Communication and Society – serie

This book represents an important contribution to the crucial issue of the alternatives in commercial and public support of broadcasting in the US and Europe. Half of the reports originated with the Peacock Committee on Broadcasting in Britain and thus have an authoritative relation to policy as well as research. The Peacock Committee of Financing the BBC, a committee sponsored by the government, commissioned Jay Blumler to investigate alternative (commercial) ways of financing in other European countries and the US to answer the question of whether the BBC should allow some commercial support in its financing.

This is Marshall McLuhan's last book, written in collaboration with his longtime friend, Bruce Powers. It updates McLuhan's landmark study, Understanding Media, which was published 25 years ago.^l^l The premise is the distinction between what McLuhan and Powers call Visual Space - or the left-brain, linear, quantitative reasoning tradition of the West beginning with Plato and Aristotle - as against what they call Acoustic Space - right-brain, qualitative, pattern-producing reasoning, the holistic approach of the East. They argue that with the advent of the "global village" - as a result of electronic communications - these two mind sets are "slamming into each other at the speed of light". In their words, "In the last half of the 20th century the East will rush westward and the West will embrace orientalism, all in a desperate attempt to cope with each other, to avoid violence. But the key to peace is to understand both these systems simultaneously".

Television has changed drastically in the Soviet Union over the last three decades. In 1960, only five percent of the population had access to TV, but now the viewing population has reached near total saturation. Today's main source of information in the USSR, television has become Mikhail Gorbachev's most powerful instrument for paving the way for major reform.Containing a wealth of interviews with major Soviet and American media figures and fascinating descriptions of Soviet TV shows, Ellen Mickiewicz's wide-ranging, vividly written volume compares over one hundred hours of Soviet and American television, covering programs broadcast during both the Chernenko and Gorbachev governments. Mickiewicz describes the enormous significance and popularity of news programs and discusses how Soviet journalists work in the United States. Offering a fascinating depiction of the world seen on Soviet TV, she also explores the changes in programming that have occurred as a result of glasnost.

Offering the first book-length exploration of network television's relations with advocacy groups, Kathryn C. Montgomery presents a comprehensive picture of the impact of organized pressure on prime-time TV. She vividly describes, for example, how the Catholic Church campaigned against Maude's abortion on the TV show, Maude; how outraged actors mobilized a national protest against the portrayal of blacks in the TV miniseries, Beulah Land; and how the Moral Majority waged a sophisticated campaign to "clean up TV," by threatening to boycott advertisers.Exposing the inner workings of network television as no other book has done, Montgomery's study demonstrates how behind-the-scenes struggles have shaped the images, messages, and values that enter people's homes every night. The book also raises critical questions about television's role in our society and its responsibility to the American public.

This book is intended for scholars and students of media and communication studies, ethics, and moral philosophy.

In this companion volume to Telecommunications in Europe, Noam looks at television in a country-by-country study, blending economic analysis, history, and economic journalism. He focuses on the breakdown of monopoly control of national communications systems. What Noam describes in broad historical scope in Western Europe has been revisited more recently and immediately in the dramatic events of Eastern Europe as, for example, the reformist forces in Romania based their operations in the newly liberated national broadcasting studios. Communications policy is closely linked with fundamental traditions concerning democratic control and freedom of speech.

Noam's book is the first major attempt to address the complicated economic and public policy issues of telecommunications in Europe. He provides a thorough discussion of the evolution of central telephone networks, equipment supply, new value-added networks, and new telecommunications-related services in a detailed country-by-country analysis.

Marshall McLuhan's posthumous The Global Village, co-authored by Bruce Powers, explores the new "laws" of media, "laws" fostering a dramatic collision of viewpoints. The first based on Visual Space - the linear, quantitative mode of perception characteristic of the Western world is preserved by the medium of print. While the second, based on Acoustic Space - the holistic, qualitative reasoning of the East - is being fostered by television, the technologies of the data base, communication satallites, and the globalmedia network.McLuhan and Powers offer the `Tetrad' as a four part structure of analysis for relieving the outcome of this collision. By focusing on four questions - What does this new medium enhance? What does it render obsolete? What does it retrieve that was long ago pushed aside? And what does it produce or become when extended beyond the limits of its potential? - one can postulate the cultural life of an arifact in advance by showing how a total saturated use would produce a reversal of the original intent. For example, money converted into credit cards: the telephone to the omnipresence of teleconferencing; or the high-rise apartment building: enhancing privacy, rendering community obsolete, retrieving the catacombs, and reversing into a slum.McLuhan's insights, his aphorisms, and his legacy as "the man behind the message", make The Global Village excellent reading for anyone interested in the shaping power of communication technology.

Mass media ethics and the classical liberal ideal of the autonomous individual are historically linked and professionally dominant--yet the authors of this work feel this is intrisically flawed. They show how recent research in philosophy and social science--together with a longer tradition in theological inquiry--insist that community, mutuality, and relationship are fundamental to a full concept of personhood. The authors argue that "persons-in-community" provides a more defensible grounding for journalists' professional moral decison-making in crucial areas such as truthtelling, privacy, organizational culture, and balanced coverage. With numerous examples drawn from life as well as from theory, this book will interest journalists, editors, and professionals in media management as well as students and scholars of media ethics, reporting, and media law.

Telecommunications is becoming an essential infrastructure in the global economy. The electronic flow of information around the world favors those nations that have invested in the technology to participate in this global commerce. Bringing together experts on Africa, this book provides a comprehensive view of what individual African countries are doing to build a telecommunications capability. Special attention is paid to telecommunications as a link in the chain of the regional development process. The editor, Eli Noam, is an internationally known authority on telecommunications, and this book is the latest in a group of similar works that survey telecommunications in major regions of the world. This work will appeal to students and professors of telecommunications, international telecommunications companies, and country governments in Africa.

This insightful book traces the development of journalism and celebrity and their relationship to and influence on political and social spheres from the beginnings of capitalist democracy in the 18th century to the present day. Journalism and Celebrity provides the first account of its kind, revealing the people, places, platforms, and production practices that created celebrity journalism culture, following its origins in the London-based press to its reinvention by the American mass media. Through a transdisciplinary approach to theory and method, this book argues that those who place celebrity in binary to what journalism should be often miss the importance of their mutual dependency in making our societies what they are.Including historical and contemporary case studies from the UK and US, this book is excellent reading for journalism, communication, media studies, and history students, as well as scholars in the fields of journalism, celebrity, cultural studies and political communication.

This insightful book traces the development of journalism and celebrity and their relationship to and influence on political and social spheres from the beginnings of capitalist democracy in the 18th century to the present day. Journalism and Celebrity provides the first account of its kind, revealing the people, places, platforms, and production practices that created celebrity journalism culture, following its origins in the London-based press to its reinvention by the American mass media. Through a transdisciplinary approach to theory and method, this book argues that those who place celebrity in binary to what journalism should be often miss the importance of their mutual dependency in making our societies what they are.Including historical and contemporary case studies from the UK and US, this book is excellent reading for journalism, communication, media studies, and history students, as well as scholars in the fields of journalism, celebrity, cultural studies and political communication.

This thoroughly revised second edition provides a critical overview of the contemporary debates and discussions surrounding gender and mediated communication.The book is divided into three parts: representing, producing, and consuming, with each section made up of three chapters. The first chapter of each section attempts to answer the most basic questions: ‘Who is represented?’, ‘Who produces what?’, and ‘Who consumes what?’. The second chapter of each section draws attention to the complexity of the relationship between gender and media, concentrating on the 'why'. The third and final chapter of each section addresses the latest debates in the fields of media and gender, adding a vital layer of understanding of the topic at hand. Throughout, text boxes provide additional information on the most important concepts and topics, and exercises help bridge the gap between theory and everyday life media practices. The second edition has been updated in light of current developments with regard to gender, media technologies, and globalisation, including recent theoretical insights and examples.This is an ideal textbook for students studying gender and media, and for general courses on gender studies, sociology, cultural studies, and women’s studies.

This thoroughly revised second edition provides a critical overview of the contemporary debates and discussions surrounding gender and mediated communication.The book is divided into three parts: representing, producing, and consuming, with each section made up of three chapters. The first chapter of each section attempts to answer the most basic questions: ‘Who is represented?’, ‘Who produces what?’, and ‘Who consumes what?’. The second chapter of each section draws attention to the complexity of the relationship between gender and media, concentrating on the 'why'. The third and final chapter of each section addresses the latest debates in the fields of media and gender, adding a vital layer of understanding of the topic at hand. Throughout, text boxes provide additional information on the most important concepts and topics, and exercises help bridge the gap between theory and everyday life media practices. The second edition has been updated in light of current developments with regard to gender, media technologies, and globalisation, including recent theoretical insights and examples.This is an ideal textbook for students studying gender and media, and for general courses on gender studies, sociology, cultural studies, and women’s studies.

Drawing upon a range of theoretical perspectives, including cultural studies, postcolonial theory, critical race studies, political economy and sociology, Journalism, Culture and Society examines journalism as a democratic necessity that often fails to live up to its promise.This text takes a step back from prevailing idealistic approaches in which theory is often seen as a threat rather than a service to the better understanding of practice, and mainstream journalism in western democracies is seen as unproblematic. Instead, using international examples, the authors provide a critique for those who seek to improve journalistic practice, whilst not losing sight of the profound practical dilemmas that journalists around the world experience in their working lives – from the resources available to them, to the institutions and political contexts in which they work. Readers are encouraged to consider why journalists choose (or are expected to choose) particular subjects or tropes in their work, and the implications of these choices.Journalism, Culture and Society is a valuable resource for students, academics, and practitioners in the areas of media, journalism and communication.

Drawing upon a range of theoretical perspectives, including cultural studies, postcolonial theory, critical race studies, political economy and sociology, Journalism, Culture and Society examines journalism as a democratic necessity that often fails to live up to its promise.This text takes a step back from prevailing idealistic approaches in which theory is often seen as a threat rather than a service to the better understanding of practice, and mainstream journalism in western democracies is seen as unproblematic. Instead, using international examples, the authors provide a critique for those who seek to improve journalistic practice, whilst not losing sight of the profound practical dilemmas that journalists around the world experience in their working lives – from the resources available to them, to the institutions and political contexts in which they work. Readers are encouraged to consider why journalists choose (or are expected to choose) particular subjects or tropes in their work, and the implications of these choices.Journalism, Culture and Society is a valuable resource for students, academics, and practitioners in the areas of media, journalism and communication.

Potboilers looks at the many forms of popular narrative - in print, film and TV. It considers the ways in they have been analysed in literary criticism, sociology, communications, media and cultural studies.The book introduces and summarizes two decades of debate about mass-produced fictions and their position within popular culture. It assesses the methods that have been used in these debates, focussing both on narrative analysis and the communications process. It explores generic conventions, the role of commercial strategies, and the nature of the audience with reference to crime fiction, soap opera, romance and TV sitcom.Distinctions between `high' and `low' culture have relegated many popular forms to the trash-can of `great' literature. This book takes stock of the methods and concepts used to analyse popular culture and argues for a non-elitist approach to the study of literature, film and television.

Potboilers looks at the many forms of popular narrative - in print, film and TV. It considers the ways in they have been analysed in literary criticism, sociology, communications, media and cultural studies.The book introduces and summarizes two decades of debate about mass-produced fictions and their position within popular culture. It assesses the methods that have been used in these debates, focussing both on narrative analysis and the communications process. It explores generic conventions, the role of commercial strategies, and the nature of the audience with reference to crime fiction, soap opera, romance and TV sitcom.Distinctions between `high' and `low' culture have relegated many popular forms to the trash-can of `great' literature. This book takes stock of the methods and concepts used to analyse popular culture and argues for a non-elitist approach to the study of literature, film and television.

The reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev have brought tumultuous change to political, social and economic life in the Soviet Union. But how have these changes affected Soviet press and television reporting? Glasnost, Perestroika and the Soviet Media examines the changing role of Soviet journalism from its theoretical origins in the writings of Marx and Lenin to the new freedoms of the Gorbachev era. The book includes detailed analysis of contemporary Soviet media output, as well as interviews with Soviet journalists.

Television has a powerful impact on our beliefs and is open to use as a political and propaganda tool. Greg Philo has taken a new approach to examining these issues by inviting groups of television viewers to write their own news programmes, based on news pictures from the 1984-5 British miners' strike.

Fields in Vision offers a comprehensive and analytical study of the international phenomenon of television sports coverage. Garry Whannel considers the historical development of sport on television, the growth of sponsorship and the way that television and sponsorship have re-shaped sport in the context of the enterprise culture.Drawing on archival research, Whannel first charts the development of the BBC Outside Broadcast department, and the growing battle for dominance between BBC and ITV, showing how sponsorship and the rising power of sports agents began to transform sport - not only in the UK but across the world - in the 1960s. He goes on to examine the implications of this vast and escalating global network during the 1980s by analysing the central role that stars and narratives began to play in television sport, presenting case studies of major contests such as Coe versus Ovett and Decker versus Budd. His study also takes into account one of the more indirect, but no less significant results of international televised sport - the rise of popular fitness chic and the American monopoly of the workout boom of the 1980s.Fields in Vision explains the development of television sport by linking its economic transformation with the cultural forms through which it is represented, offering a study encompassing not simply the sports world, but our relationship with television and the media industries as a whole.

Fields in Vision offers a comprehensive and analytical study of the international phenomenon of television sports coverage. Garry Whannel considers the historical development of sport on television, the growth of sponsorship and the way that television and sponsorship have re-shaped sport in the context of the enterprise culture.Drawing on archival research, Whannel first charts the development of the BBC Outside Broadcast department, and the growing battle for dominance between BBC and ITV, showing how sponsorship and the rising power of sports agents began to transform sport - not only in the UK but across the world - in the 1960s. He goes on to examine the implications of this vast and escalating global network during the 1980s by analysing the central role that stars and narratives began to play in television sport, presenting case studies of major contests such as Coe versus Ovett and Decker versus Budd. His study also takes into account one of the more indirect, but no less significant results of international televised sport - the rise of popular fitness chic and the American monopoly of the workout boom of the 1980s.Fields in Vision explains the development of television sport by linking its economic transformation with the cultural forms through which it is represented, offering a study encompassing not simply the sports world, but our relationship with television and the media industries as a whole.

Since the mid-1980s, broadcasting in the Federal Republic of Germany has been extensively re-regulated. The traditional duopoly of the public broadcasters Ard and ZDF has been challenged by new private networks in both radio and television. In two historic judgements handed down in 1986 and 1987, the Federal Constitutional Court set out terms for a new dual order of private and public broadcasting. But how were the guidelines of the court interpreted in practice?Pluralism, Politics and the Marketplace traces the economic and political influences which shaped the emergence of a pluralistic broadcasting system in the federal republic, and examines the conflicts between public and private broadcasting, both in West Germany and in the European Community as a whole.

The emergence of a few powerful individuals in control of large sections of mass communication industries has coincided with world-wide media de-regulation. In the first book to take a close look at media moguls as a species, Jeremy Tunstall and Michael Palmer show how a handful of own-and-operate entrepreneurs run their empires with a highly eccentric and highly political management style.Individuals such as Berlusconi, Hersant, and Murdoch, in France, Germany, Italy, Britain and the US, are considered in the context of the changing European media industry. The book considers other, non-mogul trends: the emergence of a European media policy and a European-US-Japanese world media industry. Additional case studies focus on Reuters as a news-and-data super-agency and the part played by advertising and other media lobbies in shaping media policy.

A survey of the role and the future prospects of the local press in the 1990s. The authors also take into account the radical changes the local press have been through with new technology and the proliferation of free newspapers.

Fires, floods, accidents, celebrity lifestyles, heroic acts of humble people, cute acts by family pets and the weather. Television's non-news about non-events takes up an increasingly large part of contemporary broadcast journalism, but is regularly dismissed by television pundits as having no place on our screens. To its critics, this 'other news' distracts our attention with trivialities and entertainment values, and undermines journalism's relationship with the workings of democracy. Yet, in spite of these protests, this 'lite news' remains as entrenched and as popular as ever.InTabloid Television, John Langer argues that television's 'other news' must be recognised as equally important as 'hard news' in the building of a genuinely comprehensive study of broadcast journalism. Using narrative analysis, theories of ideology, concepts from genre studies and detailed textual readings, 'other news' is explored as a cultural discourse connected with story-telling, gossip, social memory, the horror film, national identity and the cult of fame. Langer's study also examines the political role played by an allegedly non-political news and explores the links between this type of news and recent broadcasting trends towards 'reality television'.Tabloid Television, Popular Journalism and the 'Other News' provides an eclectic and intriguing look at one of the most maligned areas of television news. By offering an extended and thoroughly grounded analysis of actual news stories, John Langer locates the question of representational power as one of the central concerns of the media studies agenda and offers some interesting speculation about where television news may be heading.

Fires, floods, accidents, celebrity lifestyles, heroic acts of humble people, cute acts by family pets and the weather. Television's non-news about non-events takes up an increasingly large part of contemporary broadcast journalism, but is regularly dismissed by television pundits as having no place on our screens. To its critics, this 'other news' distracts our attention with trivialities and entertainment values, and undermines journalism's relationship with the workings of democracy. Yet, in spite of these protests, this 'lite news' remains as entrenched and as popular as ever.InTabloid Television, John Langer argues that television's 'other news' must be recognised as equally important as 'hard news' in the building of a genuinely comprehensive study of broadcast journalism. Using narrative analysis, theories of ideology, concepts from genre studies and detailed textual readings, 'other news' is explored as a cultural discourse connected with story-telling, gossip, social memory, the horror film, national identity and the cult of fame. Langer's study also examines the political role played by an allegedly non-political news and explores the links between this type of news and recent broadcasting trends towards 'reality television'.Tabloid Television, Popular Journalism and the 'Other News' provides an eclectic and intriguing look at one of the most maligned areas of television news. By offering an extended and thoroughly grounded analysis of actual news stories, John Langer locates the question of representational power as one of the central concerns of the media studies agenda and offers some interesting speculation about where television news may be heading.

The development of communication studies has been a lively process of adoption and integration of theoretical constructs from Pragmatism, Critical Theory and Cultural Studies. Critical Communication Studies describes the intellectual and professional forces that have shaped research interests and formed alliances in the pursuit of particular goals.Hanno Hardt reflects on the need to come to terms with the role of history in academic work and locates the intellectual history within the context of competing social theories. The book provides a substantive foundation for understanding the field and will be a major text in all courses dealing with communication history and theory.

Not only is everyday conversation increasingly dependent on television, but more and more people are appearing on television to discuss social and personal issues. Is any public good served by these programmes or are they simply trashy entertainment which fills the schedules cheaply? Talk on Television examines the value and significance of televised public debate. Analysing a wide range of programmes including Kilroy, Donohue and The Oprah Winfrey Show, the authors draw on interviews with both the studio participants and with those watching at home. They ask how the media manage discussion programmes and whether the programmes really are providing new 'spaces' for public participators. They find out how audiences interpret the programmes when they appear on the screen themselves, and they unravel the conventions - debate, romance, therapy - which make up the genre. They also consider TV's function as a medium of education and information, finally discussing the dangers and opportunities the genre holds for audience participation and public debate in the future.