Description
Taylor & Francis Ltd The Media Students Book 2010 Edition by Gill Branston, Roy Stafford
The Media Student's Book is a comprehensive introduction for students of media studies. It covers all the key topics and provides a detailed, lively and accessible guide to concepts and debates. Now in its fifth edition, this bestselling textbook has been thoroughly revised, re-ordered and updated, with many very recent examples and expanded coverage of the most important issues currently facing media studies. It is structured in three main parts, addressing key concepts, debates, and research skills, methods and resources. Individual chapters include: approaching media textsnarrativegenres and other classificationsrepresentationsglobalisationideologies and discoursesthe business of medianew media in a new world?the future of television regulation nowdebating advertising, branding and celebritynews and its futuresdocumentary and 'reality' debatesfrom 'audience' to 'users'research: skills and methods.Each chapter includes a range of examples to work with, sometimes as short case studies. They are also supported by separate, longer case studies which include:Slumdog Millionaireonline access for film and musicCSI and detective fictionsLet the Right One In and The OrphanagePBS, BBC and HBO images of migration The Age of Stupid and climate change politics.The authors are experienced in writing, researching and teaching across different levels of undergraduate study, with an awareness of the needs of students. The book is specially designed to be easy and stimulating to use, with: a Companion Website with popular chapters from previous editions, extra case studies and further resources for teaching and learning, at: www.mediastudentsbook.commargin terms, definitions, photos, references (and even jokes), allied to a comprehensive glossary follow-up activities in 'Explore' boxessuggestions for further reading and online researchreferences and examples from a rich range of media and media forms, including advertising, cinema, games, the internet, magazines, newspapers, photography, radio, and television. List of FiguresAcknowledgmentsIntroduction Section 1: Key concepts 1 Approaching media textsIntroduction Semiotic approachesStructuralism, difference(s), and oppositionsDenotation and connotationThe social nature of signsDebatesContent analysisConclusionCase study: Visual and aural signsAnalysing a poster, and notes on two photosVoices and sound signifiers Audio-visual moving imagesContent analysis2 Narratives General theories of narrativeNarration, story and plotNarratives in different mediaLong running and 'single' narratives'New media' and narrative debatesConclusionReferences and further readingCase study: CSI: Miami and Crime fictionThe classification 'crime fiction'Plot/storyApplying TodorovApplying ProppApplying BarthesApplying Levi-StraussNarratives, institutions, ideologiesReferences and further reading3 Genres and classificationClassifying films: Thelma and Louise (US 1991) Repetition and differenceRepertoires of elementsCase study: Formats and genresStatus and genres 1: 'escapism' and verisimilitudeStatus and genres 2: the cultural context ConclusionReferences and further readingCase study: Horror as popular art The Orphanage and Let the Right One InThe child in the horror filmGlobal and local audiencesStyle and the Gothic: different repertoiresAuthorship and promotionDistribution patterns4 Representations 'Representation' nowStereotyping and 'scripts'Case study 1: US plantation stereotyping Scripts and performancesCase study 2: Representations and genderStages of change, and 'positive/negative' debatesRealisms and representationsComedy and questions of representationHistorical and institutional processesConclusion Reference and further readingCase study: Images of migrationIntroductionDiscourses and stereotypes of 'migration' and other kinds of travel News mediaThe 'grain of truth' in stereotypes?Varieties of media representationsReferences 5 Globalisation Your experiences of globalisationGlobal historiesApproaches to globalised mediaGlobal-local flowsGlobal futures?ConclusionReferences and further readingCase study: Slumdog Millionaire: global film?The background to a global hitThe production of the filmDistributionThe Bollywood connectionControversies in receptionAfter the Oscar ceremonies . . .6 Ideologies and discourses Introduction'Ideology' and its histories: Marxist approachesThe persistence of class and its (in)visibilityPost-Marxism and critical pluralismDiscouresLived culturesConclusion?References and further reading Case study: The Age of Stupid (UK 2009) and Climate Change PoliticsIntroductionContext: images and discoursesThe term 'propaganda'Textual approaches to the film'Cinema' and its 'everyday practices' Conclusion7 Media as Business Studying business organisationsOwnership and controlThe experience of conglomeratesNew players in India and ChinaPublic or private funding?Public or private in filmed entertainmentThe new digital environmentBusiness modelsDifferent perspectivesConclusionReferences and further readingCase study: Music and movies - digital and availableThe challenge of copyingPiracyChanging models in the film industrySection 2 : Debates 8 'New media' in a 'new world'? Introduction'Newness' and historiesAcademic approachesOpenness, collaboration and 'users''The long tail'Digital copies and the 'enclosure' of informationNew media, old metaphors'New media', vanishing resourcesConclusionReferences and further reading9 The future of televisionIntroductionOwnership and control in the television industryPaying for televisionBusiness models for television broadcastingPublic service broadcastingNetwork televisionSubscription10 Regulation now IntroductionPolitics and media economicsRegulation and 'freedom'Historical backgroundChanges in the orthodoxy of economic policies and new modelsDeregulation, liberalisation and media institutionsThe contemporary regulatory environmentA 'free market' for classification, censorship and sex and violence?The public gets the media it deserves?'Free choices' and free speech?ConclusionReferences and further reading 11 Debating advertising, branding and celebrity IntroductionAdvertising, marketing and brandingDebates Histories Hollywood and brandingHollywood: the brand(s)Case study: 'Brangelina'Citizenship and consumptionReferences and further reading12 News and its futures IntroductionThe importance of news, and views of 'the public'The construction of 'news''Impartiality' and accuracy'News values'Debates on the influence of newsFutures: 'new' news?ConclusionReferences and further reading13 Documentary and 'reality' debates Recent issues in documentary Documentary and assumptions about 'realism' and truth'Direct Cinema'Performance and documentaryEthics and documentaryRecent hybrids 1: 'pranksters'Recent hybrids 2: 'reality TV' Recent hybrids 3: forms of 'drama documentary'ConclusionReferences and further reading 14 From 'audience' to 'users'IntroductionAcademic representations of audiences The effects modelThe uses and gratifications modelFrom 'effects' to 'influence': factual forms'Cultural' approachesRe-mediating audiencesConclusionReferences and further readingSection 3 : Research methods and reference15 Research: skills and methods Introduction BasicsUsing the internet, and print formsFear of 'theory'MethodsQualitative and quantitativeTextual approachesSamplesFocus groups'Ethnographic' methodsFootnote : WikipediaReferences and further readingGlossary Index