Product Description

A topic with ever-increasing appeal and scope, Media Studies is attracting more and more higher education students as well as the thousands of practitioners within its various fields. Written by two prominent experts, The Penguin Dictionaries of Media Studies gives the definitive overview of this huge area, covering print, digital and broadcast media, as well as the theories, techinicalites and key figures involved. This new addition to the highly-successful series of Penguin subject dictionaries is comprehensive, authoritative and user-friendly - a must for anyone with an interest in the media and the wider cultural arena.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #291469 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

From the Publisher

Some sample entries:

ASYNCHRONIZATION

Where sounds is out of step with images in cinema and television. Thus, if when we are watching TV or a film and a person's lips move and the voice comes along later, we will read this as a mistake or error in the technological process. However, experimental film-makers have used such techniques to disrupt the REALISM of texts, by showing how they are put together.

INFOTAINMENT

Media products, especially television, that mix information and entertainment. Various methods are used, from dramatic reconstructions of historical events using actors to employing a great deal of visual illustration (SEE: docudrama). The term is often used slightingly by people who believe that the mixture of fact and fiction risks confusing viewers, misrepresenting matters of fact and lowering standards of factual journalism. The opposite point of view is that an entertaining method of presenting factual material helps the audience to grasp what is being said.

NBC (National Broadcasting Company)

Founded in the mid-1920s as a radio network, NBC started television broadcasting in the late 1930s. It was originally owned by RCA but is now part of General Electric. In the 1930s, the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISION found that NBC controlled the majority of radio audiences and forced the company to divest itself of part of the business, which became ABC.

About the Author
Nicholas Abercrombie is Emeritus Fellow in Sociology at the University of Lancaster, who has a particular interest in the role of the mass media. Professor Brian Longhurst is Professor of Sociology at the University of Salford whose research centres on popular music, media audiences and the sociology of knowledge. Past collaborations between the two authors include Audiences: A Sociological Theory of Performance and Imagination (1998).