The Media:An Introduction

Description

Features

Key features

• Expert contributions on each topic
• Approachable, authoritative contributions provide a solid theoretical overview of the media industry and comprehensive empirical guide to the institutions that make up the media
• ‘Further Reading’ and related web-resource listings encourage further study.

New to this Edition

New to this edition

• New 5 part structure provides a broad and coherent approach to media - Part 1 Understanding the Media; Part 2 What are the Media?; Part 3 The Media Environment; Part 4 Audiences, Influences and Effects; Part 5 Media Representations.
• Brand new chapters on: Approaches to Media; Media Form; Models of Media Institutions; The Media in Europe; Photography; Newspapers; Magazines; Book Publishing; Radio; Television; The Internet; News Media; Economics; Policy; Public Service Broadcasting in Europe; Censorship; Audience Research; Sexuality; Gender; Social Class; Religion; The Body; Health and Illness; Nationality; Sex Acts.
• Other chapter topics from the last edition fully updated
• A wider, more comparative focus on Europe.

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables

List of contributors

Acknowledgements

Publisher’s acknowledgements

Introduction

Daniele Albertazzi and Paul Cobley

Part 1 Understanding the Media

Introduction

Daniele Albertazzi and Paul Cobley

1 Approaches to the Media

Joanne Sayner

2 Media Form

John Corner

3 Models of Media Institutions

Stylianos Papathanassopoulos

4 The Media in Europe

Hans J. Kleinsteuber

Part 2 What Are the Media?

Introduction

Daniele Albertazzi and Paul Cobley

5 Comics

Roger Sabin

6 Photography

Stephen Bull

7 Book Publishing

Beverley Tarquini

8 Public Relations

David Miller

9 Newspapers

Raymond Kuhn

10 Magazines

Anna Gough-Yates

11 Radio

Guy Starkey

12 Television

Dorothy Hobson

13 Cinema

Anne J™ckel

14 Pop Music

Roy Shuker

15 The Internet and the www

Lorenzo Cantoni and Stefano Tardini

16 News Agencies

Oliver Boyd-Barrett and Terhi Rantanen

17 News Media

Jackie Harrison

18 Advertising

Iain MacRury

Part 3 The Media Environment: Policy, Economics and Institutions

Introduction

Daniele Albertazzi and Paul Cobley

19 Economics

John Sedgwick and Guglielmo Volpe

20 Policy

Marco Gambaro

21 Public Service Broadcasting in Europe

Jérôme Bourdon

22 Censorship and Freedom of Speech

Julian Petley

Part 4 Audiences, influences and effects

Introduction

Daniele Albertazzi and Paul Cobley

23 Administrative Research of Audiences

Michael Svennevig

24 Effects

Guy Cumberbatch

25 Impacts and Influences

Jenny Kitzinger

26 Active Audiences

Joke Hermes

Part 5 Media representations

Introduction

Daniele Albertazzi and Paul Cobley

27 Sexuality

Charlotte Ross

28 Gender

Rosalind Gill

29 Social Class

Karima Laachir

30 Race and Ethnicity

Sarita Malik

31 Media and Religion

Leen d’Haenens and Jan Bosman

32 Youth

Bill Osgerby

33 The Body, Health and Illness

Andy Miah

34 Nationality

Barbara O’Connor

35 Sport

Neil Blain and Raymond Boyle

36 Sex Acts

Brian McNair

Index

Back Cover

“Crushing rival textbooks under its wheels, this wonderfully comprehensive and useful volume brings together an impressive array of writers on all the key subjects . . . Albertazzi and Cobley’s The Media looks set to be the must-buy text for media students to install next to their laptops.”
David Gauntlett, Professor of Media, University of Westminster

“Joining up-to-date information with an accessible format, this volume offers a comprehensive overview of the current state of the media in their social and cultural contexts.”
Professor Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Department of Media, Cognition, and Communication, University of Copenhagen

Today, arguably more than at any time in the past, media are the key players in contributing to what defines reality for the citizens of Europe and beyond. This book provides an introduction to the way that the media occupy such a position of prominence in contemporary human existence.

This expanded and fully updated third edition of the bestselling The Media: An Introduction collects in one volume thirty-six specially commissioned essays to offer unrivalled breadth and depth for an introduction to the study of contemporary media. It addresses the fundamental questions about today’s media – for example, digitisation and its effects, new distribution technologies, and the implications of convergence, all set against the backdrop of a period of profound social and economic change in Europe and globally.

Key features

• Expert contributions on each topic
• Approachable, authoritative contributions provide a solid theoretical overview of the media industry and comprehensive empirical guide to the institutions that make up the media.
• Further Reading and related web-resource listings encourage further study.

New to this edition

• New five part structure provides a broad and coherent approach to media: Part 1 Understanding the Media; Part 2 What Are the Media?; Part 3 The Media Environment; Part 4 Audiences, Influences and Effects; Part 5 Media Representations.
• Brand new chapters on: Approaches to Media; Media Form; Models of Media Institutions; The Media in Europe; Photography; Book Publishing; Newspapers; Magazines; Radio; Television; The Internet and the Web; News Media; Economics; Policy; Public Service Broadcasting in Europe; Censorship and Freedom of Speech; Audience Research; Sexualities; Gender; Social Class; Media and Religion; The Body, Health and Illness; Nationality and Sex Acts.
• Other chapter topics from the last edition fully updated
• A wider, more comparative focus on Europe.

The Media: An Introduction will be essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of media studies, cultural studies, communication studies, journalism, film studies, the sociology of the media, popular culture and other related subjects.

Daniele Albertazzi is Senior Lecturer in European Media at the University of Birmingham.

Paul Cobley is Reader in Communications at London Metropolitan University.