John Fiske (media scholar)
John Fiske (September 12, 1939 – July 12, 2021)
He was the author of eight academic books, including Power Plays, Power Works (1993), Understanding Popular Culture (1989), Reading the Popular (1989), and the influential Television Culture (1987). Fiske was also a
Careers
Born in Bristol, England, Fiske was educated in
After graduating from
- Principal Lecturer at Sheffield Polytechnic, where he designed the first undergraduate degree in communication in the United Kingdom
- Principal Lecturer in Communication at the Polytechnic of Wales, where he supervised the first Ph.D. candidate in Communication in the United Kingdom
- Principal Lecturer in the School of Communication and Cultural Studies at Curtin University in Perth, Australia
- Professor of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, from which he retired
While living in
John Fiske retired from academia in 2000 and settled in Vermont, where he began a second career as an antiques dealer trading as Fiske & Freeman: Fine and Early Antiques. His specialty was seventeenth-century English oak furniture. He was the editor-in-chief of The New England Antiques Journal and founding publisher of the online Digital Antiques Journal.
Fiske published several books on seventeenth-century furniture including Living with Early Oak and When Oak Was New.[1]
Honors
In 2000, Fiske was granted emeritus status by University of Wisconsin–Madison as a professor of Letters and Science/Communication Arts after having taught at the University for 12 years.[3] In May 2008, Fiske received an Honorary Doctoral Degree from the University of Antwerp.
Theory
Semiotics and television studies
Fiske was one of the first scholars to apply
He is the author of works on television studies regarding popular culture and mass media. Fiske's books analyze television shows as semiotic "texts" in order to examine the different layers of meaning and sociocultural content. Fiske rejects the notion that assumes "the audience" as an uncritical mass, the theory that mass audiences consume the products that are offered to them without thought. He instead suggests "audiences" as being of various social backgrounds and identities that enable them to receive texts differently.
Fiske's 1987 textbook on television, Television Culture, introduces the subject of television studies by examining the economic and cultural issues, as well as the theory and text-based criticism, involving television. It also provides an overview of the arguments by British, American, Australian, and French scholars. It was "one of the first books about television to take seriously the feminist agenda that has been so important to the recent development of the field."[4]
Power
In Power Plays, Power Works (1993), Fiske argues that power "is a systematic set of operations upon people that works to ensure the maintenance of the social order…and ensure its smooth running."[5]
Through the book, Fiske coined the term "power bloc" in reference to the social and political economic constructs around which power functions in the contemporary Western world.
Those who fall outside of the bloc—and fall under its "authority"—can be understood as the notion of "the people." Such people may still possess power of their own, however it is a weaker power—what Fiske refers to as a "localizing power".[6]
In Understanding Popular Culture (1989), Fiske maintains that culture is integral to
Culture (and its meanings and pleasures) is a constant succession of social practices; it is therefore inherently political, it is centrally involved in the distribution and possible redistribution of various forms of social power.
Bibliography
- 1978. Reading Television, with ISBN 0-415-04291-7.
- 1982. Introduction to Communication Studies, Studies in Culture and Communication. ISBN 0-415-04672-6.
- 1984. "Popularity and Ideology: A Structuralist Reading of Dr Who." In Interpreting Television: Current Research Perspectives, edited by W. D. Rowland Jr. and B. Watkins.[8]
- 1987. Television Culture, Studies in Communication Series. London: Methuen & Co. ISBN 0-415-03934-7.
- 1989. Reading the Popular. London: Unwin Hyman Ltd. ISBN 978-0-415-07875-7.
- 1989. Understanding Popular Culture. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-07876-4.
- 1992. "British Cultural Studies and Television." In Channels of Discourse, Reassembled, edited by R. C. Allen. ISBN 978-0-8078-4374-1.
- 1994. Media Matters: Everyday Culture and Political Change. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press. ISBN 9780816624621.
- 1993. Power Plays, Power Works. ISBN 0-86091-616-2
- 1996. Media Matters: Race and Gender in U.S. Politics. ISBN 978-0-8166-2463-8.
Interviews and lectures
- 1990/1991. "An Interview with John Fiske." Border/Lines 20/21(Winter):4–7.
- 2000. "Interview with John Fiske," with Mick O'Regan. The Media Report. Australia: ABC Radio National.
- 2000. "'Surveillance and the self: Some issues for cultural studies'" (lecture), Television: Past, Present, and Future.[9]
References
- ^ a b c "In Memoriam". Fiske & Freeman: Early English Oak Furniture and Accessories. Archived from the original on 2012-02-11. Retrieved 2021-07-17.
- .
- ^ a b "Faculty and academic staff granted emeritus/emerita status in 2000-01." UWMadison News. University of Wisconsin–Madison. 2000 August 29.
- ^ "Television studies." Museum of Broadcast Communications. 2013.
- ISBN 0-86091-616-2. p. 11.
- ^ .
- ISBN 978-0-415-07876-4. p. 1.
- ^ "John Fiske: Popularity & Ideology: A Structuralist Reading of Dr Who," Making Doctor Who Mean. Speaker to Animals.
- ^ "'Surveillance and the self: Some issues for cultural studies'," Television: Past, Present, and Future. Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, The University of Queensland. 2000.
Further reading
- Glynn, Kevin, Jonathan Gray, and Pamela Wilson. 2011. “Reading Fiske and Understanding the Popular,” in John Fiske, Understanding Popular Culture, 2nd Edition (pp. xxxix-lvii). London: Routledge.
- Hancock, Black Hawk. 2016 May 25. "From Media Matters to #blacklivesmatter: Black Hawk Hancock discusses John Fiske (Part One)," edited by H. Jenkins. Confessions of an ACA-FAN.
- Jenkins, Henry. 2011. “Why Fiske Still Matters.” Pp. xii–xxxviii in Reading the Popular (2nd ed.), edited by J. Fiske. New York: Routledge.
- —— 2016. "Henry Jenkins on John Fiske." Pp. 138–52 in Exploring the Roots of Digital and Media Literacy through Personal Narrative, edited by R. Hobbs. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
- —— 2010 June 16. "John Fiske: Now and The Future." Center for Civic Media. US: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.