The Media Student's Book, Fifth Edition
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The Media Student’s Book The Media Student’s Book is a comprehensive introduction for students of media studies. It covers all the key topics and provides a detailed, lively and accessible guide to concepts and debates. Now in its fifth edition, this bestselling textbook has been thoroughly revised, reordered and updated, with many very recent examples and expanded coverage of the most important issues currently facing media studies. It is structured in three main parts, addressing key concepts, debates, and research skills, methods and resources. Individual chapters include: Approaching media texts • Narratives • Genres and other classifications • Representations • Globalisation • Ideologies and discourses • Media as business • ‘New media’ in a ‘new world’? • The future of television? • Regulation now • Debating advertising, branding and celebrity • News and its futures • Documentary and ‘reality’ debates • From ‘audience’ to ‘users’ • Research: skills and methods. Each chapter includes a range of examples to work with, sometimes as short case studies. They are also supported by separate, longer case studies which include: Slumdog Millionaire • Online access for film and music • CSI and crime fiction • Let the Right One In and The Orphanage • Images of migration • The Age of Stupid and climate change politics. The authors are experienced in writing, researching and teaching across different levels of undergraduate study, with an awareness of the needs of students. The book is specially designed to be easy and stimulating to use, with: • Margin terms, definitions, photos, references (and even jokes), allied to a comprehensive glossary • Follow-up activities in ‘Explore’ boxes • Suggestions for further reading and online research • A supporting website with popular chapters from previous editions, extra case studies and further resources for teaching and learning, at www.mediastudentsbook.com • References and examples from a rich range of media and media forms, including advertising, cinema, games, the internet, magazines, newspapers, photography, radio and television. Gill Branston is Honorary Senior Lecturer in the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University. Roy Stafford is a freelance lecturer, writer and examiner in media education and training. Praise for this new edition ‘This book does precisely what you want a textbook to do. It brings students to a wide range of concepts, issues and debates in media studies and sets them within critical, yet accessible, contexts. Through a guided and fully illustrated tour of textual, political, economic, social, technological and regulatory concerns, the reader is encouraged to grasp the fundamentals of the field. It is littered with both contemporary and classic examples, links to online resources and probing questions to both cement understanding and challenge assumptions. It is effortless to read and should be the bread and butter of every media student’s diet.’ Natalie Fenton, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK ‘The fifth edition of The Media Student’s Book is the best textbook on the media available on the planet today. It is an invaluable resource not just for students, but also for scholars of media and cultural studies. Beautifully produced, with full-colour images, informative sidebars and information boxes working in tandem with Gill Branston and Roy Stafford’s engaging text, the new edition addresses every and any topic in media studies today: documentaries, new media, globalization, advertising, news, and media regulation. With a key chapter on research methods and innumerable ideas for activities, assignments and projects, this book will find a home in media studies courses everywhere.’ Imre Szeman, University of Alberta, Canada ‘A terrific new edition, a re-write which takes on the challenges of Web 2.0 and uses it to explore and analyse the complexity of media production and use. A brilliant introduction to media studies with a range of accessible and up-to-date examples and student exercises which are thought-provoking and engaging. The re-design presents the material vividly and the cross-referencing to the companion website makes this a superb resource. Case studies provide an excellent basis for course activity while the clear advice on research methods and references is invaluable support for project work. The editors are experienced teachers and it shows. Branston and Stafford’s enthusiasm for a wide range of media is infectious but they don’t shy away from tricky issues like media ownership, regulation and environmental impact. In such a fast-moving world, updating this classic textbook was an almost impossible task; to do it so well is a tremendous achievement.’ Christine Geraghty, University of Glasgow, UK ‘Branston and Stafford still offer the best, one-stop resource for media studies with an incredible range of material and contemporary case studies presented in a conversational style. The book links itself to the broader mediasphere through the archiving of additional material online and references sending students to YouTube clips and short films, encouraging students to be active participants in the process of learning about media rather than simply passive readers of the text. Through the expansive coverage, information distilled and ideas on display, The Media Student’s Book will remain a valuable resource for students throughout their studies, as well as for many academics and those involved in the analysis and creation of media more generally.’ Jason Bainbridge, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia The Media Student’s Book Fifth Edition GILL BRANSTON with ROY STAFFORD First published 1996 by Routledge Second edition first published 1999 Third edition first published 2003 Fourth edition first published 2006 This fifth edition first published 2010 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 1996, 1999, 2003, 2006, 2010 Gill Branston and Roy Stafford All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested Branston, Gill. The media student’s book / Gill Branston with Roy Stafford. – 5th ed. p. cm. 1. Mass media. I. Stafford, Roy. II. Title. P90.B6764 2010 302.23–dc22 2009049055 ISBN 0-203-85064-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–55841–7 (hbk) ISBN10: 0–415–55842–5 (pbk) ISBN10: 0–203–85064–5 (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–55841–9 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–55842–6 (pbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–85064–0 (ebk) Praise for previous editions Fourth edition ‘The best introduction I know to media studies with an extraordinary range of examples and highly effective suggestions for student activity. Brilliantly updated, making great use of web resources, the new sections . show how cleverly the authors take the pulse of media culture.’ Christine Geraghty, University of Glasgow, UK Third edition ‘Brilliantly conceived and executed, this is simply the best introduction to media studies we have.’ Toby Miller, University of California at Riverside, USA ‘What is by now evident … is the authors’ exceptional genius at modernising their text, examples and case studies... As a set text, this is now in a class of its own.’ David Lusted, Southampton Solent University, UK Second edition ‘A book which no college or first year undergraduate student of media studies can afford to ignore . indispensable.’ Andrew Beck, Coventry University, UK ‘Finally! A textbook especially designed for a critical introductory course in media studies . It is the perfect introduction to complex concepts and the authors do a wonderful job of explaining key critical theories in terms accessible to undergraduate students. I am a passionate fan of this book.’ Clemencia Rodriguez, University of Texas, San Antonio, USA First edition ‘Imaginative, accessible, comprehensive and shrewd – all textbooks should be like this. No student could read it without coming away thoroughly prepared for the pleasures, pitfalls and challenges of media studies, and no teacher in the field could fail to find it a superb and timely source of ideas.’ Andy Medhurst, University of Sussex, UK ‘An exemplary textbook for media studies . they write in a lively, engaging style . they offer a strong sense of argument, debating the ideas of referenced authorities by asserting their own sense of where their positions lie . They deal with the widest imaginable, exhaustive and enviable range of references . they are not frightened to explore the most difficult theories and they do so with enviable explanatory skill, constant references and exemplification . An extraordinary feat of writing for an audience at this educational level. I’ve no doubt future publications will be judged by the standard it sets.’ David Lusted, English and Media Magazine