Entertainment Values

This collection brings together the work of a range of scholars from around the world with different perspectives on one simple question: How can we assess the value of various entertainment products and forms? Entertainment is everywhere. The industries that produce it earn billions of dollars each year and employ hundreds of thousands of people. Its pervasiveness means almost everyone has something to say about entertainment, too, whether it be our opinion on the latest Hollywood blockbuster, a new celebrity couple, or our concerns over its place in the world of politics. And yet, in spite of its significance, entertainment has too-often been dismissed with surprising ease within the academy as a ‘mindless’, ‘lowbrow’ – even ‘dangerous’ – form of culture, and therefore unworthy of serious appraisal (let alone praise). Entertainment Values, challenges this assumption, offering a better understanding of what entertainment is, why we should take it seriously, as well as helping us to appreciate the significant and complex impact it has on our culture.

Balancing provocative criticism with clear explanations ofcomplex ideas, this student-friendly introduction investigates thecrucial role global entertainment media has played in the emergenceof transitional capitalism. Examines the influence of global entertainment media on theemergence of transnational capitalism, providing a framework forexplaining and understanding world culture as part of changingclass relations and media practices Uses action adventure movies to demonstrate the complexrelationship between international media political economy,entertainment content, global culture, and cultural hegemony Draws on examples of public and community media in Venezuelaand Latin America to illustrate the relations between governmentpolicies, media structures, public access to media, and mediacontent Engagingly written with crisp and controversial commentary toboth inform and entertain readers Includes student-friendly features such as fully-integratedcall out boxes with definitions of terms and concepts, and listsand summaries of transnational entertainment media

"This book addressing an emerging field of study, ethics and gamesand answers how we can better design and use games to foster ethical thinking and discourse in classrooms"--Provided by publisher.

This book investigates how individual politicians and political parties strategically make use of the media to reach their political goals. Looking beyond a purely Americentric viewpoint, the chapters present data from more than ten Western democracies to argue that the media are both a source of information and an arena for political communication. This double functional role of the media is examined from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective, including chapters dealing with different aspects of politics - from campaigning to law making - and within different political contexts. The role of the news media is discussed from the perspective of the political actor, focusing on both the opportunities and the constraints the news media provide, resulting in a multidisciplinary text that will appeal to students and scholars of both communication and political science.

This book constitutes the refereed conference proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment, ACE 2012, held in Kathmandu, Nepal, in November 2012. The 10 full paper and 19 short papers presented together with 5 papers from the special track Arts and Culture and 35 extended abstracts were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 140 submissions in all categories. The papers cover topics across a wide spectrum of disciplines including computer science, design, arts, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and marketing. Focusing on all areas related to interactive entertainment they aim at stimulating discussion in the development of new and compelling entertainment computing and interactive art concepts and applications.

The Value of Literature provides an original and compelling argument for the historical and contemporary significance of literature to humanity.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Entertainment Computing, ICEC 2010, held in Seoul, Korea, in August 2010, under the auspices of IFIP. The 19 revised long papers, 27 short papers and 33 poster papers and demos presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions for inclusion in the book. The papers cover all main domains of entertainment computing, from interactive music to games, taking a wide range of scientific domains from aesthetic to computer science.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Entertainment Computing, ICEC 2014, held in Sydney, Australia, in October 2013. The 20 full papers, 6 short papers and 8 posters presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 62 submissions. In addition to these papers, the program featured 3 demonstration papers, and 2 workshops. The papers cover various aspects of entertainment computing including authoring, development, use and evaluation of digital entertainment artefacts and processes.