Kevin McDonald – författare

Fully updated and expanded throughout, this second edition of Film Theory: The Basics provides an accessible introduction to the key theorists, concepts, and debates that have shaped the study of moving images.

The book examines film theory from its emergence in the early twentieth century to its study in the present day, and explores why film has drawn special attention as a medium, as a form of representation, and as a focal point in the rise of modern visual culture. It also emphasizes how film theory has developed as a historically contingent discourse, one that has evolved and changed in conjunction with different social, political, and intellectual factors. This second edition offers a detailed account of new theoretical directions at the forefront of film studies in the twenty-first century, and draws additional attention to how theory engages with today’s most pressing questions about digital technologies, the environment, and racial justice.

Complete with questions for discussion and a glossary of both key terms and key theorists, this book in an invaluable resource for those new to film theory and for anyone else interested in the history and significance of critical thinking in relation to the moving image.

Fully updated and expanded throughout, this second edition of Film Theory: The Basics provides an accessible introduction to the key theorists, concepts, and debates that have shaped the study of moving images.

The book examines film theory from its emergence in the early twentieth century to its study in the present day, and explores why film has drawn special attention as a medium, as a form of representation, and as a focal point in the rise of modern visual culture. It also emphasizes how film theory has developed as a historically contingent discourse, one that has evolved and changed in conjunction with different social, political, and intellectual factors. This second edition offers a detailed account of new theoretical directions at the forefront of film studies in the twenty-first century, and draws additional attention to how theory engages with today’s most pressing questions about digital technologies, the environment, and racial justice.

Complete with questions for discussion and a glossary of both key terms and key theorists, this book in an invaluable resource for those new to film theory and for anyone else interested in the history and significance of critical thinking in relation to the moving image.

Centered on streaming media platforms, this book explores how digital technologies have fundamentally transformed the way we understand entertainment and the tightening nexus between technology, culture, and capitalism.

Building on a wide-ranging body of interdisciplinary inquiry, extending from media industry studies and critical political economy to media archaeology and film and media studies more generally, this book presents a unique critical approach that moves from macro-level analysis of industry economics to micro-level considerations focusing, for example, on streaming’s impact on changing narrative styles, genre formation, and related text-based aesthetic trends. The book’s core chapters develop in-depth analyses of streaming media’s three most emblematic platforms, Disney+, Netflix, and YouTube, highlighting their specificities while also assessing their place within a larger, shifting ecosystem. In offering a comparative account attentive to the importance of both historicizing and theorizing the changes brought about by streaming, this book lays out a path for renewed critical thinking about the contradictions in contemporary media and their impact on life in the 21st century.

This is essential reading for advanced students and scholars interested in the ever-evolving relationship between technology, media, culture, and economics.

Centered on streaming media platforms, this book explores how digital technologies have fundamentally transformed the way we understand entertainment and the tightening nexus between technology, culture, and capitalism.

Building on a wide-ranging body of interdisciplinary inquiry, extending from media industry studies and critical political economy to media archaeology and film and media studies more generally, this book presents a unique critical approach that moves from macro-level analysis of industry economics to micro-level considerations focusing, for example, on streaming’s impact on changing narrative styles, genre formation, and related text-based aesthetic trends. The book’s core chapters develop in-depth analyses of streaming media’s three most emblematic platforms, Disney+, Netflix, and YouTube, highlighting their specificities while also assessing their place within a larger, shifting ecosystem. In offering a comparative account attentive to the importance of both historicizing and theorizing the changes brought about by streaming, this book lays out a path for renewed critical thinking about the contradictions in contemporary media and their impact on life in the 21st century.

This is essential reading for advanced students and scholars interested in the ever-evolving relationship between technology, media, culture, and economics.

From Paris to San Bernardino, Barcelona to Manchester, home-grown terrorism is among the most urgent challenges confronting Western nations. Attempts to understand jihadism have typically treated it as a form of political violence or religious conflict. However, the closer we get to the actual people involved in radicalization, the more problematic these explanations become.

In this fascinating book, Kevin McDonald shows that the term radicalization unifies what are in fact very different experiences. These new violent actors, whether they travelled to Syria or killed at home, range from former drug dealers and gang members to students and professionals, mothers with young children and schoolgirls. This innovative book sets out to explore radicalization not as something done to people but as something produced by active participants, attempting to make sense of themselves and their world. In doing so, McDonald offers powerful portraits of the immersive worlds of social media so fundamental to present-day radicalization.

Radicalization offers a bold new way of understanding the contemporary allure of jihad and, in the process, important directions in responding to it.