Publications and Media Books

This book, which is a major study on the impact of media on what we refer to as reality, is interesting. The ideas are set forth in a very logical, matter-of-fact fashion. It covers first the methodology, the historical (such as it is) ideas, and then it presents the data, and finally the conclusions. For those interested in media studies, this is invaluable as a starting place and for a general overview.

That said, this book is flawed. It spends a lot of time repeating itself. In one chapter near the beginning, it makes a statement, and in the next chapter, it repeats itself ad nauseum. When a whole chapter can be summed up in less than a paragraph, there's a problem.

The other major flaw is a definite lack of examples. Weimann makes blanket statements and then neglects to back them up with sufficient description. It's nice to say that cop shows convince people that there are many more policemen in the world than there really are, but does this happen in other fields? How does this affect people? Are they less likely to go into police work because they feel there is a surfeit of policemen? Do they feel safer at night, knowing that there are more police around?

Too often, the book neglects those questions.

However, as a general overview or textbook (with the implication that the student must find the answers or examples him- or herself), this book works very well.

With the WWW changing daily, research is hard pressed to keep up, but the methods used by these folks are pretty solid -- good starting point for anyone doing net research. The essays in the book concentrate on Usenet/newsgroups in particular.

I wrote a few of the entries in this handbook and am quite sorry to read in the Booklist review that the weight of the the Handbook is decidedly in the direction of potential negative effects of media. The terms of the effects arguments are in general hyperbolic and poorly researched. If this is a fair reading of the handbook it makes me sorry to have contributed. On the other hand, I can't afford a copy of it myself so have never actually read the entries. That alone would be a good reason to ignore the star rating I gave -- I have no basis for making this judgment but it is not possible to submit a review without clicking stars.

This is a charming salute to the many Spanish and Italian fashion designers of the past century. As always Mr Tierney's drawings are of the highest standard, and I especially liked the striking Latin features of the dolls. Unfortunately the lack of accuracy lets this collection down. A Balenciaga creation is credited to Pertegaz, some costumes are incorrectly dated, and Gianni Versace's work is represented by a costume design for an opera, when this is supposed to be a collection of fashion designs. A number of outfits aren't typical of the particular designer's work (eg Gigli, Ferre, Fontana, etc). Most puzzling of all is the inclusion of people whose ethnic descent is either Spanish or Italian, but their careers and businesses were established in other countries (eg Emanuel Ungaro, John Galliano, Elsa Schiaparelli, Nina Ricci, to name a few. Even Oscar de la Renta, an American designer born in the Dominican Republic is included!). Mr Tierney is still a great graphic artist, but his research has let him down in this instance.

This is a decent overview on the issue, but Mr. McNair spends too much time examining pornographic magazines, and no time at all discussing the Internet. He was quite clearly wrong in stating there has not been a trend towards more violent imagery, anyone perusing the net can attest to that. So, the book is in need of an update.

I think this book, by format, is best suited to be used as a research tool, and as a source for students like myself to find information to support papers dealing with its subject. This book does an excellent job of gathering the information and statistics on the effects and influence of media on males and makes it clear that the men presented in the media reflect a minority in the male community. However, it presents this information in a dry, unentertaining manner. After reading it I feel that the information is very important, but I feel that the authors present it in a way that makes it largely inaccessible to those who could benefit from it most, the common man. I think that after reading this book most men would have a different outlook on media, from the advertising industry all the way to the format driven set up of sitcoms. Perhaps it would even alleviate some of the pressure men feel to be like the men they see in the media. I fear that it would be very unlikely to find anyone reading this book that would not be using it as a research tool.

This book is OK ... but a lot of the motifs are very much the same. Some instruction on how to use them and where would have been helpful. I really wanted something to help me with a wainscoted dining room and this was not it!

It's a good book with interesting stock photography, but not one company has a web page address printed on the book, so finding the companies from other countries is a pain.

hello, i just have intereting to read this book

I really would like to see the third edition of this book. I would have given four stars but the material is not as current as I would like. Still, it offers a good foundation for health communication campaigns. My favorite chapter was the last by Wallack: a critique of the field and the future of health communications. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in health communications but would suggest they also find more recent research and scholarly articles.