John Corner - Böcker

Television has radically reshaped the contours of knowledge and of pleasure in modern society and become a regular subject of scrutiny and argument. This important book, fully accesible to students yet a contribution to international debate, is the first to offer a systematic review of the ideas which have been most influential across a full range of television criticism and research from the first pioneering studies to the most recent theory and analysis. In the course of exploring key ideas, John Corner develops a clear and close engagement with television itself and the way it is changing. After an Introduction which provides a concise overview of how television has been studied and why, ten chapters take key features of the medium in order to raise questions and and assess arguments. With its focused summaries and its scope of reference, Critical Ideas in Television Studies will help the teaching and study of television to enter a new phase of improved clarity and self-awareness.

The phenomena of `enterprise' and `heritage' might at first thought seem unrelated: this book sets out to show that the two concepts are not only related but deeply interdependent. If `enterprise' can be used to define the official encouragement of the values of the market society, then the growth of the heritage industry can be seen as a manifestation of the entrepreneurial spirit - marketing the past so that it is accessible to the man or woman in the street.Using case studies, commentary and critique, the contributors to this lively volume discuss the importance of `enterprise' and `heritage' in British social and cultural life, with examples drawn from film, television, literature, urban planning, architecture, government advertising, information technology and tourism.

The phenomena of `enterprise' and `heritage' might at first thought seem unrelated: this book sets out to show that the two concepts are not only related but deeply interdependent. If `enterprise' can be used to define the official encouragement of the values of the market society, then the growth of the heritage industry can be seen as a manifestation of the entrepreneurial spirit - marketing the past so that it is accessible to the man or woman in the street.Using case studies, commentary and critique, the contributors to this lively volume discuss the importance of `enterprise' and `heritage' in British social and cultural life, with examples drawn from film, television, literature, urban planning, architecture, government advertising, information technology and tourism.

Documentary is a controversial and important area of media production. The art of record is a fascinating insight into the function of documentary in film and television. Its attempts to depict reality, and to comment on it, have provoked disagreement from the 1920s to the present day. Recent debates about knowledge and representation, and about the changing character of public culture, have increased its interest and relevance. John Corner presents a clear overview of the theoretical issues and critical debates around documentary, and discusses the development of the main styles and approaches, including dramadocs and fly-on-the-wall. He also looks at the dual identity of work in documentary as both artefact and as reference. The book provides a valuable detailed analysis of specific examples of powerful documentary films and programmes such as Cathy Come Home, Life and Times of Rosie the Rivetter and When the Dog Bites.

Public issue television is a major contribution to understanding the relationship between television, politics and society. Based on full access to the archives, it offers a fascinating historical account of how one television series, Granada’s World in Action, celebrated for its tough journalism, visual directness and public impact, functioned and developed over its run across 35 years between 1963 and 1998. In a succession of chapters looking at different periods in the series’ development and at key dimensions of its distinctive identity, it gets deep inside the making of factual television and examines how a particular culture of production works within broader conditions of possibility and constraint. In particular, it charts the interwoven processes of change – technological, professional, aesthetic, institutional, economic, social and political. As well as discussing achievement and success, it examines the tensions, the debates and open conflicts that formed part of the context within which the series was made and transmitted across four decades.

Public issue television is a major contribution to understanding the relationship between television, politics and society. Based on full access to the archives, it offers a fascinating historical account of how one television series, Granada’s World in Action, celebrated for its tough journalism, visual directness and public impact, functioned and developed over its run across 35 years between 1963 and 1998. In a succession of chapters looking at different periods in the series’ development and at key dimensions of its distinctive identity, it gets deep inside the making of factual television and examines how a particular culture of production works within broader conditions of possibility and constraint. In particular, it charts the interwoven processes of change – technological, professional, aesthetic, institutional, economic, social and political. As well as discussing achievement and success, it examines the tensions, the debates and open conflicts that formed part of the context within which the series was made and transmitted across four decades.

The first edition of New challenges for documentary provided a major stimulus for teaching about documentary film and television and fresh encouragement for critical thinking about practice. This second edition brings together many new contributions both from academics and filmmakers, reflecting shifts both in documentary production itself, and in ways of discussing it.Once again, the emphasis has been on clear and provocative writing, sympathetic to the practical challenges of documentary film-making but making connections with a range of work in media and communications analysis.With its wide range of contributors and the international scope of its agenda, New challenges for documentary will be essential reading for general filmmakers and documentary students both of academic and practical inclinations.

In this book, John Corner explores how issues of power, form and subjectivity feature at the core of all serious thinking about the media, including appreciations of their creativity as well as anxiety about the risks they pose. Drawing widely on an interdisciplinary literature, he connects his exposition to examples from film, television, radio, photography, painting, web practice, music and writing in order to bring in topics as diverse as reporting the war in Afghanistan, the televising of football, documentary portrayals of 9/11, reality television, the diversity of taste in the arts and the construction of civic identity.Theorising media brings together concepts both from social studies and the arts and humanities, addressing a readership wider than the sub-specialisms of media research. It refreshes ideas about why the media matter and how understanding them better remains a key aim of cultural inquiry and a continuing requirement for public policy.

Within media research and cultural studies, the mediation of politicians and the play-off between versions of high and low politics are attracting increasing interest.

Media and the Restyling of Politics brings together the work of leading academics in media and cultural studies to pursue an agenda of research, analysis and debate about the changing nature of political culture and its mediation. The contributors question the ways in which emerging forms of political style relate not only to new conventions of celebrity and publicity but to ideas about representation, citizenship and the democratic process. Topics covered include: celebrity politicians, the marketing of politics, identity and popular culture.

Within media research and cultural studies, the mediation of politicians and the play-off between versions of high and low politics are attracting increasing interest.

Media and the Restyling of Politics brings together the work of leading academics in media and cultural studies to pursue an agenda of research, analysis and debate about the changing nature of political culture and its mediation. The contributors question the ways in which emerging forms of political style relate not only to new conventions of celebrity and publicity but to ideas about representation, citizenship and the democratic process. Topics covered include: celebrity politicians, the marketing of politics, identity and popular culture.