Essays In Media And Cultural Studies

Spanning a decade of key research, this collection brings together a selection of essays and chapters from leading media scholar Graeme Turner for the first time. The organising theme of transition focuses on both the state of the media as it continues its evolution into the digital era, and the fields of media and cultural studies as they grapple with modifying their approaches and assumptions in response to the changing dynamics of the systems they study. In their own attempts to understand a range of contemporary moments over the decade, these essays also provide a personal history of Graeme Turner’s participation in the key debates within media and cultural studies. The essays deal with the shifting states of television, with the changing relation between the media and the state, the rise of celebrity, and the role of a critical agenda for media and cultural studies in the future. The collection is introduced and concluded by two new essays, respectively assessing the recent past and the necessary futures for these fields of study. Providing key insights into a range of topics, this book is ideal for students and scholars looking to deepen their understanding of the transitionary nature of media and cultural studies.

Carey's seminal work joins central issues in the field and redefines them. It will force the reader to think in new and fruitful ways about such dichotomies as transmissions vs. ritual, administrative vs. critical, positivist vs. marxist, and cultural vs. power-orientated approaches to communications study. An historically inspired treatment of major figures and theories, required reading for the sophisticated scholar' - George Gerbner, University of Pennsylvania ...offers a mural of thought with a rich background, highlighted by such thoughts as communication being the 'maintenance of society in time'. - Cast/Communication Booknotes These essays encompass much more than a critique of an academic discipline. Carey's lively thought, lucid style, and profound scholarship propel the reader through a wide and varied intellectual landscape, particularly as these issues have affected Modern American thought. As entertaining as it is enlightening, Communication as Culture is certain to become a classic in its field.

"The essays in Turning the Century make a significant contribution to our understanding of America's love affairs with novelty and the mass media. The essays also show that neither the current communications revolution nor the response to it is unprecedented. Through this book, Carol Stabile provides a historical context within which scholars and students of American culture can interpret and understand end-of-the-millennium-fever --particularly, the claims of politicians, pundits, and even cultural studies scholars who maintain that recent information technology innovations make the present moment unique. Contemporary studies of mass media and popular culture reflect a similar emphasis on what is new, distinct, and therefore specific to contemporary culture. Claims of millennial transformation, however, are only possible insofar as the history of mass media can be forgotten or ignored. In Turning the Century, Carol Stabile analyzes those hidden, and now all but forgotten, conditions and relations of production that continue to shape and inform contemporary culture."--Provided by publisher.

Scholars in Media Studies increasingly take the view that our understanding of the history of the discipline is deeply inadequate. It is now widely recognised that a large number of important media analysts have simply been omitted from the standard histories. This book aims to fill in some of the gaps by examining the work of eleven neglected writers, each of whom has made a seminal contribution to the analysis of the media but whose work rarely appears in student textbooks, anthologies and readers. In keeping with the interdisciplinary ambitions of contemporary Media Studies, the selected thinkers are drawn from a wide range of historical periods and intellectual backgrounds. There are chapters on sociologists, creative writers, cultural theorists, art critics, journalists and even ancient Greek philosophers. The aims of the book are by no means purely antiquarian. The contributors believe that a revival of interest in the work of their chosen writers can go a long way towards revitalising Media Studies, especially by (1) drawing attention to a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches which have yet to be adequately exploited, (2) suggesting new areas of research, and (3) transforming our understanding of the historical development of Media Studies.

Maintains that communication is not merely the transmission of information; reminding the reader of the link between the words "communication" and "community". This title questions the American tradition of focusing only on mass communication's function as a means of social and political control.

Analyses of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century media and cultural processes, including advertising, film, sound recording, magazines, newspapers, and the rise of think tanks.

From his arrival in Britain in the 1950s and involvement in the New Left, to founding the field of cultural studies and examining race and identity in the 1990s and early 2000s, Stuart Hall has been central to shaping many of the cultural and political debates of our time. Essential Essays—a landmark two-volume set—brings together Stuart Hall's most influential and foundational works. Spanning the whole of his career, these volumes reflect the breadth and depth of his intellectual and political projects while demonstrating their continued vitality and importance. Volume 1: Foundations of Cultural Studies focuses on the first half of Hall's career, when he wrestled with questions of culture, class, representation, and politics. This volume's stand-out essays include his field-defining “Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical Legacies"; the prescient “The Great Moving Right Show,” which first identified the emergent mode of authoritarian populism in British politics; and “Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse,” one of his most influential pieces of media criticism. As a whole, Volume 1 provides a panoramic view of Hall's fundamental contributions to cultural studies.

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