This book considers the presence of media illiteracy in a world in which we are supposedly consumed by media, live a media life, in a media ecosystem, surrounded by mediated communication. Unpacking this paradoxical situation, the author proposes that before venturing into media literacy, we must first understand the workings of how mystification occurs. Departing from the idea that aesthetics work on an agreed set of principles between art and society, the author applies this ideology of aesthetics to news-based narration. Using empirical cases from India, the author proposes demystification as a possible methodology to approach media illiteracy and recommends completely transformed media literacy programs that deliver to communities, drawing from the construct of critical pedagogy. The book offers the possibilities for a collectivistic, non-Western, postcolonialist model of learning by using the very collective and hierarchical identities of societies that must be critiqued. This vital and innovative book will be an important resource for scholars and students in the areas of media literacy and critical media literacy, media education, journalism, mass communication, aesthetics and media technology.

The development of communication technology and the proliferation of centers that collect, interpret, and transmit information does not mean that communities have become a more transparent and enlightened environment. If anything, the pioneering research of modern communication signifies the ambiguity of individual and collective existence. Myth in Modern Media Management and Marketing is an essential reference source that discusses the analysis of the role of myth and mythical thinking in the operation of media organizations and their functioning on the media market. Featuring research on topics such as social media, brand management, and advertising, this book is ideally designed for social media analysts, media specialists, public relations managers, media managers, marketers, advertisers, students, researchers, and professionals involved with media and new media management.

In 1977, Star Wars blazed across the screen to become one of the highest grossing and most beloved movies of all time. It was followed by two sequels and three prequels, all of which became blockbusters. Comic books, novels, graphic novels, and magazines devoted to the films have added to the mythology of George Lucas’s creation. Despite the impact of the franchise on popular culture, however, discussion of the films from a scholarly perspective has not kept pace with the films. In Myth, Media, and Culture in Star Wars: An Anthology, Douglas Brode and Leah Deyneka have assembled an intriguing collection of essays addressing the influences that shaped the films, as well as the impact the franchise has had on popular culture. Contributors to this volume discuss the Star Wars universe and what its connection to various cultural touchstones—from fairy tales and Joseph Campbell to Disneyland and Marvel comics—mean to viewers. Essays examine the films in the franchise as well as incarnations of the Star Wars universe in video games, comic books, and television programs, including the films’ influence on new generations of filmmakers. A companion volume to Sex, Politics, and Culture in Star Wars, Myth, Media, and Culture in Star Wars is a diverse collection of criticism that investigates the dynamic force that Star Wars has become in popular culture, from every imaginable angle.

Myth presents the latest interdisciplinary research by graduate students in the fields of German and Scandinavian studies, compiling papers that were introduced at the eponymous 2008 graduate student conference at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Focusing on myths in and about German and Scandinavian societies, these essays provide exemplary analyses of how cultural and social practices mutually inform and influence each other. This anthology is primarily intended for scholars across the disciplines looking at trends and narratives in northern Europe. From history to film studies, theater and philology, the contributions represent the teeming variety of approaches to German and Scandinavian studies now emergent in the Academy. Myth showcases not only new inquiries into diverse subject areas, but also new methods of inquiry for future interdisciplinary research.

The Bear Book brings together an impressive range of bear--usually big, hairy men who favor full-face beards and prefer to wear jeans and flannel shirts--viewpoints to explore this unique social and cultural phenomenon that stretches from America to western Europe to Australia! On the personal level, you learn what beardom means to different people in their daily lives, and on a broader level, its cultural implications for not only the gay community, but also society as a whole. As this book moves across the wide spectrum of bear identities, you learn about the defining forces of identity, the significance of differences among masculinities, and the shapings of the bear movement from different viewpoints. The Bear Book is the first compilation of sociological and cultural analytical investigations of the contemporary gay bear phenomenon. To this end, Editor Les Wright brings together both objective and subjective viewpoints to create a forum where bears can speak for themselves. Through their voices, you’ll learn about: bears and sexual identity gay male iconography socializing on the Internet sexual politics (gender, class, “looks-ism,” and body image) gay mass media, the single most powerful force in the current construction of ”bears” bears, power, and glamor bear-as-image vs. bear-as-attitude Gays, lesbians, lesbigay scholars, bears, and social scientists are sure to find The Bear Book thought-provoking and insightful as it broaches questions such as: Are bears caught up in a utopian-romantic impulse to reinvent themselves? What was radical lesbianism’s impact on the bear movement? To what extent are bears only another group of exploited consumers in a fragmented market system? And, is it possible to establish social liberation through enslavement to your sexual passions? For both your pleasure and your education, The Bear Book examines nearly every corner of beardom, including bear history, identity, social spaces, iconography, and its constituency abroad.

Media, Myths and Narratives seeks to decode some of the messages transmitted by our mass media in terms of the cultural tradition in which they are enmeshed.Contributors from the fields of both communication and cultural studies, consider subjects as diverse as the narrative elements of news, the st.

This book explores the written and unwritten requirements Black journalists face in their efforts to get and keep jobs in television news. Informed by interviews with journalists themselves, Lewis examines how raced Black journalists and their journalism organizations process their circumstances and choose to respond to the corporate and institutional constraints they face. She uncovers the social construction and attempted control of "Blackness" in news production and its subversion by Black journalists negotiating issues of objectivity, authority, voice, and appearance along sites of multiple differences of race, gender, and sexuality.

In the last fifty years, many of the institutional and societal barriers keeping Canadian women from public office have disappeared. Yet today, women hold only a quarter of the seats in the House of Commons � a proportion that rose by just seven percentage points between 1993 and 2011. In this illuminating study, Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant examines a significant obstacle still facing women in political life: gendered media coverage. Based on interviews with MPs and party leaders, and on an analysis of print and television media in the 2000 and 2006 federal elections, Gendered News reveals an unsettling climate that affects the success of women in office, and that could deter them from running at all.

This fifth edition of An Introduction to Sociology provides an accessible and engaging introduction to sociology, without oversimplifying or passing over the important and exciting insights sociology has to offer. Building on the book's existing achievements, Ken Browne has restructured the fifth edition to focus on the core issues in sociology considered in introductory courses. The book covers all the topics and options specified by the GCSE and IGCSE examining boards, including the required classic texts and theoretical perspectives which are helpfully applied throughout the chapters. The new edition has been completely updated to reflect contemporary social changes, including the latest statistics and topical illustrative examples. New material is to be found throughout, such as more extensive treatment of family and household diversity, the marketization of education, social inequality, the control and prevention of crime, and the effects of new media technologies. Carefully designed to support and extend students' learning, a number of features – such as a range of activities, questions and discussion points – add to the book's value as a learning and teaching resource. Explanatory graphics, photographs and cartoons also enliven the text, presenting sociology as an exciting and relevant topic to students of all ages, interests and abilities. The new edition of this highly successful textbook will prove invaluable to anyone first approaching sociology, especially on Access, GCSE and related courses. Students will find the book provides an easy-to-follow and thoughtful introduction to studying sociology.

Examines the representation of women in the media.