A01=Susan G. Davis
Author_Susan G. Davis
Category=JBCC1
Category=JHB
contemporary commercial culture
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
killer whale
nature and animals
performing dolphins
pettable sting rays
reproductions of pristine natural worlds
sea world experience
shamu
southern california tourism
story of sea world
theme of ocean life
theme park
theme park industry
trademark star
wonders of nature performed
Product details
- ISBN 9780520209817
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 31 Oct 1997
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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This is the story of Sea World, a theme park where the wonders of nature are performed, marketed, and sold. With its trademark star, Shamu the killer whale - as well as performing dolphins, pettable sting rays, and reproductions of pristine natural worlds - the park represents a careful coordination of shows, dioramas, rides, and concessions built around the theme of ocean life. Susan Davis analyzes the Sea World experience and the forces that produce it: the theme park industry; Southern California tourism; the privatization of urban space; and, the increasing integration of advertising, entertainment, and education. The result is an engaging exploration of the role played by images of nature and animals in contemporary commercial culture, and a precise account of how Sea World and its parent corporation, Anheuser-Busch, succeed. Davis argues that Sea World builds its vision of nature around customers' worries and concerns about the environment, family relations, and education.
While Davis shows the many ways that Sea World monitors its audience and manipulates animals and landscapes to manufacture pleasure, she also explains the contradictions facing the enterprise in its campaign for a positive public identity. Shifting popular attitudes, animal rights activists, and environmental laws all pose practical and public relations challenges to the theme park. Davis confronts the park's vast operations with impressive insight and originality, revealing Sea World as both an industrial product and a phenomenon typical of contemporary American culture. "Spectacular Nature" opens an intriguing field of inquiry: the role of commercial entertainment in shaping public understandings of the environment and environmental problems.
Susan G. Davis is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of California, San Diego.
