"Now in its seventh edition, this landmark text continues to define the field of media and mass communication theory and research. It is a uniquely comprehensive and balanced guide to the world of pervasive, ubiquitous, mobile, social and always-online media that we live in today. New to this editio
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n: explores mass communication and media theory in an age of big data, algorithmic culture, AI, platform governance, streaming services, and mass self-communication; discusses the ethics of media and mass communication in all chapters; introduces a diverse and global range of voices, histories and examples from across the field; ties theory to the way media industries work and what it's like to make all kinds of media, including journalism, advertising, film, television, and digital games." (Publisher description)
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"This volume examines the lived experiences of Africans and their interaction with different kinds of media: old and new, state and private, elite and popular, global and national, material and virtual. By offering a comparative, critical and largely qualitative account of audiences and users across
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a range of national contexts in different regions of Africa, the book examines media through the voices and perspectives of those engaging with it rather than reducing audiences and users to numbers and statistics, ready to be exploited as potential target markets or as political constituencies. The critical, qualitative research perspective adopted in this book enables us to gain a better understanding of how African viewers, listeners and users make sense of a range of media forms; what role these play in their everyday lives and what audience and user engagement can tell us about how citizens perceive the state, how they imagine themselves in the wider world and how they relate to each other. The book argues that the experiences of audiences and engagements of users with a range of media—newspapers, radio, television, magazines, internet, mobile phones, social media—are always grounded in particular contexts, worldviews and knowledge systems of life and wisdom: ‘It is akin to the tortoise. The tortoise never leaves its shell behind. It carries it wherever it goes’ (Chivaura 2006: 221). African media audiences and users carry their contexts and cultural repertoires in the same way a tortoise carries its shell. Thus far, the bulk of academic research on media and communication in Africa has addressed the policy and regulatory aspects as well as the relation between media institutions and the state (Willems 2014a). While studies on media, democratization and press freedom are invaluable, the ways in which ordinary people make sense of, and relate to, media in their everyday lives are largely left beyond consideration. As Barber (1997: 357) has pointed out, ‘[w]hat has not yet been sufficiently explored is the possibility that specific African audiences have distinctive, conventional modes and styles of making meaning, just as performers/speakers do. We need to ask how audiences do their work of interpretation’." (Page 4)
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"Jenseits von Kulturkritik und Rechtfertigungsrhetorik untersucht Joachim Michael die Telenovela als Ergebnis des medialen Umbruchs der lateinamerikanischen Kulturen. Er zeigt, dass die Telenovela mehr als nur ein Format ist – sie markiert eine spezifische Kultur, deren eigentümliche Faszination
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sich aus dem televisionären Blickregime des Genres speist. Zudem ist sie in der lateinamerikanischen Moderne und ihrem Begehren nach nationaler Emanzipation verwurzelt. Hierin finden sich die Voraussetzungen für die allabendliche ›Tele-ImagiNation‹ der Gattung." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"On the basis of a thorough review of the growing literature on the mobile phone and the cultures it inspires, Goliama highlights the ambivalent nature of mobile cultures for the Roman Catholic Church's evangelization mission in Africa. He argues not only for the continued merits of face-to-face com
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munication for the Church's pastoral approach in the African context. He points to how this could be enriched by a creative appropriation of the mobile phone as a tool for theological engagement, in its capacity to shape cultures in ways amenable to the construction of a Cell phone Ecclesiology. Such emergent mobile cultural values include the tendency of mobile users to transcend social divides, to promote social interconnectedness, and to privilege the question 'where are you?" (Publisher description)
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"This collection of essays by internationally-acclaimed scholars from around the world aims to stimulate a debate about the imperatives for internationalizing media studies by broadening its remit, including innovative research methodologies, taking account of regional and national specificities and
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pedagogic necessities warranted by the changing profile of students and researchers and the unprecedented growth of media in the non-Western world." (Publisher description)
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"Arab Media: Power and Weakness is comprised of research synopses (comprehensive overviews over the current academic literature and “blind spots” of research in one of the above mentioned fields); original empirical research; and theoretical papers. The result is a comprehensive handbook of up-t
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o date research and scholarship on this important and fast-changing subject, which will be of use to all students and researchers of the contemporary Arab world." (Publisher description)
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"Media involve religious dimensions and have become the religious "iconofiers" of our world. People increasingly use media for shaping their - religious - identity and their search with respect to questions of ultimate meaning. The author first provides a succinct overview of the context and implica
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tions of media culture and the recent changes in communication theory. Then, by analyzing the contents of a broad range of Church documents from the Catholic as well as the Protestant Churches and Ecumenical Organizations, she reflects on Christian policy views and identifies the main problems and opportunities in relating to media culture. Finally she stresses the urgency of genuine "art of dialogue" between Christian religion and media culture, based on a thorough analysis of the trends of the global media context as well as recent insights from audience research. She also argues a theological paradigm shift and the importance of ethical involvement by religions in the public sphere. This is a thoroughly researched, major contribution to religious commmunication theory." (CAMECO Update 4-2008)
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"Historiquement, les premiers rapports que la foi chrétienne a noués avec les médias ont été conflictuels, quand ils n'étaient pas carrément hostiles. Au seuil du troisième millénaire, dans une culture façonnée en profondeur par les médias, le vieux contentieux n'est toujours pas réglé
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. Des voix s'élèvent aujourd'hui encore pour dénoncer une civilisation de l'image qui encouragerait l'idolâtrie. S'appuyant sur sa riche expérience professionnelle de journaliste, d'éducateur de la foi en milieu populaire et d'enseignant en milieu universitaire, Guy Marchessault propose une réflexion qui ouvre la voie à la réconciliation des deux antagonistes. La réconciliation est possible, mais au prix d'un sérieux examen de conscience. Le préalable à une rencontre féconde entre la foi et les médias est une solide connaissance de l'univers des médias. Les médias, affirme-t-il, peuvent accueillir, convoyer et évoquer favorablement et avec tous les égards voulus les vécus de la foi chrétienne." (Website CREC-AVEX)
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"Die voranschreitende Globalisierung der Medienkommunikation verlangt eine Revision vieler sozial- und kulturwissenschaftlicher Konzepte, die in ihrer Argumentation historisch von einer nationalen Gesellschaft ausgingen. Hierzu gibt es auf internationaler Ebene eine umfassende wissenschaftliche Disk
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ussion. Der Band führt sowohl theoretisch als auch auf aktuelle Beispiele bezogen in diese Diskussion über die transkulturelle Kommunikation ein. Er enthält zentrale Beiträge von Vertreterinnen und Vertretern aller Kontinente und verschiedener Disziplinen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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