Product Description

In colour for the first time, thoroughly revised, re-ordered and completely updated with recent examples and expanded coverage of current issues, this fourth edition presents the latest must-have introduction to media studies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24059 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

David Lusted, Southampton Institute
'...dynamic and contemporary. As a set text, this is now in a class of its own.'

Review

'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 on migration, J-horror movies, CSI and free markets show how cleverly the authors take the pulse of media culture.'

-Christine Geraghty, University of Glasgow

'A wonderful teaching tool.' Ralph Beliveau, University of Oklahoma

'Brilliantly conceived and executed, this is simply the best introduction to media studies we have.' - Toby Miller, University of New York

 'An indispensable text which no A Level or first year undergraduate student of media studies and communication studies can afford to ignore.' - Andrew Beck, Chief Examiner A Level Media Studies

'This is a model textbook, one which never stops encouraging its readers to go further, to develop their own ideas through independent thought and study. It is very attractively presented and accessibly written but it never talks down - or dumbs down. A wide range of important terms, concepts and approaches are introduced to students without any skating over of complexities and difficulties, and their importance is demonstrated through actual case-studies. But most of all it is the intellectual excitement that the book conveys and transmits to readers that makes it such an invaluable learning resource.' - Professor Jeremy Hawthorn, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

'I plan to adopt the Media Student's Book for my Upper Sixth students doing the AQA exam and welcome the fact that the book is pitched at a higher level than other available texts. The layout matches very well with areas studied in the A Level exam. I found the examples used and detail on theoretical background to media studies very useful.'

Tom Kavanagh, HOD Drama/Media Department, St Malachy's College, Belfast

From the Back Cover

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. This fourth edition, newly in colour, has been thoroughly revised, re-ordered and updated, with many very recent examples and expanded coverage of the most important issues currently facing media studies. It is structured in four main parts, addressing key concepts, media practices, media debates, and the resources available for individual research.

Individual chapters include: Interpreting media * Narratives * Genres and other classifications * Institutions * Questions of representation * Ideologies and power * Industries * Audiences * Advertising and branding * Research * Production organisation * Production techniques * Distribution * Documentary and 'reality TV' * Whose globalisation? * 'Free choices' in a 'free market'?

Chapters are supported by case studies which include: Ways of interpreting * CSI: Miami and crime fiction * J-horror and the Ring cycle * Television as institution * Images of migration * News * The media majors * The music industry, technology and synergy * Selling audiences * Celebrity, stardom and marketing * Researching mobile phone technologies * Contemporary British cinema.

The authors are experienced in writing, researching and teaching across different levels of pre-undergraduate and undergraduate study, with an awareness of the needs of those students. The book is specially designed to be easy and stimulating to use with:

* marginal terms, definitions, references (and even jokes), allied to a comprehensive glossary

*  follow-up activities, suggestions for further reading, useful websites and resources plus a companion website to supporting the book at www.routledge.com/0415371430

* references and examples from a rich range of media forms, including advertising, television, films, radio, newspapers, magazines, photography and the internet.

Customer Reviews

An excellent introduction to complex media studies concepts
This is a textbook that goes further than any similar volume has ever done. It introduces many complicated and often confusing topics in straightforward terms, which are demonstrated using comprehensive case studies. It also covers a broad range of media-related issues widely studied at degree level, and is structured into well ordered, intuitive chapters. The new chapters in the second edition, particularly that in regard to the internet, are of an excellent standard.

The stepping stone of media
I found Branston and Stafford's Media and Students Book, extremely helpful to me in my first year of studying media studies.
Quoting several different scholars and theorists, to back up some well thought out and well explained ideas behind media.
It was an excellent stepping stone for me and a platform to read more advanced media books, as this one was the foundation or the ground floor of media books, it covers the basics of media.
Overall a good read and highly reccommended.

Worth it, but...
I got this for my AVCE Media class, and I basically haven't used it much. Very worth it for extra reading, or going over stuff, but hasn't covered much past what the tutor has given me. This is probably because you are given what you need in class, in class. Still worth a buy to revise from at home