Media Studies: A Reader

By Sue Thornham

Book Overview

Media Studies: A Reader introduces a full range of theoretical perspectives through which the media may be explored, analysed, critiqued, and understood. The Reader reaches back to essential statements from writers such as Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, Marshall McLuhan, J rgen Habermas, Jean Baudrillard and Michel Foucault, whose work was central to forming the field. It also includes wide ranging work on contemporary media formations from a stellar collection of diverse theorists, including Annabelle Sreberny, Paul Gilroy, Charlotte Brunsden, Angela McRobbie, Asu Askoy and Kevin Robins, Micheal Bull, and Nick Couldry, to name only a very few of those included. Finally, the Reader looks to the future, exploring new media formations and their significance, through the work of Mark Andrejevic, Lev Manovich, Jonathan Sterne and others.The sixty-five readings are divided into two main parts: 'Studying the Media' begins with a section on key theoretical perspectives and follows this with five sections opening up questions around the Public Sphere, Representation, Feminism and Gender, Audiences, and Everyday Life respectively. The second part, 'Case Studies', brings together concrete examples of how theoretical approaches can be realised through a series of case studies, covering for instance, reality TV, news, advertising, and new media. With easy-to-follow introductions and guides to further reading accompanying each section, Media Studies: A Reader equips the student to engage with key debates in the field. This new edition updates all sections with a rich selection of contemporary writing complementing re-chosen media 'classics'. In addition: * Further Reading lists have been comprehensively updated* Introductory essays to each section have been expanded and re-written

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0748637842
• ISBN13: 9780748637843
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Length: 912 Pages
• Weight: 3.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

a very good reader

This is a well chosen and very well edited selection. It gives short 4-5 page samples of some of the most valuable things that have been written on media in the past fifty years. Compared to its 1997 predecessor, the 2000 American edition tones down the focus on British media, and includes new excerpts by Fairclough, Radway and a whole new section on 'New Media'. The emphasis in the new volume is on the present rather than on the history of media studies. The bad news is that things had to be cut to make space for the new material. Too bad that two illuminating pieces by Judith Williamson (from Decoding Advertisements) and Alan Tomlinson (from Consumption, Identity, and Style) were left out.