The Ascent of Media

The Ascent of Media PDF

Author: Roger Parry

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2011-09-22

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 1857889460

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Media’s story from its earliest incarnation in the clay tablets of Gilgamesh up to the world of digital content

The Ascent of Media

The Ascent of Media PDF

Author: Roger Parry

Publisher: Nicholas Brealey

Published: 2011-09-22

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 1473644976

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Our society is shaped by our media - now more than at any time in history. They play a crucial role in culture, commerce and politics alike. The Ascent of Media is the first book to look at the new digital era in the context of all that has gone before, and to build on the past to describe the media landscape of the future. Roger Parry takes us on a journey from the earliest written story - the Legend of Gilgamesh etched on clay tablets - to the Gutenberg press, and from the theatres of Athens to satellite TV and the coming semantic web. Tracing 3000 years of history, he shows how today's media have been shaped by the interaction of politics, economics and technology. He explains why Britain has the public service BBC whilst America developed the private broadcasting networks ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. He profiles the people and organizations that have created the media world and reveals the often surprising stories behind such ubiquitous items as the keyboard, telephone dial and tabloid. The book shows that issues of today such as a sensationalist press, piracy, monopoly, walled gardens and balancing advertising and subscription revenue have all happened before. Each upheaval in the media world - the development of moveable type printing in the 1450s; the telegraph network in the 1850s; radio broadcasting in the 1920s; and digital distribution in the 2000s - created huge fortunes, challenged authority and raised fundamental issues of copyright, privacy and censorship. Traditional media then adapt, evolve and go on to thrive in the face of competition. The convergence of the internet, mobile phones and tablet computers is now transforming our culture. Established media giants are struggling, while new firms like Google and Apple are thriving. The superabundance of media, with increasing amounts generated by consumers themselves, means that media professionals are becoming curators as much as creators of content. The Ascent of Media traces the story of media from clay tablets to tabloids to the tablet computer. It relates how we got where we are and, based on the experience of history, where we are likely to go next.

Journalism and Truth in an Age of Social Media

Journalism and Truth in an Age of Social Media PDF

Author: James E. Katz

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2019-08-06

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0190900253

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Truth qualities of journalism are under intense scrutiny in today's world. Journalistic scandals have eroded public confidence in mainstream media while pioneering news media compete to satisfy the public's appetite for news. Still worse is the specter of "fake news" that looms over media and political systems that underpin everything from social stability to global governance. This volume aims to illuminate the contentious media landscape to help journalism students, scholars, and professionals understand contemporary conditions and arm them to deal with a spectrum of new developments ranging from technology and politics to best practices. Fake news is among the greatest of these concerns, and can encompass everything from sarcastic or ironic humor to bot-generated, made-up stories. It can also include the pernicious transmission of selected, biased facts, the use of incomplete or misleadingly selective framing of stories, and photographs that editorially convey certain characteristics. This edited volume contextualizes the current "fake news problem." Yet it also offers a larger perspective on what seems to be uniquely modern, computer-driven problems. We must remember that we have lived with the problem of people having to identify, characterize, and communicate the truth about the world around them for millennia. Rather than identify a single culprit for disseminating misinformation, this volume examines how news is perceived and identified, how news is presented to the public, and how the public responds to news. It considers social media's effect on the craft of journalism, as well as the growing role of algorithms, big data, and automatic content-production regimes. As an edited collection, this volume gathers leading scholars in the fields of journalism and communication studies, philosophy, and the social sciences to address critical questions of how we should understand journalism's changing landscape as it relates to fundamental questions about the role of truth and information in society.

Film Criticism in the Digital Age

Film Criticism in the Digital Age PDF

Author: Mattias Frey

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 2015-04-20

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 0813570743

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Over the past decade, as digital media has expanded and print outlets have declined, pundits have bemoaned a “crisis of criticism” and mourned the “death of the critic.” Now that well-paying jobs in film criticism have largely evaporated, while blogs, message boards, and social media have given new meaning to the saying that “everyone’s a critic,” urgent questions have emerged about the status and purpose of film criticism in the twenty-first century. In Film Criticism in the Digital Age, ten scholars from across the globe come together to consider whether we are witnessing the extinction of serious film criticism or seeing the start of its rebirth in a new form. Drawing from a wide variety of case studies and methodological perspectives, the book’s contributors find many signs of the film critic’s declining clout, but they also locate surprising examples of how critics—whether moonlighting bloggers or salaried writers—have been able to intervene in current popular discourse about arts and culture. In addition to collecting a plethora of scholarly perspectives, Film Criticism in the Digital Age includes statements from key bloggers and print critics, like Armond White and Nick James. Neither an uncritical celebration of digital culture nor a jeremiad against it, this anthology offers a comprehensive look at the challenges and possibilities that the Internet brings to the evaluation, promotion, and explanation of artistic works.

Journalism: A Very Short Introduction

Journalism: A Very Short Introduction PDF

Author: Ian Hargreaves

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2005-09-15

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 0191578126

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Almost everyone reads the newspaper, browses the Internet, listens to the radio or watches TV. Journalism has an indelible effect on our worldview--from the fight against global terrorism to the American presidential elections, celebrity scandal to the latest environmental coups. Hargreaves uses his unique position within the media to examine how we get this information and the many practical, political and professional decisions that the journalist has to make, as part of the process of delivering that information to us. Is journalism the 'first draft of history' or a dumbing-down of our culture and a glorification of the trivial and intrusive? In this intriguing book Ian Hargreaves argues that the core principles of 'freedom of the press' and the necessity of exposing the truth are as vital today as they ever were. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

American Newspaper Journalists on Film

American Newspaper Journalists on Film PDF

Author: Johnny D. Boggs

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2022-11-11

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1476679932

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When "talking" pictures first appeared in cinema theaters in the late 1920s, films about newspaper journalists quickly became a Hollywood mainstay. These were a variety of responses from working reporters, editors, and photographers. The newspaper film was a popular genre in the 1950s, and famous films such as All the President's Men (1976) and Spotlight (2015) have depicted the power of the press. Journalists have also been portrayed in films that are not specifically about newspapers, appearing in noir films like Woman on the Run (1950), Westerns such as Fort Worth (1951), comedies like The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), musicals like Wake Up and Live (1937) and historical epics like Lawrence of Arabia (1962). A film historian and former newspaper writer, the author investigates how accurately films have portrayed journalists across the decades. The book also details what journalists thought of the depictions at the time, contributing to brief histories and analyses for each film. Featured journalist archetypes include airy reporters, screaming editors, photographers, sportswriters and war journalists. Classics, misfires, Westerns, obscure treasures and films the press both adored and detested are all included in this comprehensive here.

Spaces Mapped and Monstrous

Spaces Mapped and Monstrous PDF

Author: Nick Jones

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2020-04-21

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 0231550715

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Digital 3D has become a core feature of the twenty-first-century visual landscape. Yet 3D cinema is a contradictory media form: producing spaces that are highly regimented and exhaustively detailed, it simultaneously relies upon distortions of vision and space that are inherently strange. Spaces Mapped and Monstrous explores the paradoxical nature of 3D cinema to offer a critical analysis of an inescapable part of contemporary culture. Considering 3D’s distinctive visual qualities and its connections to wider digital systems, Nick Jones situates the production and exhibition of 3D cinema within a web of aesthetic, technological, and historical contexts. He examines 3D’s relationship with computer interfaces, virtual reality, and digital networks as well as tracing its lineage to predigital models of visual organization. Jones emphasizes that 3D is not only a technology used in films but also a tool for producing, controlling, and distorting space within systems of surveillance, corporatization, and militarization. The book features detailed analysis of a wide range of films—including Avatar (2009), Goodbye to Language (2014), Love (2015), and Clash of the Titans (2010)—demonstrating that 3D is not merely an augmentation of 2D cinema but that it has its own unique properties. Spaces Mapped and Monstrous brings together media archaeology, digital theory, and textual analysis to provide a new account of the importance of 3D to visual culture today.

The SAGE Handbook of Television Studies

The SAGE Handbook of Television Studies PDF

Author: Manuel Alvarado

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2014-12-09

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 1473911087

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"Genuinely transnational in content, as sensitive to the importance of production as consumption, covering the full range of approaches from political economy to textual analysis, and written by a star-studded cast of contributors" - Emeritus Professor Graeme Turner, University of Queensland "Finally, we have before us a first rate, and wide ranging volume that reframes television studies afresh, boldly synthesising debates in the humanities, cultural studies and social sciences...This volume should be in every library and media scholar’s bookshelf." - Professor Ravi Sundaram, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies Bringing together a truly international spread of contributors from across the UK, US, South America, Mexico and Australia, this Handbook charts the field of television studies from issues of ownership and regulation through to reception and consumption. Separate chapters are dedicated to examining the roles of journalists, writers, cinematographers, producers and manufacturers in the production process, whilst others explore different formats including sport, novella and soap opera, news and current affairs, music and reality TV. The final section analyses the pivotal role played by audiences in the contexts of gender, race and class, and spans a range of topics from effects studies to audience consumption. The SAGE Handbook of Television Studies is an essential reference work for all advanced undergraduates, graduate students and academics across broadcasting, mass communication and media studies.

American Literature in Transition, 1950–1960

American Literature in Transition, 1950–1960 PDF

Author: Steven Belletto

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-12-28

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 1108307817

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American Literature in Transition, 1950–1960 explores the under-recognized complexity and variety of 1950s American literature by focalizing discussions through a series of keywords and formats that encourage readers to draw fresh connections among literary form and concepts, institutions, cultures, and social phenomena important to the decade. The first section draws attention to the relationship between literature and cultural phenomena that were new to the 1950s. The second section demonstrates the range of subject positions important in the 1950s, but still not visible in many accounts of the era. The third section explores key literary schools or movements associated with the decade, and explains how and why they developed at this particular cultural moment. The final section focuses on specific forms or genres that grew to special prominence during the 1950s. Taken together, the chapters in the four sections not only encourage us to rethink familiar texts and figures in new lights, but they also propose new archives for future study of the decade.