The Soap Opera Paradigm ranks among the most important works in media studies in a generation. It will be a defining work for the field. Wittebols has methodically documented and brilliantly analyzed major trends in commercial media content, linking them to media structures and assessing their disturbing implications. The Soap Opera Paradigm will be mandatory reading in my classes and will be an invaluable guide to me in my research. I give this book an unconditional recommendation.
Robert W. McChesney, author, Blowing the Roof Off the Twenty-First Century: Media, Politics, and the Struggle Wittebol's analysis is sound and well documented. Recommended.
CHOICE
The Soap Opera Paradigm shows precisely how media conglomeration has changed the forms and content of television's stories, whether fact or fiction. By grafting the assumptions and concerns of serial melodramas on to everything from the nightly news to episodic series in prime time, media conglomerates protect their bottom lines and build brand loyalty while championing a mindset that is overly simplified, highly emotional, and antidemocratic. Wittebols deftly integrates qualitative and quantitative methods with political economy and cultural studies to produce an insightful and engaging account of the serious problems created by deregulation, transindustrial conglomeration, and the melodramatization of television.
Eileen R. Meehan, Louisiana State University