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The Basics
Media Studies: The Basics
Fully updated and revised, the second edition of Media The Basics is the ideal guide to the changing landscape of media and Media Studies.
There have been seismic shifts in what constitutes (the) media in recent years with technological advances ushering in whole new categories of producers, consumers and modes of delivery. This has been reflected in the way media is studied with new theories, concepts and practices coming to the fore. This new edition addresses core questions
Who, or what, are the media?
What are the key terms and concepts used in analysing media?
Where have new media technologies had the biggest impact?
How, and by whom, is media made in the 21st century?
Featuring new case studies, an updated glossary and suggestions for further reading, this is the ideal introduction to Media Studies today for both A Level and undergraduate students.
There have been seismic shifts in what constitutes (the) media in recent years with technological advances ushering in whole new categories of producers, consumers and modes of delivery. This has been reflected in the way media is studied with new theories, concepts and practices coming to the fore. This new edition addresses core questions
Who, or what, are the media?
What are the key terms and concepts used in analysing media?
Where have new media technologies had the biggest impact?
How, and by whom, is media made in the 21st century?
Featuring new case studies, an updated glossary and suggestions for further reading, this is the ideal introduction to Media Studies today for both A Level and undergraduate students.
- GenresNonfiction
195 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
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January 7, 2016
Julian McDougall's Media Studies: The Basics does its job to explain how to interpret media. McDougall begins the book with a brief history of media and some conceptual tools for interpreting media and tells you some different filters through which to interpret media. The different filters or approaches he calls 'discourses,' ways of talking about media. The three discourses are the following: All Powerful Media Discourse, Media Literacy Discourse, and Economic Discourse. All Powerful Media discourse studies the effects and influence of media. Media Literary Discourse studies some of the formal aspects of media--how does a given medium go about representing the information it does? What conventions does it use? Which genres. Etc. The Economic Discourse is about how you or anyone can train to get a job in media. What is required to work in media?
Just to give you an example of how I thought this was effective, in the section on the Media Literacy Discourse, they discuss the Auteur Theory, a theory by which you could analyze some media productions as being marked by their creator--like the films of Tarantino or Kurosawa, or the way in which a TV show producer uses the same kind of conventions. Very helpful for thinking about media.
I'll give you another example. Also in the section on media literacy was the distinction between 'diegetic' and 'non-diegetic' sound in media. Diegetic sound is when, for example, a radio is playing on a TV show. Non-diegetic is sound made around the medium, like a TV show's introductory song. And of course sometimes media use sounds that begin non-diegetic and then go diegetic, like the theme song turning into a song on the radio which a character on the show turns off.
Highly recommend the book, especially because it provides some much-needed terminology for talking about media.
Just to give you an example of how I thought this was effective, in the section on the Media Literacy Discourse, they discuss the Auteur Theory, a theory by which you could analyze some media productions as being marked by their creator--like the films of Tarantino or Kurosawa, or the way in which a TV show producer uses the same kind of conventions. Very helpful for thinking about media.
I'll give you another example. Also in the section on media literacy was the distinction between 'diegetic' and 'non-diegetic' sound in media. Diegetic sound is when, for example, a radio is playing on a TV show. Non-diegetic is sound made around the medium, like a TV show's introductory song. And of course sometimes media use sounds that begin non-diegetic and then go diegetic, like the theme song turning into a song on the radio which a character on the show turns off.
Highly recommend the book, especially because it provides some much-needed terminology for talking about media.
Displaying 1 of 1 review