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Critical Cultural Communication
Dislike-Minded
Explains why audiences dislike certain media and what happens when they do
The study and discussion of media is replete with talk of fans, loves, stans, likes, and favorites, but what of dislikes, distastes, and alienation?
Dislike-Minded draws from over two-hundred qualitative interviews to probe what the media’s failures, wounds, and sore spots tell us about media culture, taste, identity, representation, meaning, textuality, audiences, and citizenship. The book refuses the simplicity of Pierre Bourdieu’s famous dictum that dislike is (only) snobbery. Instead, Jonathan Gray pushes onward to uncover other explanations for what it ultimately means to dislike specific artifacts of television, film, and other media, and why this dislike matters.
As we watch and listen through gritted teeth, Dislike-Minded listens to what is being said, and presents a bold case for a new line of audience research within communication, media, and cultural studies.
The study and discussion of media is replete with talk of fans, loves, stans, likes, and favorites, but what of dislikes, distastes, and alienation?
Dislike-Minded draws from over two-hundred qualitative interviews to probe what the media’s failures, wounds, and sore spots tell us about media culture, taste, identity, representation, meaning, textuality, audiences, and citizenship. The book refuses the simplicity of Pierre Bourdieu’s famous dictum that dislike is (only) snobbery. Instead, Jonathan Gray pushes onward to uncover other explanations for what it ultimately means to dislike specific artifacts of television, film, and other media, and why this dislike matters.
As we watch and listen through gritted teeth, Dislike-Minded listens to what is being said, and presents a bold case for a new line of audience research within communication, media, and cultural studies.
269 pages, Paperback
Published June 22, 2021
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
Did Not Finish
August 11, 2026Review of Dislike-Minded, by Jonathan Gray
DID NOT HAVE TIME TO READ IT FULLY, BUT INTERESTING PREMISE
I was walking around my university’s library with my friends, just browsing for random books to consider reading while one of us was picking up a book for our actual studies. That is how I came across Dislike-Minded. I did not necessarily see all the info about the book, but I knew it was an academic text and also about TV and media studies. Still, I chose to read it and give it a chance.
The premise and the book’s argument is—as I understood it, that is—that we currently live in a consumerist society that is way too focused on promoting every single positive element about a piece of media, or spinning minor aspects of such in a way that makes them seem the best new thing ever. It seems that we only ever try to find the next big thing, while ignoring everything negative, and those who point out these flaws are labeled as ‘haters,’ whereas ‘fans’ are the ones whose opinions are valued.
Instead, the book argues that ‘dislike’ is not inherently toxic and unhelpful but can instead provide an insightful tool through which media can understand its own shortcomings and also see new trends arising without solely focusing on what is currently being ‘liked’ and fawned over.
It was an interesting read. Still, with everything going on I did not have the time to delve into it fully. However, if I were a communication student, I would certainly find this interesting because the premise seems obvious, but then the book shows that while dislike should be obviously considered as much as the likes, we do currently live in a society that does not seem to think so.
I would recommend Dislike-Minded by Gray even as I did not have the time to read it fully.
RATING — DNF
DID NOT HAVE TIME TO READ IT FULLY, BUT INTERESTING PREMISE
I was walking around my university’s library with my friends, just browsing for random books to consider reading while one of us was picking up a book for our actual studies. That is how I came across Dislike-Minded. I did not necessarily see all the info about the book, but I knew it was an academic text and also about TV and media studies. Still, I chose to read it and give it a chance.
The premise and the book’s argument is—as I understood it, that is—that we currently live in a consumerist society that is way too focused on promoting every single positive element about a piece of media, or spinning minor aspects of such in a way that makes them seem the best new thing ever. It seems that we only ever try to find the next big thing, while ignoring everything negative, and those who point out these flaws are labeled as ‘haters,’ whereas ‘fans’ are the ones whose opinions are valued.
Instead, the book argues that ‘dislike’ is not inherently toxic and unhelpful but can instead provide an insightful tool through which media can understand its own shortcomings and also see new trends arising without solely focusing on what is currently being ‘liked’ and fawned over.
It was an interesting read. Still, with everything going on I did not have the time to delve into it fully. However, if I were a communication student, I would certainly find this interesting because the premise seems obvious, but then the book shows that while dislike should be obviously considered as much as the likes, we do currently live in a society that does not seem to think so.
I would recommend Dislike-Minded by Gray even as I did not have the time to read it fully.
RATING — DNF
Displaying 1 of 1 review