The Business of Entertainment: Movies; Popular Music; Television

We love to be entertained. And today's technology makes that easier than ever. Listen to tunes while working out? No problem. Watch a movie on your cell phone? Can do. Get 450 channels of digital entertainment bounced off a satellite and into your vehicle--even while traveling through empty wastelands? Simple. But behind these experiences is a complex industry, dominated by a handful of global media conglomerates whose executives exert considerable influence over the artists and projects they bankroll, the processes by which products are developed, and the methods they use to promote and distribute entertainment. As this set shows, the industries in which commerce, art, and technology intersect are among the most fascinating in all of business.

Robert C. Sickels is Associate Professor of American Film and Popular Culture at Whitman College. He has made several short films that have played nationally at festivals around the country. In addition to publishing numerous journal articles and book chapters, he is also the author of American Popular Culture Through History: The 1940s (Greenwood, 2004), andAmerican Film in the Digital Age (Praeger 2009).