This book provides a cultural history of cultivation theory, a North American mass communication paradigm best known for arguing that television violence was a potent agent of political socialisation. Decades after its inception, cultivation theory remains an evocative force in imagining twenty-first-century media power. This book reveals how many factors shaped the theory: the spectre of twentieth-century fascism, the Cold War, political turbulence in 1960s America, and the realisation th...

The history of audience research tells us that the relationship between the media and viewers, readers and listeners is complex and requires multiple methods of analysis. In Understanding Audiences, Andy Ruddock introduces students to the range of quantitative and qualitative methods and invites his readers to consider the merits of both.Understanding Audiences: demonstrates how - practically - to investigate media power; places audience research -...

Populism, misogyny, rampage murders. Digital media seem to lie at the heart of sinister, intractable social challenges. Curiously, the very societies who fear such things are often dismissive of media research. Addressing key issues affecting global media industries, this book explains how to solve the present conundrum by appreciating the historical development of cultivation theory.Digital Media Influence ties cultivation themes, such as mean world syndrome, mainstreamin...

When societies worry about media effects, why do they focus so much on young people? Is advertising to blame for binge drinking? Do films and video games inspire school shootings? Tackling these kinds of questions, Youth and Media explains why young people are at the centre of how we understand the media.Exploring key issues in politics, technology, celebrity, advertising, gender and globalization, Andy Ruddock offers a fascinating introduction to how media define the identities an...

From Donald Trump’s use of Twitter, to social media mourning, to cyber-bullying: the evidence of media influence today is all around us. As such, good media research is more important than ever, and crucially, is something all students can and should do.Exploring Media Researchis an eye-opening exploration of what it means to understand and do media research today.Carefully balancing theory and practice, Andy Ruddock demystifies the process, showing you don’t need h...

An anonymous musician plays Pachelbel's Canon on the electric guitar in a clip that has been viewed over sixty million times. The Dramatic Gopher is viewed over sixteen million times, as is a severely inebriated David Hasselhoff attempting to eat a hamburger. Over 800 variations, parodies, and parodies-of-parodies are uploaded of Beyonce Knowles' Single Ladies dance. Tay Zonday sings Chocolate Rain in a video viewed almost forty million times and scores himself a record deal. Obama Girl en...

Written for students studying intercultural communication for the first time, this textbook gives a thorough introduction to inter- and cross-cultural concepts with a focus on practical application and social action.Provides a thorough introduction to inter- and cross-cultural concepts for beginning students with a focus on practical application and social actionDefines “communication” broadly using authors from a variety of sub disciplines and incorporating scienti...

Travelling through theories of emotion and affect, this book addresses the key ways in which media studies can be brought to bear upon everyday encounters with online cultures and practices. The book takes stock of where we are emotionally with regard to the Internet in the context of other screen media.

Looking at schools and universities, it is difficult to pinpoint when education, teaching and learning started to haemorrhage purpose, aspiration and function. Libraries and librarians have been starved of funding. Teachers cram their curriculum with 'skill development' and 'generic competencies' because knowledge, creativity and originality are too expensive to provide to unmotivated students and parents obsessed with league tables, not learning. Meanwhile, the internet offers a glut of i...

Written by an academic and researcher with over twenty years' experience in teaching and convening Media Studies courses, Media Studies: A Complete Introduction is designed to give you everything you need to succeed, all in one place. It covers the key areas that students are expected to be confident in, outlining the basics in clear jargon-free English, and then providing added-value features like case studies, and even lists of questions you might be asked in your seminar or exa...

Today almost everyone in the developed world spends time online and anyone involved in strategic communication must think digitally. The magnitude of change may be up for debate but the trend is unstoppable, dramatically reconfiguring business models, organisational structures and even the practice of democracy.Strategic Communication, Social Media and Democracy provides a wholly new framework for understanding this reality, a reality that is transforming the way both prac...

What is the place of leisure in societies where people complain of ′over-work′? How do personal freedom and choice relate to the inequalities of class, gender, disability and ethnicity?This critical introduction to the field offers a systematic account of the meaning and structure of leisure today.The book:• situates the student in the field• provides a comprehensive account of the leading approaches to leisure• explores the influence of class, race,...