Dear all,
My book
Front Office Fantasies: The Rise of Managerial Sports Media was released through the University of Illinois Press earlier this month.
Book Description:
Front Office Fantasies argues American sports media has increasingly centered around management – a phenomenon evidenced everywhere from sports films that heroize front office executives to sports radio and television programs that fixate on drafts and free agency to sports video games that feature gameplay revolving around salary cap management. The book not only details the industrial logics behind this managerial interest, like sports media companies’ desire for inexpensive, year-round content, but also explores how this managerial fixation represents a key manifestation of broader cultural and societal shifts, like the increasing hold of financialization and the ongoing refiguration of hegemonic masculinity. More information can be found on the publisher's website:
https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p087745
Table of Contents:
Introduction: “The Age of the General Manager”
1. The Managerial American Dream: The Administrative Fantasies of Managerial Sports Films
2. “He’s looking like a depressed asset”: The Financial Logics of Managerial Sports Talk
3. Datavisuality: The Quantified Aesthetic of Managerial Sports Television
4. White-Collar Play: Managerial Sports Games and the Modeling of Neoliberal Capitalism
Conclusion: The Banality of Managerial Sports Media
Endorsement:
"In this sharply written and impressive book, Branden Buehler provides compelling new insights into the social, cultural, and visual consequences of sports media’s preoccupation with managerialism, financialization, and quantification. A vital and necessary work, this sophisticated account of managerial sports media is a must-read for all sports, film, and media scholars." - Samantha N. Sheppard, author of Sporting Blackness: Race, Embodiment, and Critical Muscle Memory on Screen
Ordering Information:
The University of Illinois Press is offering the book 50% off through December 31 with the code HOLIDAY50. After that date, the book can be ordered with a 30% discount using the code F23UIP. Those promo codes can be used while ordering here:
All best,
Branden
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Branden Buehler, Ph.D. (he/him)
Assistant Professor, Visual and Sound Media
College of Human Development, Culture, and Media
Seton Hall University
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Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite