Media Spectrum

Bringing together visual artists, designers, activists, and communication and humanities scholars to reflect on mobile media, this collection investigates these new forms of community and communication practices as they are emerging in Canada and around the world and asks how this new technology transfigures subjectivities. creating new forms of social behaviour and provocative aesthetic practices. The essays in The Wireless Spectrum range from discussions of the historical antecedents of wireless communication, users and the changing dynamics of public and private space, to the issues of access and local engagement. --Book Jacket.

We Interrupt This Program tells the story of how Indigenous people are using media tactics or interventions in art, film, television, and journalism to disrupt Canada’s national narratives and rewrite them from Indigenous perspectives. Accounts of strategically chosen moments such as survivor testimonies at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission combined with conversations with CBC reporter Duncan McCue and artists such as Kent Monkman bring to life Brady and Kelly’s powerful argument that media tactics can be employed to change Canadian institutions from within. As articulations of Indigenous sovereignty, these tactics can also spark new forms of political and cultural expression in Indigenous communities.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Historically, alternative media have been viewed as fundamental, albeit at times culturally peripheral, forces in social change. In this book, however, Kenix argues that these media do not uniformly subvert the hierarchies of access that are so central to mainstream media - in fact, their journalistic norms and routines have always been based on the professional standards of the mainstream. Kenix goes on to posit the perception of 'mainstream' and 'alternative' as a misconception. She argues that, although alternative media can - and do - construct distinct alternative communications, they have always existed on the same continuum as the mainstream and the two will continue to converge. Through comparative analysis, this book argues that many alternative and mainstream media are merging to create a continuous spectrum rooted in commercial ideology. Indeed, much of what is now considered alternative media actually draws very little from principles of the independent press, whereas many contemporary mainstream media now use communication techniques more commonly associated with media that do not operate for financial gain. This book puts forward a controversial but convincing argument around the relationship between alternative and mainstream media, drawing on examples from the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand to strengthen and develop the central premise.

From the former chief economist of the FCC, a remarkable history of the U.S. government’s regulation of the airwaves Popular legend has it that before the Federal Radio Commission was established in 1927, the radio spectrum was in chaos, with broadcasting stations blasting powerful signals to drown out rivals. In this fascinating and entertaining history, Thomas Winslow Hazlett, a distinguished scholar in law and economics, debunks the idea that the U.S. government stepped in to impose necessary order. Instead, regulators blocked competition at the behest of incumbent interests and, for nearly a century, have suppressed innovation while quashing out-of-the-mainstream viewpoints. Hazlett details how spectrum officials produced a “vast wasteland” that they publicly criticized but privately protected. The story twists and turns, as farsighted visionaries—and the march of science—rise to challenge the old regime. Over decades, reforms to liberate the radio spectrum have generated explosive progress, ushering in the “smartphone revolution,” ubiquitous social media, and the amazing wireless world now emerging. Still, the author argues, the battle is not even half won.

In his nearly thirty years at CBS News, Emmy Award–winner Bernard Goldberg earned a reputation as one of the preeminent reporters in the television news business. When he looked at his own industry, however, he saw that the media far too often ignored their primary mission: objective, disinterested reporting. Again and again he saw that they slanted the news to the left. For years Goldberg appealed to reporters, producers, and network executives for more balanced reporting, but no one listened. The liberal bias continued. In this classic number one New York Times bestseller, Goldberg blew the whistle on the news business, showing exactly how the media slant their coverage while insisting they’re just reporting the facts.

This groundbreaking volume showcases the exciting work emerging from the ethnography of media, a burgeoning new area in anthropology that expands both social theory and ethnographic fieldwork to examine the way media—film, television, video—are used in societies around the globe, often in places that have been off the map of conventional media studies. The contributors, key figures in this new field, cover topics ranging from indigenous media projects around the world to the unexpected effects of state control of media to the local impact of film and television as they travel transnationally. Their essays, mostly new work produced for this volume, bring provocative new theoretical perspectives grounded in cross-cultural ethnographic realities to the study of media.

The proliferation of mobile media in recent years is an international phenomenon, with billions of devices sold annually. Mobile communications are now moving beyond individualized voice to mass media content--text, voice, sound, images, and even video. This will create new types of content that allow media companies and users to interact in new ways. There is a strong interest from the media and telecom industries in what manner of applications and content can be distributed in that fashion, and at what cost. To answer these questions, the book provides 18 chapters from internationally renowned authors. They identify likely types of content such as news, entertainment, peer-to-peer, and location-specific information; evaluate the economics, business models, and payment mechanisms necessary to support these media; and cover policy dimensions such as copyright, competitiveness, and access rights for content providers. This volume takes the reader through the various elements that need to be considered in the development of third generation (3G) content, and explains pitfalls and barriers. The result is a volume of interest to business professionals, academics, and policy makers. The book is international in focus and a glossary of terms is provided. There are few publications available which give an overview of this rapidly changing field.