{"product_id":"producing-precarity-the-costs-of-making-tv-in-poor-places-9781479836727","title":"Producing Precarity: The Costs of Making TV in Poor Places","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe hidden cost of TV production for communities of color\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eProducing Precarity\u003c\/i\u003e is a long-overdue examination of the television industry's practice of \"offshoring\" production to impoverished sites within the US. The author, Curtis Marez, focuses on state efforts to attract film and TV producers to poor places with tax incentives, discounted public lands, and subsidized infrastructures. He argues that these efforts result in the redistribution of wealth from poor people of color, Indigenous people, and other taxpayers to Los Angeles-based media makers, while also diverting money that could be used for education and health care to the wealthy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe popular series produced in these places, such as \u003ci\u003eBreaking Bad\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Watchmen\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLovecraft County\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Walking Dead\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eVida\u003c\/i\u003e, are praised by critics and awards organizations and highlighted by streaming services for challenging genre, casting, and narrative conventions. However, many of these shows rely on racialized and gendered low-wage labor for production, and diversity, equity, and inclusion representations can sometimes perpetuate repression, such as depicting police as diversity champions. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eProducing Precarity\u003c\/i\u003e examines how contemporary streaming shows from these areas promote racial inequality in ideology and content, as well as materially through their local production methods, and perceptually through streaming distribution modes that discourage viewers from understanding how TV is made. Marez also provides examples of local resistance, including movements against a police training center and a film studio in Atlanta, as well as anti-gentrification movements in Latinx neighborhoods of LA.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCurtis Marez\u003c\/b\u003e is Professor in the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of California. He is the former editor of \u003ci\u003eAmerican Quarterly, \u003c\/i\u003e the official journal of the American Studies Association (ASA), and also past president of ASA. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eDrug Wars: The Political Economy of Narcotics\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFarm Worker Futurism: Speculative Technologies of Resistance\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eUniversity Babylon: Film and Race Politics on Campus\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"New York University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51603231539474,"sku":"9781479836727","price":31.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_04dfa05e-f098-4248-96e9-cfb5abd18356.jpg?v=1757430925","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/producing-precarity-the-costs-of-making-tv-in-poor-places-9781479836727","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}