Quarterly
"Foss brings together a wide range of perspectives and methodologies to examine one of the more enduring narratives in U.S. culture: that of prison life. Grounded in an interdisciplinary approach, this collection sheds light on how media representations often simplify or eclipse the reality of life behind bars, and it does so by including essays that both critique the representational in incisive ways and give voice to those who have been incarcerated."—Ann M. Ciasullo, Gonzaga University
"Too often the public has profound misconceptions of what life in prison is really like, and the essays in this collection can help illuminate the distorted notions promulgated by television programs and Hollywood films."—Bill Yousman, author of Prime-Time Prisons on U.S. TV: Representation of Incarceration
"Together, these essays argue media reform is necessary for penal reform, proposing that more accurate media representations of prison life could improve public support for programs dealing with poverty, abuse, and drug addiction--factors that increase the likelihood of criminal activity and incarceration. An exceptional body of simply outstanding scholarship and contemporary relevance, Demystifying the Big House is unreservedly recommended."—James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review
"Foss has curated fourteen fascinating essays by emerging and established scholars who explore the mutually constitutive relationship between media representations and the lives of those who are housed within carceral institutions. Contributors 'connect representation to experience' across disciplines and frameworks from sociology, criminology, communications and gender studies with essays that range from literary criticism to grounded ethnographic research."—Suzanne Bouclin, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books
"Demystifying the Big House: Exploring Prison Experience and Media Representations provides an important contribution to the field by examining the role that the media plays in our constructions of life behind bars. The strength of this volume centers on its accessibility and ability to connect with diverse audiences, as prior knowledge of the prison system is not required for reading. Undergraduate and graduate students and researchers studying crime and media, as well as consumers of crime programming will find this book informative and eye-opening, as it allows readers to reimagine prison life through a different, more critical lens."—Rebecca Rodriguez Carey, International Criminal Justice Review
See the publisher website: Southern Illinois University Press
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