Media Studies Books

Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide

Henry Jenkins

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Winner of the 2007 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Katherine Singer Kovacs Book Award

Convergence Culture maps a new territory: where old and new media intersect, where grassroots and corporate media collide, where the power of the media producer and the power of the consumer interact in unpredictable ways.

Henry Jenkins, one of America s most respected media analysts, delves beneath the new media hype to uncover the important cultural transformations that are taking place as media converge. He takes us into the secret world of Survivor Spoilers, where avid internet users pool their knowledge to unearth the show s secrets before they are revealed on the air. He introduces us to young Harry Potter fans who are writing their own Hogwart's tales while executives at Warner Brothers struggle for control of their franchise. He shows us how The Matrix has pushed transmedia storytelling to new levels, creating a fictional world where consumers track down bits of the story across multiple media channels.
Jenkins argues that struggles over convergence will redefine the face of American popular culture. Industry leaders see opportunities to direct content across many channels to increase revenue and broaden markets. At the same time, consumers envision a liberated public sphere, free of network controls, in a decentralized media environment. Sometimes corporate and grassroots efforts reinforce each other, creating closer, more rewarding relations between media producers and consumers. Sometimes these two forces are at war.

Jenkins provides a riveting introduction to the world where every story gets told and every brand gets sold across multiple media platforms. He explains the cultural shift that is occurring as consumers fight for control across disparate channels, changing the way we do business, elect our leaders, and educate our children.

Propaganda

Edward Bernays

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Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Bernays' honest and practical manual provides much insight into some of the most powerful and influential institutions of contemporary industrial state capitalist democracies."-Noam Chomsky

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country."-Edward Bernays, Propaganda

A seminal and controversial figure in the history of political thought and public relations, Edward Bernays (18911995), pioneered the scientific technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion, which he famously dubbed "engineering of consent." During World War I, he was an integral part of the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI), a powerful propaganda apparatus that was mobilized to package, advertise and sell the war to the American people as one that would "Make the World Safe for Democracy." The CPI would become the blueprint in which marketing strategies for future wars would be based upon.

Bernays applied the techniques he had learned in the CPI and, incorporating some of the ideas of Walter Lipmann, became an outspoken proponent of propaganda as a tool for democratic and corporate manipulation of the population. His 1928 bombshell Propaganda lays out his eerily prescient vision for using propaganda to regiment the collective mind in a variety of areas, including government, politics, art, science and education. To read this book today is to frightfully comprehend what our contemporary institutions of government and business have become in regards to organized manipulation of the masses.

This is the first reprint of Propaganda in over 30 years and features an introduction by Mark Crispin Miller, author of The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder.

The Complete New Yorker: Eighty Years of the Nation's Greatest Magazine (Book & 8 DVD-ROMs)

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Total reviews: 100 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Fans of The New Yorker will be dazzled by The Complete New Yorker, a collection that includes every page of every issue, from full-color covers to spot drawings, from poetry to Profiles, from cartoons to advertisements--all on 8 searchable DVDs. No need to save old issues, with this package, you'll have every article, cartoon, illustration, and advertisement, as it appeared in print, at your fingertips. The Complete New Yorker covers the magazine's entire history, from February 1925 to February 2005, providing a detailed yet panoramic history of the life of the city, the nation, and the world.

With The Complete New Yorker, you'll be able to:

Browse by Cover (click to zoom):

Search by Keyword (click to zoom):

View Entire Articles (click to zoom):

Search the archives for your favorite articles, cartoons, covers, and see them exactly as they appeared in print:

(October 13, 1934):

(August 31, 1946)

(September 23, 1961):

(July 22, 1974):

(September 10, 2001):

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Media Control, Second Edition: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda (Open Media)

Noam Chomsky

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Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Point Well Made? 4 out of 5 stars.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful.

A very dumb Senator from Kentucky said of "Free Speech," once upon a time, that ones ability to give money to a political party, or candidate, equals speech. To limit how much money one can contribute, is limiting ones speech. Essentually this means if you have not the bucks, you should not be heard, or cannot be heard, or will not be heard, or you have nothing to say worth listening to.

As we in this country allow the consolidation of our media, this is quickly becoming the case. Big corporations buy air time on the radio, or television, and showcase their products, or services, and there is no rebutal. In essence they can lie, which is what 98% of advertising is anyway, and there is no one with the bucks to buy airtime to say they are telling a lie. Cell phone carriers lie about the cost of their service, as do banks, and insurance companies.

"Media Control," is commenting on just this sort of an event. This is a major reason why the everyday citizen cannot hold a major political office, the cost of air time. That which makes political campaigning so very expensive. The more we allow a consolidation of media, the more one sided will be the tale you hear. Propaganda. The one huge reason Newt (Scrooge) Gingrich squealed so loudly aganist public broadcasting. It is all about MONEY.

Mr. Chomsky makes a good argument that this is a disasterous pratice, even more dangerous than the government having absolute control over media. This only means you can only be heard if you can pay for the time. People with varing opinions are for the most part shut out of the debate, because the FCC, like the FDA, only backs big business. We are not as free, or democratic as we might think.

Newspapers only reporting that which brings in money, and does not make big advertisers look bad. Just so much music being played on the radio, because some guy far removed from your community thinks we should have cookie cutter music. Examine if you will CNN, a once no nonsense news gathering organization, that is until Time Warner bought the network. Now you cannot get the news for the commercials. Thank God for a mute button. Besides we only get maybe 40% of the available news if that much as it is, and very, very little in the way of international news. Unless a Pope were to pass, or the true idenity of the person responsible for knocking up Anna Nicole were revealed.

A very good lesson in freedom lost, and how the accomplice is your own government, because we know more about Lindsay Lohan's parting habits than we know about what the White House, or Congress is up to.

Absorb this very compelling book, and divise a way out of this mess.

Editorial Review:

"Propaganda," says Noam Chomsky, "is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state"--in other words, the means by which leaders keep the masses in line. In this slim pamphlet, he looks at American propaganda efforts, from the warmongering of Woodrow Wilson to the creation of popular support for the 1991 military intervention in Kuwait, and reveals how falsification of history, suppression of information, and the promotion of vapid, empty concepts have become standard operating procedure for the leaders of the United States--both Democrats and Republicans--in their efforts to prevent citizens from raising awkward questions about U.S. policy.

Everything's an Argument with Readings

Andrea A. Lunsford, John J. Ruszkiewicz, Keith Walters

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

liked it 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 12 people found this review helpful.

We didn't use this book that much, but what we did use of it, I liked.

Good book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I had to buy this book for an english class... It is very easy to read and is informative on how to create an argument and stick to your points.

Editorial Review:

Designed to be a true alternative to traditional argument texts, Everything's an Argument takes a fresh and friendly approach to the subject by showing students that argument is everywhere. Everything's an Argument with Readings complements this approach with a uniquely broad range of examples -- from essays to billboards to emails to radio programs -- that help students recognize and respond to the arguments all around them. Andrea Lunsford and John Ruszkiewicz's instruction is fresh, elegant, and jargon-free, emphasizing inclusivity (moving beyond simple pro/con positions), humor, and visual argument to make Everything's an Argument immediately accessible. Students like this book because it helps them see and understand that a world of argument already surrounds them; instructors like it because it helps students construct their own arguments about that world.

The Hidden Persuaders

Vance Packard

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Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"One of the best books around for demystifying the deliberately mysterious arts of advertising."-Salon

"Fascinating, entertaining and thought-stimulating."-The New York Times Book Review

"A brisk, authoritative and frightening report on how manufacturers, fundraisers and politicians are attempting to turn the American mind into a kind of catatonic dough that will buy, give or vote at their command"--The New Yorker

Originally published in 1957 and now back in print to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, The Hidden Persuaders is Vance Packard's pioneering and prescient work revealing how advertisers use psychological methods to tap into our unconscious desires in order to "persuade" us to buy the products they are selling.

A classic examination of how our thoughts and feelings are manipulated by business, media and politicians, The Hidden Persuaders was the first book to expose the hidden world of "motivation research," the psychological technique that advertisers use to probe our minds in order to control our actions as consumers. Through analysis of products, political campaigns and television programs of the 1950s, Packard shows how the insidious manipulation practices that have come to dominate today's corporate-driven world began.

Featuring an introduction by Mark Crispin Miller, The Hidden Persuaders has sold over one million copies, and forever changed the way we look at the world of advertising.

Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert

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Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Roger Ebert has been writing film reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times for over forty years. In fact, no critic alive has reviewed more movies than he has. Yet his essential writings have never been collected in a single volume—until now. With Awake in the Dark, both fans and film buffs can finally bask in the best of Ebert’s work. The reviews, interviews, and essays collected here present a picture of his numerous contributions to the cinema and cinephilia. From The Godfather to GoodFellas, from Cries and Whispers to Crash, the reviews in Awake in the Dark span some of the most exceptional periods in film history.
In addition, the extraordinary interviews gathered in Awake in the Dark capture Ebert engaging not only some of the most influential directors of our time—Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Werner Herzog, and Ingmar Bergman—but also some of the silver screen’s most respected personalities, including actors as diverse as Robert Mitchum, James Stewart, Warren Beatty, and Meryl Streep.
America’s most celebrated film critic, Ebert is a writer whose exceptional intelligence and bursts of insight have shaped the way we think about the movies. Awake in the Dark will be a treasure trove not just for fans of this seminal critic but for anyone desiring a fascinating and compulsively readable chronicle of film since the late 1960s.
“As film criticism becomes more marginalized, Ebert may come to be seen as the last of a kind—the critic who actually has the power to influence a national audience.”—Booklist
“[Ebert's] writing is top-notch. In Awake in the Dark, Ebert has produced his most personal collection of reviews, essays, and interviews, providing insights into the man as much as the movies he loves. . . . This volume contains some of Ebert's most exciting writing.”—Gary Kramer, Filmbill

Lights, Camera, War: Is Media Technology Driving International Politics?

Johanna Neuman

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Good History of Telecommunications 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

While the focus of this book tends to be the mix of telecommunication AND politics, Neuman does a great job at giving a history lesson. This book came out during the high point of internet hype - and Johanna Neuman did a great job of pointing out that previous technology breakthroughs (like the telegraph) really did change the world. Until I read this book I had overlooked the revolution of the now humble space satellite without which we wouldn't have CNN. This book would be a GREAT read for anyone into history, politics and technology. If you haven't read "Lights, Camera, War" dont wait for the publisher to get it into paperback, do yourself a favor and buy a used copy!

Editorial Review:

An experienced journalist shatters the myth that today's communications technology has an undue political influence, showing that throughout history new media technologies, from moveable type to the Internet, have blended with, but not radically changed, the way diplomacy works.

On Camera: How To Report, Anchor & Interview

Nancy Reardon, Tom Flynn

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Want access to the best-kept secrets and tips for sounding and looking professional while presenting on-camera for television?

This is your toolkit.

Reardon's On Camera: How to Report Anchor and Interview teaches you how to become professional and effective on camera. Learn how to appear, and feel, at ease-whether doing an interview or reporting in the field, or whether reading copy from a prompter or giving a video presentation. Read about what tricks the pros use to get the best interview answers from their subjects.

. Nancy Reardon reveals a career's worth of inside stories from the world of reporting-insights toward helping you develop your professional skills

. Get the scoop on job techniques and essentials: how to anchor, report & interview with the hallmarks of a pro

. The CD-ROM is a course in itself, with video examples of how to interview on-camera, prompter copy for you to practice your reading and breathing techniques

These are the nuts and bolts of how to do the job at the network level or as a backpack journalist so that when you're standing in front of the camera, in the studio, or out on location-you know what you're doing. Nancy gives you techniques behind professional on camera presentation, with exercises drawn from her years of teaching. The book, co-written by Tom Flynn with decades of experience at the networks, provides tricks of the trade and some surprising-but-true stories from inside the business.

Presenting on camera is not limited to television. Today, most businesses require you to be media savvy. You have to learn how to comfortably present yourself in video conferences, as well as videotaped messages to large and small groups. Whether you are new to television or have experience in front of the camera, you can improve on your current skills by reflecting on the career-focused tips and tried-and-true principles inside this book's cover-all oriented to skills development.

The book's CD-ROM contains instructional videos, an interactive feature story that allows you to write, edit and read your script, as well as vocal technique demonstration videos led by the author. Included is prompter copy that you will get nowhere else. It gives you the experience of reading a script from the prompter just as the pros do in the studio.

We hope you enjoy the witty drawings by New Yorker cartoonist W. Miller, which illustrate on camera positioning!

*Foreword by Bob Schieffer

*Nancy Reardon reveals a career's worth of inside stories from the world of reporting-insights toward helping you develop your professional skills

*Get the scoop on job techniques and essentials: how to anchor, report & interview with the hallmarks of a pro

*The CD-ROM is a course in itself, with video examples of how to interview on-camera, prompter copy for you to practice your reading and breathing techniques

Dynamics of Mass Communications: Media in the Digital Age with Media World DVD and PowerWeb

Joseph R Dominick

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

I had to get this book for class, but I still enjoyed it 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is required reading for the class I was taking, but it was a well wtitten book and well organized so I actually enjoyed reading it all 3 times. CD is a nice extra gives you a good overview of each chapter and prodution is nice and clean.

Editorial Review:

Well-known for its balanced approach to media industries and professions, Dynamics of Mass Communication offers a lively, thorough, and objective introduction for mass communication majors and nonmajors alike. This new edition embraces the digital age with a free Student DVD that adds video and interactivity to the student's textbook experience and brings students up-to-date on the latest developments in mass communication,--from the emerging role of cell phones and iPods in the mass media mix to the growing impact of blogs on the practice of journalism.