Product Description
This volume offers an analysis of crime coverage on local television, exploring the nature of local television news and the ongoing appeal of crime stories. Drawing on the perspectives of media studies, psychology, sociology, and criminology, authors Jeremy H. Lipschultz and Michael L. Hilt focus on live local television coverage of crime and examine its irresistibility to viewers and its impact on society's perceptions of itself. They place local television news in its theoretical and historical contexts, and consider it through the lens of legal, ethical, racial, aging, and technological concerns.

In its comprehensive examination of how local television newsrooms around the country address coverage of crime, this compelling work discussessuch controversial issues as the use of crime coverage to build ratings, and considers new models for reform of local TV newscasts. The volume includes national survey data from news managers and content analyses from late night newscasts in a range of markets, and integrates the theory and practice of local television news into the discussion. Lipschultz and Hilt also project the future of local television news and predict the impact of social and technological changes on news.

As a provocative look at the factors and forces shaping local news and crime coverage, Crime and Local Television News makes an important contribution to the discussions taking place in broadcast journalism, mass communication, media and society, and theory and research courses. It will also interest all who consider the impact of local news content and coverage.
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Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent reviews
...a much-needed contribution to the field of TV broadcast journalism....The authors' interdisciplinary approach should inspire other researchers to utilize various social science approaches to address what has become the 'bleeding' lifeblood of many local TV news operations.
--Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

...the book is well edited....The application of mass-media research to crime coverage is especially well explained. Annotated and clearly written, this text is a fresh alternative to mass media surveys....Highly recommended for journalism, television news, criminology, and mass communications collections and for classroom use. All levels.
--CHOICE

The authors address how and why local television news covers crime....They raise crucial issues about the consequences of local television coverage for race relations.
--Sage Race Relations Abstracts

This book provides a good overview of howlocal television news presents crime. Its coverage of certain overlooked topics and the presentation of some original research make it worth reading. ... Read more

Product Description
This book offers the most in-depth analysis of journalistic attention to the Supreme Court (primarily television) currently available.It combines penetrating and remarkably frank interviews with prominent Supreme Court journalists with extensive examination of videotapes of network television news coverage of the Court, to provide a comprehensive picture of how numerous constraints faced by reporters covering the Court (imposed by the nature of the television news industry and the Court itself) contribute to the pattern of infrequent, brief, and in too many instances, incorrect and misleading stories that are aired about the Court.The implications of this situation for the American public are explored. ... Read more

Product Description
Television Studies: The Key Concepts is the definitive reference guide to an area of rapidly expanding academic interest. Among those aspects of television studies covered in this comprehensive and up-to-date guide are:

• theoretical perspectives which have shaped the study of television - Marxism; semiology; feminism
• concepts which have shaped the study of television - narrative; representation; bias
• television genres - soap opera; news; science fiction
• methods used for understanding television - content analysis; audience research
• relevant social, economic and political phenomena - ownership; social policy.

Customer Reviews (1)

useful
very handy. much of the terms in use -critical theory and technology - are clearly and intensely explained. saves a lot of reference work ... Read more

Product Description
The history of television in Chicago begins with the birth of the medium and is defined by the city's pioneering stations. WBKB (now WLS-TV) was the principal innovator of the Chicago School of Television, an improvisational production style that combined small budgets, personable talent, and the creative use of scenery and props. WNBQ (now WMAQ-TV) expanded the innovative concept to a wider audience via the NBC network. WGN-TV scored with sports and kids. Strong personalities drove the success of WBBM-TV. A noncommercial educational station, WTTW, and the city's first UHF station, WCIU, added diversity and ethnic programming. The airwaves in Chicago have been home to a wealth of talented performers and iconic programs that have made the city one of the country's greatest television towns. Chicago Television, featuring photographs from the archives of the Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) and the collections of local stations and historians, gives readers a front-row seat on a journey through the fi rst 50 years of Chicago television, 1940-1990. Founded in 1982 by broadcaster Bruce DuMont, the MBC Web site offers over 10,000 digital assets. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not what you may think it is
I grew up in Chicagoland back in early days of TV.Prior to 1946 television was practically unknown.From 1946-1949 TV set sales went through the roof.It was at that time, when great numbers of people started watching that "Chicago Television" was created.

I have no idea of the ages of the authors, but this book shows either their ignorance of, or lack of interest in, the early and most interesting period of Chicago television.

For example, The biggest and most important TV show to originate in Chicago was "Garroway At Large".This book has one closeup photo of Dave Garroway facing a TV camera.No mention of Cliff Norton, the sets, the full orchestra in the studio, the Merchandise Mart studios, Nothing but one lousy photo of Dave!
Perhaps one the most seen seen local TV personalities was Jim Moran "The Courtesy Man".He had a full production one hour show on Friday nights called "Courtesy Hour".In addition, he had hours of movies and commercials the rest of the week.He used to call his commercials "Torture Time".The authors provide us with one vanity photo of Jim sitting at a desk with his producer looking over his shoulder.Nothing else!

Can you imagine a book on Chicago Television with only a short mention of "Super Circus".No photo's of Calude Kirchner, the stage, or the theater.Only a vanity glamor shot of Mary Hartline.Indeed, most of the book is nothing more that full or half page vanity photo's (some signed) of unknown producers, unknown directors, and third rate TV personalities.

It is really irritating when the authors fail to mention major personalities that built the medium.The authors spent pages promoting Harry Volkman as a legendary weathermen in Chicago TV, but not one word about Clint Youle.He was the first Chicago TV weatherman, with his black marker and glass covered rand McNally map that he bought at a local office supply.Some may remember his wife's doing the commercials for some flour company.In addition to being WNBQ's weatherman on TV news every night, Youle was the "first national news TV weatherman" appearing with John Cameron Swayze on national broadcasts.

Sadly, if you expect. like I did, that this book would reflect the history of the early years of Chicago Television, include some studio shots, etc, you will be disappointed.I found it has no historical literary value, and is mostly a collection of vanity photos of unknowns.

How good does it get?
Having grown up in Chicago during the 50s and 60s, paging thru this book is like stepping into Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine. OMG!! Incredible! Hat's off to Daniel, Steve, Bruce and the MBC. Thanks for the memories. ... Read more

Product Description
This book examines the representation of blackness on television at the height of the southern civil rights movement and again in the aftermath of the Reagan-Bush years. In the process, it looks carefully at how television's ideological projects with respect to race have supported or conflicted with the industry's incentive to maximize profits or consolidate power.

Sasha Torres examines the complex relations between the television industry and the civil rights movement as a knot of overlapping interests. She argues that television coverage of the civil rights movement during 1955-1965 encouraged viewers to identify with black protestors and against white police, including such infamous villains as Birmingham's Bull Connor and Selma's Jim Clark. Torres then argues that television of the 1990s encouraged viewers to identify with police against putatively criminal blacks, even in its dramatizations of police brutality.

Torres's pioneering analysis makes distinctive contributions to its fields. It challenges television scholars to consider the historical centrality of race to the constitution of the medium's genres, visual conventions, and industrial structures. And it displaces the analytical focus on stereotypes that has hamstrung assessments of television's depiction of African Americans, concentrating instead on the ways in which African Americans and their political collectives have actively shaped that depiction to advance civil rights causes. This book also challenges African American studies to pay closer and better attention to television's ongoing role in the organization and disorganization of U.S. racial politics. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Buy this book
Buy this book, whoever you are, if you are at all interested in television, visual culture, and electronic media.It's guaranteed to get you thinking, and it's quite likely going to change your opinions about the simplistic ways TV gets talked about by academics and non-academics alike.Take pleasure in the fact that this is one of the most lucidly written academic titles out there, but doesn't dumb down its analysis; McCarthy addresses her reader carefully, respectfully, and without a tad of the vapid academic insiderism exhibited in the Newport Beach reviewer's unexplained and to my mind inexplicable response to the book.Plus it's loaded with wonderfully illustrative photos and line drawings.A real treat.

Good try, but doesn't quite work.
McCarthy has hit on an interesting idea--television is as much a public as a domestic fixture.Unfortunately, she doesn't quite follow through.The book has the air of a dissertation, careful but uninspired in its research as well as in the conclusions the author draws.In the end, it's a disappointment. ... Read more

Product Description
HDTV and the Transition to Digital Broadcasting bridges the gap between non-technical personnel (management and creative) and technical by giving you a working knowledge of digital television technology, a clear understanding of the challenges of HDTV and digital broadcasting, and a scope of the ramifications of HDTV in the consumer space. Topics include methodologies and issues in HD production and distribution, as well as HDTV's impact on the future of the media business. This book contains sidebars and system diagrams that illustrate examples of broadcaster implementation of HD and HD equipment. Additionally, future trends including the integration of broadcast engineering and IT, control and descriptive metadata, DTV interactivity and personalization are explored.

This Book Gives You:

* Clear explanations of the technologies you need to understand to talk with engineers and other broadcast technology professionals
* A great starting place for those desiring a career in broadcasting in any discipline management, creative or technical
* A historical and technical overview of DTV, HDTV, standards, and organizations ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Digital TV vs. HDTV -- Interrelationship
This could be titled 'More than you ever wanted to know about Digital TV and HDTV'. It is a very comprehensive and detailed description of the two TV enhancements, comparing their differences, similarities and interrelationships.
I cannot accurately vouch for its accuracy or technical completeness but, for example, the author's description of the history of TV developmentdiffers somewhat from what I remember. There is a very good chance that he is correct and that my memories have been distorted by the aging process. He does include an adequate bibliography in the volume.
This book is not for beginners. I would expect that it would be very tough sledding for someone without a BSEE in Electronics, an FCC broadcast license, and/or significant experience as a TV serviceman or the like.
For the record, I have a BA degree with a Math major and an Electronics minor; I was an Electronics Technician (first class) in the Navy, had an
FCC broadcast license (second class) and state licenses with MATV endorsement in New York and Indiana. Foor many years I was a computer systems analyst full time and a part-time radio/TV serviceman.I am now enjoying retirement.

... Read more

Product Description

For over half a century, television has been the most central medium in Western democracies – the political, social and cultural centrepiece of the public sphere. Television has therefore rarely been studied in isolation from its socio-cultural and political context; there is always something important at stake when the forms and functions of television are on the agenda. The digitisation of television concerns the production, contents, distribution and reception of the medium, but also its position in the overall, largely digitised media system and public sphere where the internet plays a decisive role.

The articles in this comprehensive collection are written by some of the world’s most prominent scholars in the field of media, communication and cultural studies, including critical film and television studies. Relocating Television aims to describe, analyse and interpret a highly complex process of change. Avoiding the technology fetishism and technological determinism so prevalent in writing about digitisation and digital media, each article seeks an understanding of a key element in or aspect of the process. The book in its entirety thus delivers a critical account of the digitisation process as a multifaceted whole.

Relocating Television offers readers an insight into studying television alongside the internet, participatory media and other technocultural phenomena such as DVDs, user-generated content and everyday digital media production. It also focuses on more specific programmes and phenomena, including The Wire, MSN, amateur footage in TV news, Bollywoodization of TV news, YouTube, fan sites tied to e.g. Grey's Anatomy and X Factor. Relocating Television will be highly beneficial to both students and academics across a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses including media, communication and cultural studies, and television and film studies.

Product Description
Television sports production is difficult, and producing a remote sports event is arguably the most complicated to orchestrate. Many factors can adversely affect your production, including weather, lighting, and natural sound. A successful production is dependent on extensive planning, from budgets, technology and location to the intricacies of the sport itself. With so much at stake, why not learn from the experts?

Learn television sports production from the ISB, producers of the Olympics, who rely on the very same guide to train their own production staff. "Television Sports Production" walks you through the planning, set-up, directing, announcing, and editing involved with producing an event. Detailed descriptions of mobile units/OB vans, cameras, audio equipment and lighting requirements enable you to produce live or taped coverage of sporting events like an expert. You'll learn about the special considerations involved with producing various types of sports--from camera placement in figure skating to where to put the microphone during a tennis match.

Whether producing a local high school football game, the Super Bowl, or something as complex as the Olympics, this book will give you an inside look at how a remote production operates and the role of each participant.

Key Features:
* Written by the same sports production experts who bring us the Olympics
* Details shooting in high definition and associated special considerations
* Teaches different techniques used by producers to capture the essence of individual sports, from alpine skiing to the rough and tumble motorcycle road race
* Includes essential diagrams and samples, even an Olympic broadcast planning document
* Glossary provides a quick and easy reference of essential terms ... Read more

Product Description
The importance of contemporary television broadcasting for the shaping and development of national cultures and identities is increasingly evident. Television as the privileged medium for the dissemination of information and for mass entertainment has irreversibly altered the manner in which nations perceive themselves and each other. This volume explores the multiple and complex ways in which audiovisual developments in two important European states have impacted on the life styles and attitudes of the population at large and its governing elites.This is the first study that is devoted to the highly significant roles played by France and Britain in the formulation of European audiovisual policy and that provides a truly comparative analysis of the contemporary audiovisual scene in the two countries. It consists of four complementary sections: an overview of the audiovisual landscapes in Britain and France; an analysis of television programming; an account of the new cable and satellite media, and an assessment of European audiovisual integration. Overall, this volume offers a constructive contribution to the continuing debate on national and European broadcasting. ... Read more

Product Description
The third edition of Television News is ideal for preparing future reporters, who are increasingly called on to do it all. From the basics of reporting; to writing in broadcast and web style; to shooting, editing and producing broadcast--this text is an invaluable handbook. It can be used for classroom instruction and as a reference or instructional tool for those who continue to learn the craft in advanced classrooms and newsrooms. The authors know that truthful information presented ethically and accurately is a requirement of news reporting in our democratic society, and this book provides a foundation for skilled reporting that meets those objectives. Chapters on legal considerations and broadcast careers round out this comprehensive guide to the industry. An accompanying Web site will help students learn and review with writing, shooting and editing activities, web links and an introductory video.

Television News can be used in stand-alone broadcast courses or across multiple specialized courses, thus providing consistency and a lower cost for students. Whether students plan to work in more traditional newsroom roles or operate as a one-man-band, this book will prepare them for creating television news that is ready for the air or for the Internet.

Features of the third edition include a new producing chapter, which introduces students to what it takes to keep a news room running successfully; updated examples that reflect and address the changing world of broadcast news (with topics such as the DTV transfer, social networking and how to shoot a standup when it s just the reporter and the camera); and a DVD/video available to adopters for classroom use, demonstrating principles of shooting and editing. Other ancillaries include an instructor's manual and PowerPoint presentation. ... Read more

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Based on the classic History of Broadcasting in the United States, Tube of Plenty represents the fruit of several decades' labor. When Erik Barnouw--premier chronicler of American broadcasting and a participant in the industry for fifty years--first undertook the project of recording its history, many viewed it as a light-weight literary task concerned mainly with "entertainment" trivia. Indeed, trivia such as that found in quiz programs do appear in the book, but Barnouw views them as part of a complex social tapestry that increasingly defines our era.

To understand our century, we must fully comprehend the evolution of television and its newest extraordinary offshoots.With this fact in mind, Barnouw's new edition of Tube of Plenty explores the development and impact of the latest dramatic phases of the communications revolution.

Since the first publication of this invaluable history of television and how it has shaped, and been shaped by, American culture and society, many significant changes have occurred.Assessing the importance of these developments in a new chapter, Barnouw specifically covers the decline of the three major networks, the expansion of cable and satellite television and film channels such as HBO (Home Box Office), the success of channels catering to special audiences such as ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) and MTV (Music Television), and the arrival of VCRs in America's living rooms. He also includes an appendix entitled "questions for a new millennium," which will challenge readers not only to examine the shape of television today, but also to envision its future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Essential for understanding the development of TV as a business and technology
This is a generous single-volume condensation of Erik Barnouw's seminal three-volume HISTORY OF BROADCASTING IN THE UNITED STATES.It is not a perfect book--took much is left out for that--but it does provide any student of American TV with an essential overview of many aspects in the birth and development of the medium.Despite the great length of the book, even in the single-volume abridgment, there are some curious omissions, but the strong points of the book are very strong indeed and make the book one of the crucial volumes for any personal library on television.

Barnouw tells in wonderful (and wonderfully entertaining) detail the development of the technologies that allowed the existence of radio and television, as well as the economic realities that turned it into the massive business that it has long been.He also explores the political aspects of the medium, both in terms of serving as part of the Fourth Estate by providing oversight to government actions and policies, and the erosion of that role as right wing groups have undermined that role (Barnouw anticipates the ultimate melding of right wing politics and corporate owned media, while at the same time crying crocodile tears over the mythical liberal media).He is also exceptional at detailing what kinds of shows arose at what time and what the constituent factors were.Even if one has a pretty decent idea of what was happening on TV at what time, Barnouw will both broaden and deepen one's understanding of the medium.

Nonetheless, while this is an outstanding book, one can't help but be struck by what was left out.For instance, there is no mention of a large number of seminal television shows.Although one of the most popular shows on TV in the fifties, THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW with Silvers as Sgt. Bilko got no mention at all.THE TWILIGHT ZONE was one of the best-written and iconic shows of all time, yet it is not discussed at all.Though I was never a fan of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, it was nearly as popular as THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, which receives extensive notice.One recognizes that there are time restrictions, but these omissions are significant.There is also an amazing neglect of British Television shows.SECRET AGENT MAN aka DANGER MAN received no mention nor did the massively influential MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS.

This all highlights the book's strength.It is far weaker in discussing the aesthetics of TV than examining it as an industry and as a technology.The cut off point for the book is the late eighties, yet not a single word deals with the enormous growth of television as an art form in that decade.The most important show that decade by far was HILL STREET BLUES.Virtually every series (what Barnouw would call a telefilm) in the history of prime time television prior to HILL STREET BLUES adhered to the episodic format, each series consisting of a series of self-contained segments that would resolve all of that week's action and then be forgotten by the next week and the next episode.Some prime time soap operas did use the serial format, with the action spilling over from week to week, but none of these enjoyed any critical acclaim and were at best contained rather simplistic plots.HILL STREET BLUES, on the other hand, though it tried to resolve one story arc each week, contained multiple story arcs and possessed a remarkably complex narrative style.This revolutionized television narrative and made possible subsequent shows as various as ST. ELSEWHERE, THE X-FILES, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, 24, THE GILMORE GIRLS, FARSCAPE, ER, THE SOPRANOS, SIX FEET UNDER, LOST, and VERONICA MARS (the list could go on and on and on).In other words, almost everything good on TV can be said to have evolved out of what HILL STREET BLUES wrought.Yet, Barnouw does not mention HILL STREET BLUES even once.The development of the multiple story arc series was the greatest aesthetic development not merely of the eighties, but one of the two or three most important developments ever, yet Barnouw simply doesn't notice.

But for understanding the history of television as a business and the technology it is rooted in, Barnouw's book stands alone.Most people imagine the story of television beginning in the fifties or perhaps the late forties, but Barnouw begins in the late 19th century with Marconi.This isn't just a book that any more-than-casual student of TV ought to read; it is one they MUST read.

This is an exceptional telling of the story of television.
Erik Barnouw tells the story of television from the beginning.It doesnot begin with Uncle Miltie and I Love Lucy, in fact Milton Berle doesn'tappear until page 117.This is a story of television which begins sevendecades earlier, when the first piece of the puzzle which would becometelevision was unveiled: the telephone.This, Barnouw recognizes, is thebirth of television, because it fired the imaginations of scientists andengineers, artists and entrepreneurs, and, perhaps most importantly, boysplowing fields with their horse teams.

The stories of the young geniuseslike Marconi and Farnsworth capture the imagination, and Barnouw highlightsthese heros' struggles in the wars waged by RCA against each of them. Greater attention is due Edwin Howard Armstrong, another young genius whowas crushed by the monstrous corporation, but Barnouw gives Armstrong morethan most.By the time RCA premieres television service in 1939, thereader understands that television has already had a tremendous impact onAmerica.

Television's greatest moments are here, and Barnouw does aexcellent job of devoting appropriate amounts of time to each.The authorrecognizes how interwoven television has become in our society and somechapter breaks are measured by historical events, rather than by eras oftelevision. The end of World War II and the assassination of JFK not onlymarked shifts in our nation's history, but in television as well.Whatfollowed were not historical events, as before TV, but media events.

The book also features a very useful and interesting 11-page chronology,an excellent biographical notes section, and an exceptional indexes, all ofwhich make this tremendously accessible.It is tremendously compellingreading.Don't pick it up before your favorite show, because you won't beable to put it down in time! ... Read more

Product Description

A total departure from previous writing about television, this book is the first ever to advocate that the medium is not reformable. Its problems are inherent in the technology itself and are so dangerous -- to personal health and sanity, to the environment, and to democratic processes -- that TV ought to be eliminated forever.

Weaving personal experiences through meticulous research, the author ranges widely over aspects of television that have rarely been examined and never before joined together, allowing an entirely new, frightening image to emerge. The idea that all technologies are "neutral," benign instruments that can be used well or badly, is thrown open to profound doubt. Speaking of TV reform is, in the words of the author, "as absurd as speaking of the reform of a technology such as guns." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (79)

Awful, shallow book
It actually presents many examples of lousy television.It presents no arguments or compelling facts that indicate television should be eliminated.The title is great, the arguments are poor to non-existent.Should TV be done better?Sure.Would it be helpful to put the emphasis on quality instead of profit?Sure.Eliminated?This book isn't going to convert anybody but may be comforting to people who already feel that way.What a waste of time.Almost as bad as Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death."

THIS BOOK SHOULD BE MANDATORY READING FOR ALL
This is an excellent and insightful book, one that is eerily prescient of the era to come.If the brainwashing effects of television were obvious enough to the author in 1975 (the date of publication), one can only imagine what he would have to say in the era of Direct TV and Cablevision.Jerry Mander's references to "Big Brother" and other sinister entites are entirely appropriate as he catalogues the "induced passivity" caused by the massive amounts of television watching that mark the modern era.What's interesting is that it doesn't even seem to matter WHAT one watches on television -- rather, the experience of television watching itself is one that suspends some very necessary functions of the human mind and retards the imagination.I did cringe as he mentions shows that I loved as a kid, but I could not help agreeing with his overall philosophies -- as radical as they might sometime seem to the less enlightened.In fact, I frequently cheered the author's brilliance as I was reading, to the point that others in my vicinity looked to see what book could possibly produce such an impassioned reaction.I underlined certain passages, drew astericks and arrows, all in an effort to remind myself of the importance of Mander's words and discoveries.Again, this book is extremely relevant in today's society, where an entire generation of people have been systematically emptied of their emotions and humanity by an all-consuming addiction to television and other forms of technology.This book should be mandatory reading in all schools.

We eliminated TV.
Several months ago, I bought the book at a library sale because I thought I could tease the children with the title.Then I read the book and took it seriously.Many homes now have large flat-screen TVs as the focal point of their family or living rooms.People spend hours sitting in front of a flat screen which displays colored dots.It's not reality.It's not the same as being there.Last month, we got rid of the converter box for our TV, and now the kids can watch movies using the DVD player but cannot turn on the TV and mindlessly flip channels.It just seems more relaxed now.I am rereading the book now, but the specific arguments didn't have as much of an impact on me as getting the message that those displays of colored dots are not reality.The kids do have access to TV shows on the computer and to iPods and to computer games and to DVDs played on the TV set, but they don't miss TV itself.In two days, we are going on a nine day camping trip to Northern Minnesota.A TV show on Northern Minnesota does not substitute for a camping trip there.It's an entirely different experience, as the author points out over and over again.I got the message and got rid of the TV!

A left-wing rant disguised as intellectual arguments
Jerry Mander is a former advertiser turned left-wing activist. His book therefore focuses less on how TV is bad for you and focuses instead on how evil he thinks capitalism is. In the end the fact that TV is a capitalist vehicle that does not give enough attention to the hippie agenda (this was written back in the 1970s, remember). A lot of talk explains how TV leaves us "less connected to nature" (it seems like nature and environmentalism is Mr. Mander's hobby horse. In the end this book is refuted by the fact that while there is a lot of mindless TV there are some good ones. Another reviewer mentions Mander's praise for Scenes from a Marriage. I myself praise the modern TV series South Park for its sharp, irreverant wit and this alone refutes Mander's single minded idiocy.

Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television
The book was in great condition and only cost me four dollars.I'm glad I bought my book here. ... Read more

Product Description
In this important new book, Jacques Derrida talks with Bernard Stiegler about the effect of teletechnologies on our philosophical and political moment. Improvising before a camera, the two philosophers are confronted by the very technologies they discuss and so are forced to address all the more directly the urgent questions that they raise. What does it mean to speak of the present in a situation of "live" recording? How can we respond, responsibly, to a question when we know that the so-called "natural" conditions of expression, discussion, reflection, and deliberation have been breached?


As Derrida and Stiegler discuss the role of teletechnologies in modern society, the political implications of Derrida's thought become apparent. Drawing on recent events in Europe, Derrida and Stiegler explore the impact of television and the internet on our understanding of the state, its borders and citizenship. Their discussion examines the relationship between the juridical and the technical, and it shows how new technologies for manipulating and transmitting images have influenced our notions of democracy, history and the body. The book opens with a shorter interview with Derrida on the news media, and closes with a provocative essay by Stiegler on the epistemology of digital photography.


In Echographies of Television, Derrida and Stiegler open up questions that are of key social and political importance. Their book will be of great interest to all those already familiar with Derrida's work, as well as to students and scholars of philosophy, literature, sociology and media studies. ... Read more

Product Description
A tour de force on why our viewing habits can act as a means for good, this book also comes with a warning that in meeting our voracious appetites for television, we may well be destroying liberty itself. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

disgusting
stop wasting your time and put it to better use. a book written because someone could string words together in a sentence. its incoherent and senseless....there is no central theme and totally scattered even from one sentence to another. i tried 3 times to read it and then switched from my tv class into another, something more useful than reading someone's thoughts about television...yuck....bad bad experience

An intelligent, prescient study of the medium of television
Raymond Williams's TELEVISION: TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURAL FORM is regarded as the first important book written about television.Certainly it is the oldest book that any student of television studies is expected to read.It is not a perfect book, mainly because of technological changes that have rendered many of Williams's points invalid or irrelevant.But what is amazing reading this book in 2008 is how much of television's potential Williams anticipated, as well as some of its weaknesses.

Television as a form of popular art was very slow to mature.Though one can cite a few -- a very, very few -- important television series before 1981, it wasn't until the eighties and nineties that television really grew up and became a fully formed means of artistic expression.Some of the books that many people love to cite as to the awfulness of TV -- such as Jerry Mander's abysmally awful FOUR ARGUMENTS FOR THE ELIMATION OF TELEVISION, which could easily compete for the title of the Worst Book Ever Written award -- depended not on the potential of TV, but on the way it appeared at the time.Williams correctly understood that TV had enormous potential for artistic excellence and was able to identify some of the better shows of his time, which is astonishing given that he wrote the book in 1973, when virtually all TV shows were awful.

Much of the book consists of a very accurate, very concise history of TV as a medium.Williams also sums up the various formats of TV series, even distinguishing between serials and episodic shows.I think he would have been surprised at the degree to which serials have dominated quality TV (indeed, I would argue that virtually all the very good TV series have been serials).He wrote in 1973, while the first non-soap serial in American TV was HILL STREET BLUES, which debuted in 1981.He was also extremely sensitive -- as a good Marxist, albeit a Western one -- of the role that corporate interests played in TV.Had he written the book at a later point, I'm sure he would have made a great deal out of the ludicrous assertion that the media, which is corporate owned and micro-managed, is liberal.(One of the great propaganda successes of the past forty years of the Right has been the creation of the myth of the Liberal Media, doubly ironic because media is so deeply entrenched in right winged interests and control.)It is a tragedy that Williams died at age 67, though he wrote this at age 51.The book is for the most part fundamentally solid, though seriously out of date.

More needs to be said about how the book is out of date.Williams attempted in the book to anticipate the changes that were about to occur in television.He correctly anticipated the role that cable would play, though I suspect he would have been amazed at how the VHS tape would alter things.But even more he would have been astonished at how DVDs would have changed the way we view TV.Indeed, when DVDs were first introduced, even the studios had no conception of how much demand there would be for television series in DVD form.Because of the bulkiness of VHS tapes, TV shows were never very popular in that form.But beginning with BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (which was the first series to price seasons below $50 a season -- shows like THE X-FILES and the various STAR TREK series were priced at twice that cost) the studios were taken aback at just how much demand there was for TV series on DVD.Also, Williams had no way of anticipating just how many channels cable would be able to accommodate or how large TV screens were going to become.While Williams's theory is solid for the most part, the technology grew at a pace he could scarcely anticipate.

The one part of Williams's book that I have serious problems with is the one part of the book that had enormous and widespread influence.By far the most famous part of Williams's book is that part in which he articulates his theory of "flow."He insists -- I believe correctly -- that studio personnel design entire evenings around the goal of causing a flow from one constituent element of the broadcast to another.In other words, a show begins, but cuts to a commercial, which leads to a preview for another show, which leads to another commercial, which takes the viewer back to the show, which eventually give way to another commercial, preview and commercial, all the way through the evening.Williams believes that the evening needs to be viewed as a whole, with each element reinforcing another.

I just think the idea of "flow" is all wrong.I'll grant that the networks plan an evening that is supposed to flow from one element to another, but I insist that it rarely if ever works out that way.At least, my personal experience doesn't bear this out.Williams imagines a viewer sitting entranced, passively viewing one element to the next.But I'm rarely passive.If I am watching, for instance, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, the second the commercial comes on, I'm out of my seat like a lightening bolt.I either hit the restroom, or the fridge, or my computer, where I check my e-mail or go to IMDB.com to check out the name of a guest star on the show or go to the TV board of which I'm a member (and where we all tend to congregate very briefly to record our reactions to a show).In other words, I rarely see the commercials Williams believes is integral to the "flow" of the evening.And when FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is over, I'm gone.If my memory serves me correctly, the show that comes after FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is VEGAS.I've never watched the show.I'd say the most I've seen is 3-5 seconds, and only then if I can't find the remote to turn off the TV.I suspect my experience is similar to most people's.The networks may fantasize about people sitting around passively succumbing to the "flow" of an evening, but I suspect we viewers have our own agendas.Myself, all my TV viewing is "by appointment."In never, ever watch TV in the sense of plopping myself down in front of the tube and then passively absorbing whatever is placed before me.I watch an enormous number of TV series, but all by appointment.And I believe that this is true for an enormous number of viewers.There is no way that Williams could have anticipated the kind of control viewers now have over their TV viewing.DVRs, streaming Internet, downloading torrents, DVDS:these completely undercut the idea of "flow."Whether the idea ever had any validity, it certainly does not now.

Nonetheless, this remains an important book, and not merely for the historical reason of its being the first important book on TV.Williams has many superb things to say about TV.His criticisms of McLuhan are as devastating today as they were in 1973.But it is nonetheless dated.Much of it has been rendered untrue by changes in technology.Still, for anyone interested in television studies, it remains on the shortest of short lists of crucial texts on the subject. ... Read more

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Nearly everybody wants to get into the movies or be on television—and here's the book that shows them how! Every year, thousands of students graduate from film schools, then settle in major centers of film and TV activity—mainly Los Angeles or New York. This book is a practical guide to help these newcomers launch their careers. Not everybody can be a star actor or director, but the closely related film and television industries offer exciting, financially rewarding careers in scores of affiliated fields. Here are just some that are discussed in this book, which also gives practical advice on how to make contacts and get job offers: Talent Agent. . . Apprentice Editor. . . Art Director. . . Assistant Cameraman . . . Assistant Director . . . Costume Designer . . . Director of Photography . . . Film Editor. . . Gaffer. . . Music Mixer. . . Production Assistant . . . Stage Manager . . . Storyboard Artist . . . and many more. In addition to career advice, the author presents true stories of men and women who tell how they launched their own successful careers. There is no clear, simple road to success in the film and television industry, but this book gives career-seekers the facts they need to develop a solid game plan and achieve their goals. ... Read more

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I wanted to understand the jobs available in Production because I'm just getting started.Aside from having job descriptions for various players of a pre-production, physical production, and post production crew, I had the pleasure of reading insight and experiences of people who are currently in the business.It was encouraging to read all the stories of how people got their start and where each step took them in their career. ... Read more

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In the thirty years since CNN launched the first 24-hour television news service, an ever-growing army of dedicated channels has arrived on the scene. This groundbreaking edited collection is the first to explore the genre of rolling television news channels. Coverage in and of key regions of the worldincluding North and South America, Europe, Australia, China, India, and the Middle Eastis examined by leading international scholars. The Rise of 24-Hour News Television invites readers to explore the diverse ways in which round-the-clock news channels have reshaped the genre of news and, in a broader sense, the impact they have had on democracy itself. ... Read more

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Winner of the 2001 Ray and Pat Browne National Book Award for Outstanding Textbook, given by the Popular Culture Association From Ken Burns's documentaries to historical dramas such as Roots, from A&E's Biography series to CNN, television has become the primary source for historical information for tens of millions of Americans today. Why has television become such a respected authority? What falsehoods enter our collective memory as truths? How is one to know what is real and what is imagined -- or ignored -- by producers, directors, or writers? Gary Edgerton and Peter Rollins have collected a group of essays that answer these and many other questions. The contributors examine the full spectrum of historical genres, but also institutions such as the History Channel and production histories of such series as The Jack Benny Show, which ran for fifteen years. The authors explore the tensions between popular history and professional history, and the tendency of some academics to declare the past "off limits" to nonscholars. Several of them point to the tendency for television histories to embed current concerns and priorities within the past, as in such popular shows as Quantum Leap and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. The result is an insightful portrayal of the power television possesses to influence our culture.

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This introductory text examines issues of television and cultural identities in the context of globalization. It is a wide-ranging volume, exploring many of the central cultural issues in contemporary cultural studies, such as media, globalizaiton, language, gender, ethnicity, cultural politics and identity - perhaps the topic of cultural studies over the past decade. At the core of the book are two critical arguments - that television is a proliferating resource for the construction of cultural identity, and that cultural identity is not a fixed essential 'thing' but a contingent social construction to which language is central. ... Read more