Critical Media Studies: Institutions, Politics, and Culture – serie

Drawing on cultural theory and interviews with fans, cast members and producers, this book places the reality TV trend within a broader social context, tracing its relationship to the development of a digitally enhanced, surveillance-based interactive economy and to a savvy mistrust of mediated reality in general. Surveying several successful reality TV formats, the book links the rehabilitation of ''Big Brother'' to the increasingly important economic role played by the work of being watched. The author enlists critical social theory to examine how the appeal of ''the real'' is deployed as a pervasive but false promise of democratization.

While there is ever-growing literature on the economic, cultural, and political aspects of globalization, there are no critical, up-to-date studies on its philosophical and ideological underpinnings. Vincenzo Pavone fills this gap in the literature by analyzing one of the most interesting actors operating on a global scale: the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). By discussing the relation between scientific humanism and the development of UNESCO, the author studies the relationship between UNESCO and the changes which have occurred in its self-perception, its identity, and its vision of globalization.The first part of the book discusses the emergence of scientific humanism among thinkers such as Bacon, Comenius, and the Puritan reformers, and goes on to detail its subsequent connection with the religious reformation proposed by positivists such as Saint-Simon, Comte, and Renan. Pavone also assesses the influence of both 17th and 19th century scientific humanism on the ideas of Julian Huxley, the founding father of modern scientific humanism and the first Director of UNESCO. In its second part, Pavone outlines and evaluates the role played by scientific humanism in the history of UNESCO by inspiring a conception of it as a truly global organization-a conception applicable to the first decade of its existence and revived after the end of the Cold War. The third part discusses the relationship between scientific humanism and UNESCO with respect to four of its programmes: the Management of Social Transformations Programme (MOST), the International Bioethics Committee (IBC), the Dakar Framework for Action, and the Culture of Peace Programme (CPP).Based on a universal reform of education, the creation of a system of global governance, and the philosophical appeal of a culture of peace based on science, humanism, and human rights, UNESCO's vision of globalization represents an intriguing example of how our global future has been conceived and, to some extent, realized.

Hanno Hardt has thoroughly revised and expanded his 'pre-history' of communication research in the United States. With the notable addition of Karl Marx's journalism-focused writings and a new foreword by James W. Carey, this edition covers intellectual contributions from several German theorists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as first-generation U.S. sociologists who were influenced by this scholarship. A new concluding chapter explores the continuing influence of German social thought and the contemporary shift of paradigms in U.S. communication research, including approaches such as critical (Marxist) and cultural studies.

This book is a primer on media governance at a global level and the key influencing forces and organizations, such as ITU, WTO, UNESCO, WIPO, and ICANN. Governance oversees regulation, and questions addressed here include: Why do we regulate the various media at all? What currently are the major forms of global regulation, and how do they work? Who participates in, and who benefits from, media regulatory and governance structures? And what are the trends? Anyone interested in the media and its progressively rising influence over so many dimensions of society will sooner or later find themselves confronted with these questions. This book does not pretend to answer all the questions, but it raises key ones and points in directions where more complete answers can be found. Published in cooperation with UNRISD.

This insightful book examines freedom of the press, the social functions of the press, and how the original concept of publicity—as the 'public use of reason,' or citizens' freedom to express and publish opinions—has been reduced to mean the right of media to access and print information. This, the author argues, unfairly gives media more freedom than individuals have and reduces the accountability and service of the press to the public. Splichal's thoughtful work includes discussions of the media-relevant theories and works of Jeremy Bentham, Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, and John Stuart Mill, among many others.

In a time in which new technologies make it easy to gather and process data, the discussion on privacy tends to focus exclusively on the protecting of personal data. To Serge Gutwirth, privacy involves far more. He advances the intriguing thesis that privacy is in fact the safeguard of personal freedom—the safeguard of the individual's freedom to decide who she or he is, what she or he does, and who knows about it. Any restriction on privacy thus means an infringement of personal freedom. And it's exactly this freedom that plays an essential role in every democracy.

Media representation of and for the disabled has been recharged in recent years with the expansion of new media worldwide. Interactive digital communications—such as the Internet, new varieties of voice and text telephones, and digital broadcasting—have created a need for a more innovative understanding of new media and disability issues. This engaging analysis offers a global perspective on how people with disabilities are represented as users, consumers, viewers, or listeners of new media, by policymakers, corporations, programmers, and the disabled themselves.

Cinzia Padovani takes an in-depth look at Italian public service broadcasting, covering its history, its role in Italian society, its relationship to the political party system, and its influence on cultural and linguistic unification in Italy. Tracing the history and development of Italian public television broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) to the present, Padovani challenges traditional views by asserting that parties' "interference" in RAI has, at times, strengthened the role of public service broadcasting and that partisan journalism has even enhanced democratic potential.

Cinzia Padovani takes an in-depth look at Italian public service broadcasting, covering its history, its role in Italian society, its relationship to the political party system, and its influence on cultural and linguistic unification in Italy. Tracing the history and development of Italian public television broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) to the present, Padovani challenges traditional views by asserting that parties' "interference" in RAI has, at times, strengthened the role of public service broadcasting and that partisan journalism has even enhanced democratic potential.

Critical theorist, feminist, and censorship expert Sue Curry Jansen brings a fresh perspective to contemporary communication inquiry. Jansen engages two key questions at the heart of a critical politics of communication: What do we know? And how do we know it? The questions are not unique to our era, she notes, but our responses to them are our own. Looking at issues of globalization, science, politics, gender, social inequality, and other social formations that shape our world, this insightful book advocates a new agenda not only for communication research, but also for the writing_and language_that comes out of it.

Contesting Media Power is the most ambitious international collection to date on the worldwide growth of alternative media that are challenging the power concentration in large media corporations. Media scholars and political scientists develop a broad comparative framework for analyzing alternative media in Australia, Chile, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Sweden, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Topics include independent media centers, gay online networks and alternative web discussion forums, feminist film, political journalism and social networks, indigenous communication, and church-sponsored media. This important book will help shape debates on the media's role in current global struggles, such as the anti-globalization movement.

For more than five decades, we've been told by pundits, commentators, advertisers, scholars, and politicians that television is both a window on the world and a mirror reflecting our culture. We've been led to believe that it shows us the world's events through news programs and, through entertainment programs, reflects the preferences, values, beliefs, and understandings shared by most Americans. We're told that if you don't like what you see on TV, don't blame the industry, blame yourself. This book dispels the myth that the television industry is just giving viewers the programming they want to see and, thus, we as viewers are 'responsible' for the existence of shows like Fear Factor and yet another Survivor. In fact, Eileen Meehan explains, viewers exert no demand in the market for ratings, advertising slots, program production, or telecasting. She also counters the idea that TV programs reflect our culture directly. Introducing us to the political economy of television, Meehan covers programming, corporate strategies, advertising, the misnomer of 'competition' among networks, and organizations that seek more industry accountability. She tells us why TV isn't our fault_and who's really to blame.

Several of the most important and influential political economists of communication working today explore a rich mix of topics and issues that link work, policy studies, and research and theory about the public sphere to the heritage of political economy. Familiar but still exceedingly important topics in critical political economy studies are well represented here: market structures and media concentration, regulation and policy, technological impacts on particular media sectors, information poverty, and media access. The book also features new topics for political economy study, including racism in audience research, the value and need for feminist approaches to political economy studies, and the relationship between the discourse of media finance and the behavior of markets.

Global Electioneering explores American-style political consulting and its spread to countries throughout the world, emphasizing the roles of communication and technology. Gerald Sussman challenges the common belief that American influence abroad is due strictly to the professionalization of politics and asserts that it is instead affected by economics, industry, and the organizational power of new communication technology.

Drawing on cultural theory and interviews with fans, cast members and producers, this book places the reality TV trend within a broader social context, tracing its relationship to the development of a digitally enhanced, surveillance-based interactive economy and to a savvy mistrust of mediated reality in general. Surveying several successful reality TV formats, the book links the rehabilitation of 'Big Brother' to the increasingly important economic role played by the work of being watched. The author enlists critical social theory to examine how the appeal of 'the real' is deployed as a pervasive but false promise of democratization.

This classic book, Harold Innis's last, returns to print with a new introduction by James Carey. An elaboration of Innis's earlier theories, Changing Concepts of Time looks at then-new technological changes in communication and considers the different ways in which space and time are perceived. Innis explores military implications of the U.S. constitution, freedom of the press, communication monopolies, culture, and press support of presidential candidates, among other interesting and diverse topics.

This classic book, Harold Innis's last, returns to print with a new introduction by James Carey. An elaboration of Innis's earlier theories, Changing Concepts of Time looks at then-new technological changes in communication and considers the different ways in which space and time are perceived. Innis explores military implications of the U.S. constitution, freedom of the press, communication monopolies, culture, and press support of presidential candidates, among other interesting and diverse topics.

This anthology of hard-to-find primary documents provides a solid overview of the foundations of American media studies. Focusing on mass communication and society and how this research fits into larger patterns of social thought, this valuable collection features key texts covering the media studies traditions of the Chicago school, the effects tradition, the critical theory of the Frankfurt school, and mass society theory. Where possible, articles are reproduced in their entirety to preserve the historical flavor and texture of the original works. Topics include popular theater, yellow journalism, cinema, books, public relations, political and military propaganda, advertising, opinion polling, photography, the avant-garde, popular magazines, comics, the urban press, radio drama, soap opera, popular music, and television drama and news. This text is ideal for upper-level courses in mass communication and media theory, media and society, mass communication effects, and mass media history.

This anthology of hard-to-find primary documents provides a solid overview of the foundations of American media studies. Focusing on mass communication and society and how this research fits into larger patterns of social thought, this valuable collection features key texts covering the media studies traditions of the Chicago school, the effects tradition, the critical theory of the Frankfurt school, and mass society theory. Where possible, articles are reproduced in their entirety to preserve the historical flavor and texture of the original works. Topics include popular theater, yellow journalism, cinema, books, public relations, political and military propaganda, advertising, opinion polling, photography, the avant-garde, popular magazines, comics, the urban press, radio drama, soap opera, popular music, and television drama and news. This text is ideal for upper-level courses in mass communication and media theory, media and society, mass communication effects, and mass media history.

Originally published in 1980 and now back in print, Many Voices, One World came out of hundreds of international studies and proposed reforms for global communication media to ensure a free flow of information. Prepared by the distinguished MacBride Commission_and frequently referred to as the MacBride Report_it criticized corporate control of media flows and suggested ways to make media production accessible in poorer countries. Beginning with the right of individuals and nations to communicate, this report tackled problems related to government controls, censorship, one-way flows of information, cultural dominance, and commercialization of the mass media. It called for more voices, more freedom of expression, and the protection of journalists' rights. Still widely taught and cited, the MacBride Report is a key work in the history of communication that continues to be relevant today.

Originally published in 1980 and now back in print, Many Voices, One World came out of hundreds of international studies and proposed reforms for global communication media to ensure a free flow of information. Prepared by the distinguished MacBride Commission_and frequently referred to as the MacBride Report_it criticized corporate control of media flows and suggested ways to make media production accessible in poorer countries. Beginning with the right of individuals and nations to communicate, this report tackled problems related to government controls, censorship, one-way flows of information, cultural dominance, and commercialization of the mass media. It called for more voices, more freedom of expression, and the protection of journalists' rights. Still widely taught and cited, the MacBride Report is a key work in the history of communication that continues to be relevant today.

Can politics be combined with entertainment? Can political involvement and participation be fun? Politics and popular culture are converging all the time, whether itOs in Arnold SchwarzeneggerOs election as governor of California or in political television dramas and movies like The West Wing and Dave. This book encourages readers to think about how links between entertainment and politics have the potential to rejuvenate citizenship, endorse civic values, and sustain civic commitment. Instead of discarding the popular as irrelevant or dangerous to the democratic process, Liesbet van Zoonen shows us the possibilities for increasing political knowledge and participation through the arenas of politics and popular music, political Osoaps,O political television dramas, and politicians as celebrities. A first-rate starting point for debate, Entertaining the Citizen will stimulate and entertain students and general readers alike.

Raymond Williams_a Welsh media critic and one of the founding thinkers behind the popular field of cultural studies_believed that the traditional focus of biographies on individuals isolated these people from their communities. For this reason, Alan O'Connor looks at Williams and his time period, one of social change and crisis in Wales and England. Williams, the son of a railway worker, would have pursued university studies, an atypical act for a working-class boy, had the Second World War not disrupted his plans. So the unorthodox intellectual executed his work outside the university until 1960, decades after he originally intended to begin his studies. O'Connor then turns to Williams's studies of media, revealing his subject's life-long emphasis on the interchange between culture and democracy. He shows the ways in which these ideas were revolutionary, upsetting conservative thinkers of the time, and concludes with the same message of hope that Williams carried with him daily: In a period dominated by conservative forces, Raymond Williams still thought it worthwhile to struggle for small changes.

Raymond Williams_a Welsh media critic and one of the founding thinkers behind the popular field of cultural studies_believed that the traditional focus of biographies on individuals isolated these people from their communities. For this reason, Alan O'Connor looks at Williams and his time period, one of social change and crisis in Wales and England. Williams, the son of a railway worker, would have pursued university studies, an atypical act for a working-class boy, had the Second World War not disrupted his plans. So the unorthodox intellectual executed his work outside the university until 1960, decades after he originally intended to begin his studies. O'Connor then turns to Williams's studies of media, revealing his subject's life-long emphasis on the interchange between culture and democracy. He shows the ways in which these ideas were revolutionary, upsetting conservative thinkers of the time, and concludes with the same message of hope that Williams carried with him daily: In a period dominated by conservative forces, Raymond Williams still thought it worthwhile to struggle for small changes.

Over the past few years, coverage of terror attacks has featured prominently in numerous media outlets. Drawing on both popular and academic articles, the essays in Media, Terrorism, and Theory: A Reader analyze the larger issues surrounding media's portrayal of terrorism, including terrorism as a media event, war and media, nationalism and media, public responsibility, and journalistic accountability. Renowned contributors from around the world explore these issues as they relate to a global community. From such diverse fields as cultural studies, political science, media studies, architecture, and information science, each brings a distinctive perspective. Answering a growing need to understand media discourse on terrorism, Media, Terrorism, and Theory complements readings in upper-level mass communication courses and will appeal to students and scholars of international media and terrorism.

Over the past few years, coverage of terror attacks has featured prominently in numerous media outlets. Drawing on both popular and academic articles, the essays in Media, Terrorism, and Theory: A Reader analyze the larger issues surrounding media's portrayal of terrorism, including terrorism as a media event, war and media, nationalism and media, public responsibility, and journalistic accountability. Renowned contributors from around the world explore these issues as they relate to a global community. From such diverse fields as cultural studies, political science, media studies, architecture, and information science, each brings a distinctive perspective. Answering a growing need to understand media discourse on terrorism, Media, Terrorism, and Theory complements readings in upper-level mass communication courses and will appeal to students and scholars of international media and terrorism.

Democratizing Global Media explores the complex relationship between globalizing media and the spread of democracy around the world. An international, interdisciplinary group of journalists and scholars discusses key—and often contentious—issues such as the power of media, the benefits of media globalization, and the political role of media. More than a critique, Democratizing Global Media offers positive alternatives, from peace journalism to popular movements toward democratizing media and public communication.

With the rising popularity of online music, the nature of the music industry and the role of the Internet are rapidly changing. Rather than buying records, tapes, or CDs_in other words, full-length collections of music_music shoppers can, as they have in earlier decades, purchase just one song at a time. It's akin to putting a coin into a diner jukebox_except the jukebox is in the sky, or, more accurately, out in cyberspace. But has increasing copyright protection gone too far in keeping the music from the masses? Digital Music Wars explores these transformations and the far-reaching implications of downloading music in an in-depth and insightful way. Focusing on recent legal, corporate, and technological developments, the authors show how the online music industry will establish the model for digital distribution, cultural access, and consumer privacy. Music lovers and savvy online shoppers will want to read this book, as will students and researchers interested in new media and the future of online culture.

With the rising popularity of online music, the nature of the music industry and the role of the Internet are rapidly changing. Rather than buying records, tapes, or CDs_in other words, full-length collections of music_music shoppers can, as they have in earlier decades, purchase just one song at a time. It's akin to putting a coin into a diner jukebox_except the jukebox is in the sky, or, more accurately, out in cyberspace. But has increasing copyright protection gone too far in keeping the music from the masses? Digital Music Wars explores these transformations and the far-reaching implications of downloading music in an in-depth and insightful way. Focusing on recent legal, corporate, and technological developments, the authors show how the online music industry will establish the model for digital distribution, cultural access, and consumer privacy. Music lovers and savvy online shoppers will want to read this book, as will students and researchers interested in new media and the future of online culture.