Publications and Media Books

This was assigned reading for my graduate level course in health communications. Admittedly it was a little hard to get into (not sure if it was because I had to read it or if it was a bit thick). I'm glad a got past the beginning introductory and descriptive stuff because the rest of the book was great! It offers a different perspective on health communications and really stimulated my thinking about how to use the media and how the media is used. I found the examples Wallack, et al., used were the most educational in understanding media advocacy and public health.

Professor Picard is well known in the media management arena. He has published extensively and presented at numerous conferences. This book does a good job of providing the basics of how media systems operate economically. It is well documented, easy to read, and full of charts and graphs that illustrate what is being described.

Terms are defined clearly throughout the book also. Contextually, this is a prerequisite to understanding media's influence on its audience as he explains in the first chapter. In terms of media literacy, many consumers would benefit by learning more about media production and distribution. This book helps them do so. Media are part of the economic system in which they're based.

[This] book illustrates the importance of media literacy and it explores the many levels of the media. I like this book mainly for its organization. Potter's thoughts are well thought out and are presented very clearly. The only problem is that he has so many thoughts that I often forget much of what I've read. As a result, I've had to read paragraphs over and over again in order to fully absorb all that I can from the book.

[By] what he teaches in the book, I have been able to see that some of the claims he makes are very weak. Either he contradicts himself or he offers little evidence for some profound ideas. Without even knowing it, the book itself has become part of the experiment in analyzing and reaching better understanding of the media.

This text offers a comprehensive overview for students of the media or anyone interested in learning about media theory. I'm a masters student (in media) at the London School of Economics and have just read the book to prepare for my exams. Some of the reading is rather dense, but it is rewarding if you take the time. The essayists in the book are leading scholars in media studies. The essays on globalization,cultural imperialism, the public sphere and the Internet are particularly interesting.

"O' to be rid of the albatross of incessant and unproductive meetings!", is the mantra of people throughout the business world. Sometimes there are even meetings in an attempt to determine why there are so many meetings. Everyone is convinced that an enormous amount of potentially productive time is wasted in this way, yet there never seems to be a great deal of action to prevent it.
In this short book Shessel puts forward a simple, effective strategy to reduce the waste of unproductive and unnecessary meetings. Her plan is based on the acronym P.O.I.N.T., which is

P - purpose
O - organization
I - involvement
N - navigation
T - tasks

Her advice is simple and if followed, would be effective. The problem here is of course wrapped around the phrase "if followed." There is a great deal of inertia loaded up into the perceived requirement for meetings that is hard to overcome. However, if you muster the courage to try, reading this book will provide the blueprint for success.

More than meets the eye by Greame Burton was recommened to me by one of my teachers at college. It has been a very useful aid to my studies over the last 2 years. It contains simplified information on vital areas of the course such as, juxstapostion, general sound, editing and lighting features aswell as more complex information on these areas. It is a well explained book and easy to use. Though i have not mentioned all the topics covered in the text the reason for this being that this review would be over 5,000 words! It is easlit in my opinion the best book for a-level media students and is a must buy!

This book sets out some good ideas for helping to consider the ways that we 'mean' things beyond just what type into the Amazon review text box. The authors would say that my use of a keyboard affects the meaning, as does your use of a computer monitor to read the review. Their expansive definition of "modes" is very helpful; however, the trend of their writing is to lock the meanings of their terms down as tightly---read 'as scientifically'---as possible. It's a mild hypocrisy, I guess. But this text has a pretty prominent place for now, so you have to just deal with it (as well as the sometimes hyperintellectual jargon and syntax).

Cottle's edited text gave an outstanding overview of the public relations (PR) fields. His co-authors wrote compartmentalized chapters on specific areas of expertise, and it makes understanding the field much clearer. Cottle's chapters are the most difficult to understand, for he uses career-specific words and concepts and lofty expressions. However, the other seven chapters are very down-to-earth. I am using it as a text for a public relations master's level course, and it is almost perfect. It is written entirely by British or Australian authors, so don't expect extensive analysis of American PR, but there are some American issues included.

The book is perceptively written. The social interaction of ordinary cops with ordinary people is well researched by an acutely sensitive ethnographer and the findings have universal validity.It has the right dose of evocative empathy for the police.Visual media has bowdlerised the cop beyond redemption. Every crime, or almost every crime, is solved in the reel life , but in real life less than a quarter of the indexed cases of the FBI have been solved. How far the media influences the cops in their work to act as heroes , take charge, or do something even if they are not competent has been etched in the citizen's psyche is tellingly brought out in a grisly incident when a cop does CPR on a child before tha paramedics arrive just to satisfy the parents who want some miracle, even when he knows it is dead. Basically a cop's existence is ridden with contradictions. On the one hand he is to protect the people and on the other carry out penal action against offenders. Ordinary people who have occassional brush with the policemen perhaps once in a life time, say, for traffic violation etc, feel they are innocent and indulge freely in fibbing.This is considered by the cops as an affront to their intelligence. Although the cop himself does not have complete faith in the system-"they are the real parts of the system" from which lawyers, superior officers and judges capture palimpsest impression, yet they do not want sympathy and would feel quite uncomfortable if any large public movement is launched to clean up their television image.It is a truism that the police system will fail when the guarded and the guardians feel that "freedom" is no longer worth the price of "personal fear". In poorly administered places like Bihar in India it is common for the citizens to have their private posse of police or guards.

"Political advertising..." is an excellent comparative analysis of the political advertising on TV and its impact on the electorate in Western Democracies. The book offers an analysis of the impact on audiences in the US, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Israel, Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland; each of these states has a chapter devoted to it. The final chapter of the book offers a comparative analysis of differences and similarities among each of these countries. The overall purpose of the book is to acquaint the students of the political TV ads with the situation in various states across three continents that are grouped together in what is usually referred to as "Western civilization." The authors provide the audience with a snapshot view of the issue across borders. The purpose, however, might be much broader, as the relevance of the issue is not limited to the narrow group of researchers. This book carries enormous relevance for the students of Political Science, International Mass Communication, Journalism, Public Policy, Public Relations, Mass Communication Law, etc. Due to the nature of the book and the interconnectedness of the issues touched upon, the potential audiences of this research are innumerable. What I find particularly useful is that along with the detailed discussion of political campaigns in various states, the book examines the behavior of the electorate, political system, political culture, provides, among other things, a detailed timeline of decentralization, deregulation and privatization of TV in each of the discussed countries. Of particular interest to me was the comparing and contrasting of the "Public Service" concept, as it is viewed and carried out in each of the countries (the cheapest Nighttime slots in the US versus the most expensive and watched slots in Denmark and Israel.)

This book is a wonderful reading for those trying to analyze the impact of the mass media on the electorate.