Super Media

In recent years we have witnessed the explosion of multimedia traffic on the Internet. The availability of high bandwidth connections together with the recent advances in high quality video and audio compression techniques have created a fertile ground for the growth of multimedia applications such as interactive video on demand, collaborative distance learning, and remote medical diagnosis. Furthermore, the availability of low bit rate video and audio applications (e.g., H.263 and G.728) and the proliferation of pervasive devices create a new demand for wireless multimedia communication systems. After a decade or more of research and development in multimedia networking, the research community has learned a number of lessons. First, increasing the capacity of the “best effort” networks and services does not provide an effective and permanent solution for offering a guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS). Second, the integration of service and network management is a key element in providing end to end service management. Third, management techniques for Internet multimedia services must be scalable and adaptive to guarantee QoS and maintain fairness with optimal network resource.

This book introduces undergraduates to critical perspectives on the relationship between media and society, and to ideas about the production of meaning through media. The opening chapters provide a foundation to understanding the triangular relationship between media businesses (institutions) and texts and audiences. Succeeding chapters look at specialist areas such as popular music, news, new technologies, advertising and globalization. .There is a development and application of ideas about such key terms as representation, difference, discourse and ideology. The student reader is encouraged to take on different views around issues relating to questions of media power, media influence, audience consumption. There is an emphasis on applying ideas to media practices and media texts. There is engagement with debates around such topics as public service broadcasting and the public sphere. Students are introduced to a range of key thinkers and their ideas as concepts, issues and debates are introduced..The reader is engaged through key questions, case studies, illustrations and diagrams, as well as a clearly argued text bedded in examples. .This book is already used both as a foundation at level 1 for degree courses in media studies, as a key text for general media modules at different levels, and as a key text at various levels in respect of specific chapters supporting specific modules and their topics..

Selected as One of Media & Values' Best Books Using varying approaches, researchers have tried to capture the actual dynamics and role of media in culture and society, but do we really understand this relationship? Super Media introduces and illustrates the newly emerging cultural studies approach to understanding the media in society. Drawing from both humanities and the social sciences, cultural studies centers its analysis in text, meaning, representation, interpretation, conflict, ideology, hegemony, and culture. In his analysis, Michael Real first provides a critical review of previous traditions of media research and theory--illustrated with tables and comparative charts--and then reintegrates media study around cultural studies. He then presents extensive case studies that illustrate the concepts and theories of the cultural studies approach. Included are the most widely available expressions of culture in history: the Olympics, superpower politics, Oscar-winning films, prime time television, and other transnational cases. Original in perspective, Super Media examines top research in media communication and provides a synthesis between research and the media experiences that affect people's everyday lives. The result is a provocative volume that will provide useful insights to professionals and advanced students in all areas of communication and popular culture. --Publisher description.\