You Are What You Watch

August 14, 2023
In this penetrating debut, Hickey, winner of a Pulitzer Prize for illustrated reporting, deconstructs “how media and culture shapes us as individuals and collectively.” Movies, he argues, have physiological effects on viewers that scientists are only beginning to understand, as revealed by a study that measured the chemical composition of the air in screenings of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and found that levels of isoprene (a chemical humans release when muscles tense) spiked during key scenes. Examining the appeal of common genres and tropes, Hickey suggests that heist films tap into anxieties about “who deserves what, and whether the small and weak deserve what the strong have.” He also studies the social effects of movies, noting that the popularity of collies skyrocketed after the release of the 1943 film Lassie Come Home, as did New Zealand tourism after Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies. The trivia surprises and the bounty of colorful charts and graphs visualizing, for instance, the traits Spider-Man shares with each of his villains and the explosion of “Hallelujah” covers after the 2001 release of Shrek (which featured a version of the Leonard Cohen song on its soundtrack), offer fun insight into popular culture. This is a blast. Photos.

October 1, 2023
A self-described "data journalist," Hickey is also a passionate fan eager to delight in his favorite spheres of pop culture. Rather than disparaging or dismissing mass media, he offers an unconventional view by highlighting its significant, positive contributions to modern life and citing the biological and social human imperatives that can be fulfilled through what are often labeled as diversions. Hickey emphasizes that media's influence is exploding due to increasingly rapid and global delivery methods. Today's technology, he states, provides instantaneous transmission, saturation, and feedback on an unprecedented scale. Hickey's argument is cogent, original, and couched informally, with palpable enthusiasm. He enlivens his research with witty opinions, amusing digressions, and arresting visuals. Hickey's data does veer occasionally into the arcane, and the accompanying graphics by Heather Jones are fun, if mostly overly detailed and elaborate. (The author admits, perhaps unsurprisingly, that his own preferences guided the project.) Hickey's lighthearted approach will prove especially enticing for fellow data heads and devotees of pop culture but may be limited in terms of general appeal.

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Starred review from September 22, 2023

Pulitzer Prize winner Hickey (deputy editor, Insider) presents a refreshing analysis of media consumption by explaining the human body's physiological responses to it. After the first chapter, the book skyrockets into the "hows" and "whys" of cinematography. For example, it looks into directed vs. undirected scenes, how Victorian architecture came to embody the archetypal haunted-house image, the change in villain origin stories over time, and the ways in which New York City is repeatedly destroyed in cinema. There's probing of heists, the decline of the sitcom, and the trends of baby names, hobbies, and crime perception, all correlated to the popularity and messaging of certain movies and TV shows. Equally fascinating is the exploration (and explosion) of merchandising tie-ins for film and television, and why sequels, remakes, and adaptations prove more popular and lucrative than original stories. Hickey also documents the media exports of Britain, Japan, and Korea and makes a solid case for why binge-watching isn't necessarily the best way to experience a show. VERDICT A worthy, fun dissection of pop culture that's full of infographics and data.--Tina Panik

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