Overview
This book explores how an audience of men serving sentences in an English prison responded to viewing five contemporary British prison films. It examines how media representations of prison vary in style and content, how film can influence public attitudes, and how this affects people in prison. The book explains the ways in which film acts as a power resource, presenting an ideological vision of criminal justice. The audience used these films to map the social terrain of prison, including issues of power and resistance; race and racism; corruption and the illicit economy; and staff-prisoner relationships, themes which are explored in the films screened. The authors argue that media consumption is one of the ways in which people in prison construct and maintain an ideal of the prisoner culture and what it is to be a ‘prisoner’. The book also reveals the ways in which audience members’ media choices and readings are part of the ongoing process of constructing their self-identity. This book illuminates the complex ways in which media consumption is an integral part of social power, cultural formation and identity construction. Recognising and engaging with audiencehood offers one potential route for supporting more progressive penal practice. This book speaks to those interested in prisons, crime, media and culture, and film studies.
Full Product Details
Author: Jamie Bennett ,
Victoria Knight
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Imprint: Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Edition: 1st ed. 2021
Weight: 0.454kg
ISBN: 9783030609481
ISBN 10: 3030609480
Pages: 134
Publication Date: 17 November 2020
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
“This book is an exciting read, not only for its remarkable content but because of the opportunities for future research. … This study is clearly limited by time, number and type of participants, but these limitations do not prevent the study from breaking new ground in an innovative area, allowing imprisoned people to return and refute the voyeuristic cinematic gaze.” (Holly Dempsey, Crime Media Culture, April 12, 2021)
This book is an exciting read, not only for its remarkable content but because of the opportunities for future research. ... This study is clearly limited by time, number and type of participants, but these limitations do not prevent the study from breaking new ground in an innovative area, allowing imprisoned people to return and refute the voyeuristic cinematic gaze. (Holly Dempsey, Crime Media Culture, April 12, 2021)
Author Information
Jamie Bennett is a Senior Civil Servant in the Ministry of Justice, UK, a Research Associate at University of Oxford, and a former prison governor. His previous publications include The Working Lives of Prison Managers (2015) and The Penal System: An introduction Sixth edition (2019). Victoria Knight is Senior Research Fellow at De Montfort University, UK.
