Media and the Affective Life of Slavery

Media shapes our actions and feelings about race, as seen in the classic television miniseries Roots and the edutainment video game Mission 2: Flight to Freedom. Allison Page's book explores how media culture instructs viewers to act and feel in accordance with new racial norms created for an era supposedly defined by an end to legal racism. She theorizes media as a system of representation and a technology of citizenship and subjectivity, where race is seen as a problem to be solved.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 07 March 2022
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

Amidst the ongoing discussions surrounding antiracism and police violence, "Media and the Affective Life of Slavery" emerges as a groundbreaking work that offers essential insights into how our media landscape shapes and normalizes our attitudes toward race. In her comprehensive examination of U.S. media from the 1960s to the present day, Allison Page delves into the intricate ways in which media culture instructs viewers to behave and feel in accordance with the new racial norms established in an era purported to be characterized by the end of legal racism.

Through a detailed analysis of a range of media artifacts, including the iconic television miniseries "Roots," the educational video game "Mission 2: Flight to Freedom," and the popular website slaveryfootprint.org, "Media and the Affective Life of Slavery" provides a comprehensive exploration of the capitalist and cultural elements that shape the understanding of slavery in the U.S. public. Page theorizes media not only as a system of representation but also as a technology of citizenship and subjectivity, where race is perceived as a problem that requires solution.

Ultimately, Page argues that visual culture operates through the power of emotion, serving as a potent tool for shaping and managing racialized subjectivity. This book offers a wealth of compelling and provocative material, and its extensive archival research spans various realms such as news, entertainment, television, curricula, video games, and digital apps. By providing new and innovative scholarship in areas where existing research is lacking, "Media and the Affective Life of Slavery" contributes significantly to our understanding of the complex dynamics between media, race, and society.

Dimension: 216 x 140 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781517910402