C. Lee Harrington is Associate Professor of Sociology and Affiliate of the Women's Studies program at Miami University of Ohio. Her articles have been published in several scholarly journals and she is the author, with Denise Bielby, of Soap Fans: Pursuing Pleasure and Making Meaning in Everyday Life (1995). Her current research interests include media audiences and death penalty cause lawyering.

Denise D. Bielby is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on the culture industries of television and film. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles which have appeared in journals including Journal of Popular Culture, American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, and Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media.