2002-2

NEW BOOKS IN THE COMMUNICATIONS LIBRARY

April - June 2002

ADVERTISING, MARKETING AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Advertising and Identity in Europe: The I of the Beholder. Jackie Cannon, Patricia Anne Odber de Baubeta and Robin Warner, editors. Bristol, United Kingdom: Intellect, 2000. 138 pp. $30.00. ISBN: 1-84150-037-2. 659.1042094 Ad964.

This volume is an assessment of the impact of advertising, in terms of culture and of business, across the national boundaries of Europe. It considers the successes and failures of several international strategic marketing plans, and describes stylistic and persuasive qualities of specific promotional texts. With examples from Scandinavia to the Iberian Peninsula, the contributors also explore the different constructions of regional, national, social and sexual identities exploited by advertisers to render their messages effective.

The Advertising Handbook, 2^nd edition. Sean Brierley. London: Routledge, 2002. 297pp. $80.00, $23.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-415-249-391-2, 0-415-24392-0 (pbk). 659.1 B766a 2002.

The Advertising Handbook is a critical introduction to the practices and perspectives of the advertising industry. Sean Brierley explores the structures of the profession and examines the roles of all those involved in advertising including businesses, agencies, consultancies and media owners. This edition traces the development of advertising and examines the changes that have taken place from its formative years through to today's period of rapid change: the impact of new media, the rise of the ad agency industry mergers, the Internet and digital technologies, and the influence of the regulatory environment.

Advertising Research: The Internet, Consumer Behavior, and Strategy. George Zinkhan, editor. Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association, 2000. 281 pp. $35.00. ISBN: 0-87757-288-7. 659.1 Ad9652.

This compilation of articles was originally presented at AMA’s Educators’ Conferences. Following the themes of the conferences, the articles are intended to stimulate fresh insights and provide even seasoned readers with a new perspective on traditional topics. The contributors to this volume offer perspectives on advertising research and the Internet in seven sections.

Advertising to the American Woman: 1900-1999. Daniel Delis Hill. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2002. 329 pp. $45.00. ISBN: 0-8142-0890-8. Q.659.10820973 H551a.

This is an illustrated survey of how the mass production of consumer goods, the development of the advertising industry, and the evolution of women's roles in society inextricably progressed through the twentieth-century. The author focuses on the marketing perspective of the topic, rather than on the consumer’s point of view. Inevitably, a number of cultural themes run throughout the work, illustrating how women’s roles in society have shifted during the past hundred years. Among the key issues explored is a peculiar dichotomy of American advertising that served as a conservative reflection of society and yet, at the same time, became an underlying force of progressive social change.

American Incomes: Demographics of Who Has Money, 4^th edition. New Strategist Editors. Ithaca, NY: New Strategist Publications, 2001. 429 pp. $89.95. ISBN: 1-885070-39-X. 339.220973 Am351.

This book will help the reader gain insight into the economic well-being of Americans. The editors look at household income, men's and women's incomes, discretionary income, wealth, and poverty.

A Big Life in Advertising. Mary Wells Lawrence. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. 340 pp. $26.00. ISBN: 0-375-40912-2. 659.1092 L435b.

In the late 1960s and early'70s, Wells Rich Greene was the hippest, most cutting-edge ad agency in New York, famous for bringing stellar success to second-rate brands. Known then as Mary Wells, Lawrence and her boys broke all the rules of advertising. There were no other women heading up agencies with large, big-budget accounts at that time. They were young and tied into the times, and the freshness they brought literally changed the face of the industry with catchphrases as "plop plop...fizz fizz- oh what a relief it is" and " I can't believe I ate the whole thing"; "Flick your Bic"; or the I Love New York" logo with a heart in place of the word love.

Consuming Audiences? Production and Reception in Media Research. Ingunn Hagen and Janet Wasko, editors. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc., 2000. 330 pp. $69.50, $27.50 (pbk). ISBN: 1-572-73175-3, 1-572-73176-1 (pbk). 302.2321 C766.

This compilation of articles originates from a round table session held in Sydney in 1996. The book includes an outline of the research filed, a discussion of the different audience positions, a study of the audience, methodological approaches, and case studies in audience research.

Digital Lab: Print & Electronic Design: Advertising. Switzerland: Rotovision SA, 2001. 159pp. $40.00. ISBN: 2-88046-557-5. Q.745.2 Ad96.

The second book in the Digital Lab series, Advertising examines a range of distinctive advertising campaigns from around the world, investigating and assessing their effectiveness in the communication of a message to a target audience. The book provides a series of insights into the creative and technical processes of advertising, seen principally through the perspective of the creative director. Advertising investigates how advertising exploits the possibilities provided by the increasingly diverse channels of information and communication that constitute today’s information society - television, ambient, direct mail, Web and print.

The Dynamics of Advertising. Barry Richards, Iain MacRury and Jackie Botterill. Australia: Harwood Academic Publishers, 2000. 285 pp. $75.00. ISBN: 90-5823-085-6. 659.1 R39d.

The Dynamics of Advertising is for marketing and media professionals or students who want to know what social scientists have to say about advertising. The book serves three major aims: the first is to provide a thorough and critical review of the now extensive literature on advertising in sociology and cultural studies; the second is to present the major results of an extensive research study, conducted by the authors at the Centre for Advertising Studies at the University of East London; the third aim is to develop a method for the psychosocial study of all forms of public communication, and of other aspects of everyday life, which brings together an understanding of contemporary cultural change with a sensitivity to the profound forces at work within the individual.

The History of Advertising Language: The Advertisements in The Times from 1788-1996. Sabine Gieszinger. New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2001. 363 pp. $52.95. ISBN: 0-8204-5390-0. 659.10941 G365h.

The discourse of advertising has changed considerably over the past 200 years. This study, based on a corpus of 540 advertisements published in The Times between 1788 and 1996, outlines how advertisements have developed into a distinctive text type with recurring formal, semantic and functional features. Criteria investigated are the global structure of advertisements, major topics, the use of adjectives, language play, the textual realization of advertising functions and the emergence of the pictorial message. Although the study focuses on linguistic aspects of advertising, the discussion also includes the influence of extra-linguistic factors, such as socio-economic conditions and the development of the media.

Household Spending: Who Spends How Much on What, 6^th edition. New Strategist Editors. Ithaca, NY: New Strategist Publications, 2001. 771 pp. $94.95. ISBN: 1-885070-1. Q.339.470973 H816 2001.

Based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey, Household Spending examines Americans' spending on almost 1,000 products and services by the demographics that count-age, income, household type, and region of residence.

Measuring Up: How Advertising Affects Self-Image. Vickie Rutledge Shields. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. 206 pp. $49.95, $19.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-8122-3631-9, 0-8122-1791-8 (pbk). 305.3 Sh61m.

By weaving theoretical and textual insights from feminist and cultural studies with the voices of real women and men, Measuring Up offers a unique reception analysis of the effects of repetitious exposure to advertisements of perfect bodies in our everyday lives. The author examines the complex relationship between the idealized images of gender we see in advertising and our own thoughts, feelings, and behavior in relation to these images. The study is unique in presenting audience reception in terms of ethnographic data, not textual interpretations alone. Measuring Up engages with and informs current theoretical debates within these sometimes complementary and sometimes contradictory literatures: feminist media studies, feminist film theory, critical social theory, cultural studies, and critical ethnography.

No-Copy Advertising. Lazar Dzamic. Switzerland: Rotovision SA, 2001. 160 pp. $45.00. ISBN: 2-88046-566-4. Q.659.1 D996n.

In No-Copy Advertising, Lazar Dzamic has brought together some of the most famous advertisements of recent times - ads that use no or just a minimum of text. Examples from television, billboard, print and the internet are included in this book; all have won at least one major ward. Many have changed the way advertising is perceived. Each demonstrates the challenge, complexity and ingenuity of their ideas and may represent “the most poignant, controversial and intellectually gratifying experience modern advertising has to offer”.

Strategic Advertising Management. Larry Percy, John R. Rossiter, and Richard Elliott. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001. 288 pp. $36.00. ISBN: 0-19-878232-2. 659.1 P412s.

Strategic Advertising Management covers all areas of integrated marketing communications and combining rigorous empirical research with a wider perspective on the social and cultural aspects of advertising.

Streetwise Direct Marketing: How to Use the Internet, Direct Mail, and Other Media to Generate Direct Sales. George Duncan. Holbrook, MA: Adams Media Corporation, 2001. 384 pp. $19.95. ISBN: 1-58062-439-1. 658.84 D912s.

Drawing on his 35 years experience with companies large and small, the author provides step-by-step guidance on direct mail packages and lists, copywriting, response advertising, database marketing, telemarketing, catalogs, trade shows, the Internet and more. Checklists and case studies help to deliver complex points quickly.

Using Qualitative Research in Advertising: Strategies, Techniques, and Applications. Margaret A. Morrison, Eric Haley, Kim Bartel Sheehan and Ronald E. Taylor. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002. 138 pp. $44.95, $18.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-7619-2599-6, 0-7619-2383-7 (pbk). 659.1072 Us46.

Using Qualitative Research in Advertising: Strategies, Techniques and Applications is the first book to discuss both theory and application of qualitative research techniques as they relate specifically to advertising research. Designed for those currently, working in the advertising industry and for those contemplating advertising careers, this book includes discussions on interviewing, projective techniques and online applications positioned within a theoretical context of the value of qualitative research. Practical information on applying results to practical processes such as writing a creative brief or conducting an online focus group are included, as is an overview of real world constraints faced by advertising researchers.

Visual Consumption. Jonathan E. Schroeder. London: Routledge, 2002. 193 pp. $90.00. ISBN: 0-415-24424-2. 658.8342 Sch763v.

A key characteristic of the twenty-first century economy is “the image.” Brand development is based on image, products advertised via images, and corporate image is critical for economic success. This book draws from art history, photography and visual studies to develop an interdisciplinary, image-based approach to understanding consumer behavior.

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AND ENVIRONMENTS

Bandwagon Effects in High-Technology Industries. Jeffrey H. Rohlfs. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001. 256 pp. $34.95. ISBN: 0-262-18217-3. 338.4762 R636b.

Economists use the term "bandwagon effect" to describe the benefit a consumer enjoys as a result of others’ using the same product or service. In this book Jeffrey Rohlfs shows how the dynamics of bandwagons differ from those of conventional products and services. They are difficult to get started and often fail before getting under way. Rohlfs describes the fierce battles waged by competitors when new services are introduced, as well as cases of early agreement on a single technical standard, as with CDs and CD players. He also discusses the debate among economists and policy analysts over the advantages and disadvantages of having governments set technical standards. The case studies include fax machines, telephones, CD players, VCRs, personal computers, television, and the Internet.

Cyberplay: Communicating Online. Brenda Danet. New York, NY: Berg, 2001. 418 pp. $68.00, $25.50 (pbk). ISBN: 1-85973-419-7, 1-85973-424-3 (pbk). 302.20285467 D199c.

The Internet is changing the way we communicate. As a cross between letter-writing and conversation, email has altered traditional letter-writing conventions. Websites and chat rooms have made visual aspects of written communication of greater importance. New communication codes continue to evolve with unprecedented speed. This book explores playfulness and artfulness in digital writing and communication and answers questions about this new medium. The author also looks at how new art forms, such as virtual theatre, ASCII art, and digital folk art on IRC, are flourishing, and how many people collect and display digital fonts on handsome Websites, or even design their own.

Inside the Communication Revolution: Evolving Patterns of Social and Technical Interaction. Robin Mansell, editor. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. 309 pp. $75.00, $29.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-19-829655-X, 0-19-829656-8 (pbk). 303.4833 In724.

Drawing upon cognitive, economic, management, political, and sociological theories, this book focuses on the nature and significance of newly-emerging patterns of social and technical interaction as digital technologies become more pervasive in the knowledge economy.

Mobile Communication Systems. Krzyszto Wesolowski. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, 2001. 449 pp. $60.00. ISBN: 0-471-49837-8. 621.3845 W516m.

Mobile communication systems have become one of the hottest areas in the field of telecommunications and it is predicted that within the next decade a considerable number of connections will become partially or completely wireless. Rapid development of the Internet with its new services and applications has created fresh challenges for the further development of mobile communication systems. This volume presents an easy to follow overview of such systems ranging from introductory material through to a thorough system description.

Reshaping Communications: Technology, Information and Social Change. Paschal Preston. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2001. 302 pp. $91.00, $31.00 (pbk). ISBN: 0-8039-8562-2, 0-8039-8563-0 (pbk). 303.4833 P926.

This book critically interrogates many of the prevailing ideas and offers a fresh perspective on the new digital age. Reshaping Communications provides an alternative and more grounded account of the complex interplay between new technology and information structures and changes in society. It illuminates the fundamental continuities as well as changes in socioeconomic and political processes and draws on an interdisciplinary perspective and original empirical research.

Technology as Magic: The Triumph of the Irrational. Richard Stivers. New York, NY: Continuum, 1999. 240 pp. $19.95. ISBN: 0-8264-1211-4. 306.4 St59t.

At first glance, technology and magic would seem to be polar opposites. Technology is perceived to be rational, scientific, and efficacious, whereas magic is thought to be irrational, superstitious, and ineffective. In this book, Richard Stivers shows how technology and magic, while separate and distinct, are now related to one another in such a way that each has come to take on important characteristics of the other. His argument is that our expectations for technology have become magical to the point that they have generated a multitude of imitation technologies that function as magical practices. These imitation technologies flourish in the fields of psychology, management or administration, and the mass media, and their paramount purpose is human adjustment and control. Advertising and television programs, in particular, contain the key magical rituals of our technological civilization. Through dramatized information, they symbolically connect consumer goods and services to desired outcomes - the utopian goals of success, happiness, and health - thus enveloping technology, both real and imitation, in a magical cocoon.

COMMUNICATIONS

The Changing Conversation in America: Lectures from the Smithsonian. William F. Eadie and Paul E. Nelson, editors. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002. 165 pp. $64.95, $32.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-7619-1658-X, 0-7619-1658-X (pbk). 302.346 C362.

Based on a series of public lectures sponsored by the Smithsonian Associated and the National Communication Association, this book provides insight into concerns that conversation is changing in negative ways in the United States, both on an interpersonal level and on a national level. A set of distinguished communication scholars analyzes the nature of American conversation, from historical, cultural, political, and technological standpoints. The scholars offer insight into the positive and negative aspects of the changes, as well as how individual Americans and American leaders can work to improve the quality of the nation’s conversational practices.

Communicating About Health: Current Issues and Perspectives. Athena du Pre. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publications, 2000. 376 pp. $35.95. ISBN: 0-7674-1081-5. 613 D928c.

Communicating About Health outlines the research and theory of health communication and offers practical advice and examples that allow students to further develop their own skills in health communication. The text provides balanced coverage (doctor and patient perspectives), a strong emphasis on the history of health care, an examination of culture’s role in health and healing, and a look at the current issues and challenges facing health care in contemporary society.

Communication and Culture: An Introduction. Tony Schirato and Susan Yell. London: Sage Publications, 2000. 204 pp. $74.00, $24.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-7619-6826-1, 0-7619-6827-X (pbk). 302.2 Sch35c.

Communication and Culture introduces the key concepts and skills needed by students of communication studies, cultural studies, cultural studies and textual studies. From Saussure to Bourdieu, from Freud to Foucault, the authors outline a range of theoretical approaches to the study of communication and culture. Concepts are introduced in everyday contexts to demonstrate the essential skills of textual and visual analysis. The book focuses on the three primary systems of communication: spoken, written and visual. Examples are chosen from contemporary popular culture and common social and cultural practices in a range of media, including newspapers, magazines, television, film, politics, Internet discussions and ordinary speech.

Communication for Development in the Third World: Theory and Practice for Empowerment, 2^nd edition. Srinivas R. Melkote and H. Leslie Steevas. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2001. 420 pp. $43.00, $21.00 (pbk). ISBN: 0-7619-9475-0, 0-7619-9476-9 (pbk). 338.90091724 M486c 2001.

This second edition of Communication for Development in the Third World builds on the framework provided by the earlier edition. However, this edition is organized conceptually where the first edition was organized historically. It is updated to include the literature on development and communications from the 1990s and integrate it with the theory and practice of development communication.

Literature as Communication: The Foundations of Mediating Criticism. Roger D. Sell. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2000. 348 pp. $95.00, $34.95 (pbk). ISBN: 1-55619-838-8, 1-55619-839-6 (pbk). 801.95 Se488l.

This book offers foundations for a literary criticism which seeks to mediate between writers and readers belonging to different historical periods or social groupings. Sell describes communication in general as strongly interactive, as very much affected by the disparate situationalities of sending and receiving, yet as by no means completely determined by them. Seen this way, men and women are both social beings and individuals, capable of empathizing with socio-historical formations which are alien to them, sometimes even to the extent of changing their own life-world. By treating literary activity as communicational in this same dynamic sense, Sell radically modifies the main paradigms of twentieth-century literary theory, casting much new light on questions of genre, interpretation, affect and ethics.

Professional Communication in International Settings. Yuling Pan, Suzanne Wong Scollon and Ron Scollon. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2002. 240 pp. $64.95, $29.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-631-22508-0, 0-631-22509-9 (pbk). 658.45 P191p.

In today's global business environment it is necessary to communicate successfully across cultural boundaries of languages, styles, and values. Professional Communication in International Settings provides a practical way to help individuals deal with a variety of cultural practices by systematically developing their own capacity to learn culturally appropriate behaviors and actions. The book uses four communicative activities; telephone calls, resumes, presentations, and meetings; to show how the rapid development of new media technologies and new contacts changes each area of professional communication. It presents a method for cooperative and comparative exchanges that allow organizational groups to get the information they need directly from their counterparts without lengthy training programs.

Transforming Communication About Culture: Critical New Directions. Mary Jane Collier, editor. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002. 300 pp. $79.95, $37.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-7619-2487-6, 0-7619-2488-4 (pbk). 303.482 T6874.

Transforming Communication About Cultures includes contributions about the ways in which people’s lives and experiences across the globe are being transformed by technological changes, media institutions, political ideologies, and social forces. International in scope, the theme of this volume reflects a series of dialectic tensions being identified by scholars relating to groups that value and need to be recognized as international citizens while maintaining a national identity an/or balancing ethnic identities in the context of changing national boundaries or national policies.

ETHICS

Media and Ethics: Principles for Moral Decisions. Elaine E. Englehardt and Ralph D. Barney. Australia: Wadsworth Thomson Learning, 2002. 334 pp. $50.00. ISBN: 0-15-508256-6. 175 En35m.

This book takes an interdisciplinary view on the key topics in communication, ethics, literature, psychology, religion, and history. The writings in this anthology serve as a basis for a critical analysis of ethical issues facing the mass communication industry today.

GRAPHICS AND ANIMATION

Animation on the Web. Sean Wagstaff. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press, 1999. 494 pp. $34.99. ISBN: 0-201-69687-8. 006.6776 W125a.

This informative guide helps Windows and Macintosh users learn how to create animations for the Web. The author makes the book highly accessible, even if you're new to animation, computer graphics, or Web design. He introduces the reader to the available technologies and software for creating Web animations. While exploring the basics of each technology, Wagstaff explains its advantages and disadvantages. Wagstaff provides a guide to the various purposes of Web animation, such as banner ads and entertainment as well as a primer on animation techniques and principles and explains how to apply them to the Web.

HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY

1968: Year of Media Decision. Robert Giles and Robert W. Snyder, editors. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2001. 175 pp. $24.95. ISBN: 0-7658-0621-5. 302.2309046 N622.

The contributors to 1968: Year of Media Decision establish not only what journalism meant in 1968, but also gauge the distance and direction that news reporting has traveled since then. With the perspective of thirty years we can see that the events of 1968, which once seemed to erupt out of nowhere, were the consequences of powerful trends. At the same time gauging the distance between then and now can help make it clear which aftershocks of 1968 are with us and which collectively, have disappeared.

Cautious Crusade: Franklin D. Roosevelt, American Public Opinion, and the War Against Nazi Germany. Steven Casey. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001. 302 pp. $35.00. ISBN: 0-19-513960-7. 940.5373 C2682c.

In this book, Steven Casey challenges conventional wisdom about America's participation in World War II. Drawing on the numerous opinion polls and surveys conducted by the U.S. government, he traces the development of elite and mass attitudes toward Germany, from the early days of the war up to its conclusion. Casey persuasively argues that the president and the public rarely saw eye to eye on the nature of the enemy, the threat it posed, or the best methods for countering it. He describes the extensive propaganda campaign that Roosevelt designed to build support for the war effort, and shows that Roosevelt had to take public opinion into account when formulating a host of policies, from the Allied bombing campaign to the Morgenthau plan to pastoralize the Third Reich. By examining the previously unrecognized relationship between public opinion and policy making during World War II, Casey's book sheds new light on a crucial era in American history.

Critical Times: The History of the Times Literary Supplement. Derwent May. London: Harper Collins Publishers, 2001. 606pp. $35.00. ISBN: 0-00-711449-4. 820.9 M45c.

For one hundred years, from its tenuous beginnings in 1902, The Times Literary Supplement, has been home to an astonishing assemblage of outstanding writers, each working against the backdrop of their times. During the First World War, with the paper reflecting on the rightness of the conflict, regular contributors included Virginia Woolf and the young T.S. Eliot. By the Second World War, the paper was articulating views on Nazi Germany, with commentators like George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh. Today, the TLS continues to hold up a mirror to literature, politics, and society. Derwent May, columnist for The Times, looks at the controversies, the jests, the quarrels, the court cases.

The English Press: 1621-1861. Jeremy Black. Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2001. 213 pp. $30.00. ISBN: 0-7509-2524-8. 072.09 B561e.

English newsbooks had first appeared in the 1620s but in conditions of such tight censorship that the government effectively had a monopoly on the news. The twice-weekly London Gazette was established in 1665 as the official vehicle for news. However, by the end of the century there was a huge demand for news from all parts of the country and news-sheets proliferated. In the 18th century the relaxation of censorship opened the way to newspapers becoming major vehicles of political debate, mirroring the increasing openness of the British political system. As the century progressed, so proprietors realized the commercial potential of newspapers and in the 19th century the commercial press rose to new heights. This account charts the rise of the English press and shows how newspapers have played a key role in the development of a national consciousness.

The Great Radio Audience Participation Shows: Seventeen Programs from the 1940’s and 1950’s. Jim Cox. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2001. 264 pp. $45.00. ISBN: 0-7864-1071-X. 791.446 C8392g.

This work contains the histories of 17 radio audience participation shows on the air during the 1940s and 1950s. Included for each show are the premise it was based upon, the producers, host, announcer, vocalists, orchestra conductor, writers, sponsors, the ratings, and the air dates. Biographical sketches are provided for 177 figures who were connected to radio audience participation shows.

The Historian, Television and Television History. Graham Roberts and Philip M. Taylor, editors. United Kingdom: University of Luton Press, 2001. 181 pp. $29.95. ISBN: 1-86020-586-0. 791.43658 H6292.

The collected essays in this book arose out of the conference of the International Association of Media and History which brought together key academics and program makers from across Europe involved in history and television. The book covers a highly productive dialogue between academics and media practitioners discussing the relationship between theory and practice from a range of different approaches and opinions.

John Logie Baird, Television Pioneer. Russell Burns. London, UK: The Institution of Electrical Engineers, 2000. 417 pp. $95.00. ISBN: 0-85296-797-7. 621.3880092 B9371b.

Professor Russell Burns attempts to offer a balanced biography of one of the Twentieth Century’s outstanding inventors, published here to coincide with the 75^th anniversary of Baird’s first public demonstration of a rudimentary television system. The author’s meticulous treatment is based on primary source documents although many personal recollections are included to add humor, color and context. A great deal of material regarding Baird’s business partnerships in the early 1920s has only recently become available to researchers and is covered here for the first time.

The Last Editor: How I Saved the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times from Dullness and Complacency. Jim Bellows. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2002. 349 pp. $26.95. ISBN: 0-7407-1901-7. 070.41092 B417l.

The Last Editor is the memoir of Jim Bellows, the editor whose David-and-Goliath battles changed the face of the newspaper business. Bellows struggled to save major competitors of America's three most powerful newspapers: the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. In doing so, he developed major talent from rough cuts and brought a new generation of writers to the mainstream press. The Last Editor is a memoir of a man who loved a fight, highlighted with commentary from his colleagues in letters and sidebars from the biggest names in media.

Marconi’s Atlantic Leap. Gordon Bussey. New Century Park, England: Marconi Communications, 2000. 96 pp. $59.95. ISBN: 0-95389-670-6. 384.5092 B967m.

Marconi’s Atlantic Leap is an informal and well-illustrated history of the famous transmission of the Morse Code letter “s” across the Atlantic in 1901. The historical consultant to Marconi since 1994, Bussey has gathered photos, facsimiles of letters and documents and maps to help tell the story of the technical breakthrough.

My Mentor: A Young Man’s Friendship with William Maxwell. Alec Wilkinson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 179 pp. $22.00. ISBN: 0-618-12301-6. 813 M451Yw.

In this book, Wilkinson assembles a portrait of William Maxwell, a writer and one of the last century's greatest editors of short fiction, best known for his work at The New Yorker. Maxwell was Wilkinson's writing mentor from the time he decided to become a writer until the end of Maxwell's life. Tracing the 25-year relationship between the emerging writer and the well-established literary master, Wilkinson reflects on the nature of his teacher's private, social, and public life.

The Publisher, Paul Block: A Life of Friendship, Power and Politics. Frank Brady. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2001. 552 pp. $49.00, $29.50 (pbk). ISBN: 0-7618-1888-X, 0-7618-1889-8 (pbk). 070.5092 B62p.

Paul Block virtually invented national newspaper advertising, as well as chain and syndicate publishing. He worked on, and shaped, the first Sunday newspaper supplement in the United States. He was the mastermind behind the magazine that enjoyed the largest circulation of any periodical in this country. His hundreds of signed, front-page editorials, from 1916 to 1941, on virtually every public issue of his day, were forceful commentaries that not only sold newspapers, but engineered and influenced legislation. The Publisher, the first biography of Paul Block, tells the story of his rise to the summit of American newspaper chains and chronicles his business and social relationship with William Randolph Hearst. The book reveals Block's influence not only on journalism, but also on the government and politics of his day.

Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America. Jesse Walker. New York, NY: New York University Press, 2001. 326 pp. $24.95. ISBN: 0-8147-9381-9. 384.540973 W151r.

Rebels on the Air explores these overlooked chapters in American radio, revealing the legal barriers established broadcasters have erected to ensure their dominance. Using lively anecdotes drawn from firsthand interviews, Walker chronicles the story of the unsung heroes of American radio who, despite those barriers, carved out spaces for themselves in the spectrum, sometimes legally and sometimes not.

Small Screens, Big Ideas: Television in the 1950’s. Janet Thumim, editor. London: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2002. 262 pp. $50.00, $22.00 (pbk). ISBN: 1-86064-683-2, 1-86064-682-4 (pbk). 791.4509045 Sm18.

This text offers exploration, based on case studies, of television's complex formative period - the 1950s. It discusses television's role in the construction of national and gender identities and its relation to other media such as theatre, film and radio.

A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet. Asa Briggs and Peter Burke. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002. 374 pp. $62.95, $27.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-7456-2374-3, 0-7456-2375-1 (pbk). 302.2309 B768s.

Written by two leading social and cultural historians, A Social History of the Media provides a masterful overview of communication media and of the social and cultural contexts within which they emerged and evolved over time. The authors retrace the complex and multiple paths of development, exploring the interrelations between communication media and other aspects of social life. The scope of this book is far-reaching, exploring the history of the different means of communication in the West from the invention of printing to the Internet. It deals with each constituent element in what came to be called the media and discusses, among other things, the continuing importance of oral and manuscript communication, the rise of print, the relationship between physical transportation and social communication, and the development of electronic media. The book concludes with an account of the convergences associated with digital communication technology, the rise of the internet and the phenomenon of globalization.

Social Theories of the Press: Constituents of Communication Research, 1840s to 1920s, 2^nd edition. Hanno Hardt. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001. 211pp. $72.00, $26.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-7425-1133-2, 0-7425-1134-0 (pbk). 302.2 H21s 2001.

Hanno Hardt has thoroughly revised and expanded his pre-history of communication research in the United States. With the notable addition of Karl Marx's journalism-focused writings and a new foreword by James W. Carey, this edition covers intellectual contributions from several German theorists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as first-generation U.S. sociologists who were influenced by this scholarship. A new concluding chapter explores the continuing influence of German social thought and the contemporary shift of paradigms in U.S. communication research, including approaches such as critical (Marxist) and cultural studies.

Somebody’s Gotta Tell It: The Upbeat Memoir of a Working-Class Journalist. Jack Newfield. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2002. 336 pp. $25.95. ISBN: 0312-26900-5. 070.92 N45s.

On the heels of recent books decrying the liberal bias of the media comes this account of the life and times of one member of that liberal brotherhood. Born and raised in a working-class area of Brooklyn, Newfield never abandoned the neighborhood code of loyalty, fairness, teamwork, and the sanctity of the picket line. An investigative reporter, columnist, and documentary filmmaker, he has never been content merely to report the news. During the 1960s, even after he began writing for the Village Voice, he participated in marches and sit-ins, and he gives a unique insider's view of the turmoil within the leftist ranks. This highly personal memoir helps to explain the motivation behind biased reporting, but its real value lies in the descriptions of Newfield's encounters with some of the most influential newsmakers and journalists of the last 50 years.

Wireless: From Marconi’s Black-Box to the Audion. Sungook Hong. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001. 248 pp. $34.95. ISBN: 0-262-08298-5. 384.5209034 H757w.

This book offers a new perspective on the early days of wireless communication. Drawing on previously untapped archival evidence and recent work in the history and sociology of science and technology, it examines the substance and context of both experimental and theoretical aspects of engineering and scientific practices in the first years of this technology. It offers new insights into the relationship between Marconi and his scientific advisor, the physicist John Ambrose Fleming (inventor of the vacuum tube). It includes the full story of the infamous 1903 incident in wh8ich Marconi’s opponent Nevil Maskelyne interfered with Fleming’s public demonstration of Marconi’s syntonic system at the Royal Institution by sending derogatory messages from his own transmitter. The analysis of the Maskelyne affair highlights the struggle between Marconi and his opponents, the efficacy of early syntonic devices, Fleming’s role as a public witness to Marconi’s private experiments, and the nature of Marconi’s shows.

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND PERSPECTIVES

Asian Media Productions. Brian Moeran. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2001. 315 pp. $47.00. ISBN: 0-8248-2437-7. 302.23095 As421.

Asian Media Productions consists of a dozen essays on different aspects of Asian media by Japanese, American, and European scholars- many of whom have themselves been extensively involved in the production of media forms. Working in the fields of anthropology, and media and culture studies, and on the basis of extensive, hands-on research, the contributors have collaborated on an substantial volume on the social practices and cultural attitudes of people producing, reading, watching, and listening to different kinds of media in Japan, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, and India.

Australian Television: A Genealogy of Great Moments. Alan McKee. Australia: Oxford University Press, 2001. 361 pp. $19.95. ISBN: 0-19-551255-1. 791.45750994 M194a.

This is the first book to present a history of Australian television in which the programs themselves are the main focus of attention. In addition to providing an invaluable and comprehensive archive of information for anybody interested in the history of the medium, the book raises important questions about the ways in which we think about television.

The Australian TV Book. Graeme Turner and Stuart Cunningham, editors. St. Leonards, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2000. 243 pp. $34.50. ISBN: 1-86508-014-4. 384.550994 Au78.

The Australian TV Book paints the big picture of the small screen in Australia. It examines industry dynamics in a rapidly changing environment, the impact of new technology, recent changes in programming, and the ways in which the television industry targeted its audiences. The authors highlight what is distinctive about television in Australia, and how it is affected by international developments.

Communication Traditions in Australia: Packaging the People, 2^nd edition. Graeme Osborne and Glen Lewis. Australia: Oxford University Press, 2001. 246 pp. $21.00. ISBN: 0-19-551465-3. 302.20994 Os1c 2001.

This is a revised and expanded edition of Communication Traditions in 20th-century Australia. It critically analyses the history of Australian thinking about communication and places it in a global setting

Critical Security, Democratisation and Television in Taiwan. Gary D. Rawnsley and Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2001. 154 pp. $64.95. ISBN: 0-7546-1217-1. 384.554 R199c.

By examining the way the ruling Nationalist Party (KMT) dominated Taiwan's three mainstream television stations before the introduction of political reform in the mid-1980s, the book provides an insightful investigation of how the media can be used as an instrument of both political power and emancipation. This new approach challenges many accepted assumptions about Taiwan's political development, such as the sacrifice of democracy for stability and wealth and recognizes that threats to society often originate within the state itself, rather than from external forces. However, the development of public television also broadened the political agenda, allowing the Taiwanese population to express its will through collective activities and to exercise the power of (civil) society.

Cyberpath to Development in Asia: Issues and Challenges. Sandhya Rao and Bruce C. Klopfenstein, editors. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002. 199 pp. $64.00. ISBN: 0-275-96931-2. 303.4833095 C992.

This book examines the status of the Internet in some Asian countries and provides a better understanding of the diffusion patterns of Internet-related technologies within the specific social contexts of these nations.

Electronic Tigers of Southeast Asia: The Politics of Media, Technology, and National Development. Drew McDaniel. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 2002. 218 pp. $54.95. ISBN: 0-8138-1907-5. 302.230959 M459e.

This book investigates the fundamental changes in the political landscape of Southeast Asia, as a result of the communication technologies that have developed in the past 20 years. Special attention is paid to the evolution in electronic media and its tight controls and strict regulation censored in favor of political leaders of Southeast Asia.

George Newnes and the New Journalism in Britain, 1880-1910: Culture and Profit. Kate Jackson. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2001. 293 pp. $79.95. ISBN: 0-7546-0317-2. 072.09034 J135g.

This book brings a vast amount of new evidence to bear upon issues which currently preoccupy the scholarly community. It explores the boundaries between history, literary criticism, cultural and media studies and intellectual biography, embracing the debates surrounding the commercialization of culture and concerning the relative importance of production versus reception in the process by which cultural texts create meaning. The subject of the study is George Newnes and his involvement in the "New Journalism" in Britain in the late nineteenth century. It begins with a survey of the historiography and methodology of periodical research and examines the relevant biographical context. Then it goes on the analyze eight of Newnes’ most successful periodicals in terms of his own role in their conception and development, the phase of journalistic evolution to which they belonged, and the cultural environment of which they were a constituent part.

Illustrating Asia: Comics, Humor Magazines, and Picture Books. John A. Lent, editor. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2001. 249 pp. $36.00. ISBN: 0-8248-2471-7. 741.5095 Il69.

Illustrating Asia is a book on a subject that is of wide and topical interest. All of the articles consider cartoon and/or comic art in the historical and social setting of seven South, Southeast, and East Asian countries: India, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, China, and Japan. The contributors treat comic and narrative art--including comic books, comic strips, picture books, and humor and fan magazines--in both historical and socio-cultural perspectives, as well as portrayals of ancient Chinese philosophy, gender, and the enemy in cartoons and comics.

In Search of Boundaries: Communication, Nation-States and Cultural Identities. Joseph M. Chan and Bryce T. McIntyre, editors. Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing, 2002. 317 pp. $67.95, $28.95 (pbk). ISBN: 1-56750-570-8, 1-56750-571-6 (pbk). 302.23 In11.

This book analyzes the forces, processes and consequences of the formation of cultural boundaries in the age of global communication, and illuminates how communication, nation-states and cultural identities interact in the reconfiguration of these boundaries.

More Long Shots: Australian Cinema Success in the 90’s. Mary Anne Reid. Sydney, Australia: Australian Film Commission, 1999. 136 pp. $21.95. ISBN: 0-642-48715-4. 791.430994 R272m.

In her sequel to Long Shots to Favorites, Mary Anne Reid profiles the financing, marketing and distribution of three successful Australian feature films of the mid to late 1990s - Love and Other Catastrophes, Muriel's Wedding and Kiss or Kill.

Scenes From Postmodern Life. Beatriz Sarlo. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. 170 pp. $49.95, $24.90 (pbk). ISBN: 0-8166-3008-9, 0-8166-3009-7 (pbk). 306.4850982 Sa73e: E.

In this book by one of Latin America's foremost intellectuals, Beatriz Sarlo offers a statement of what precisely cultural criticism is and might be in our age of manic consumption, commercialization, popularization, and mass marketing. Her readings of cultural practices such as television zapping, playing video games, or trawling the shopping mall; her vignettes of traditional intellectuals and practitioners of high art; her discussions of popular culture and the dissolution of social identities: these, as well as Sarlo's own writerly stance, go a considerable way toward developing the role of thinking in global times. Taking full advantage of the fact that her native Argentina is both fully part of global culture and yet in some ways on its periphery, Sarlo shows how an off-center or decentered perspective can bring the political consequences of the culture industry into sharp relief.

LAW, COPYRIGHT, FIRST AMENDMENT, & FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

The First Amendment and the Media in the Court of Public Opinion. David A. Yalof and Kenneth Dautrich. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 155 pp. $60.00, $22.50 (pbk). ISBN: 0-521-80466-3, 0-521-011817-7 (pbk). 323.4450973 Y12f.

In light of recent frustrations with the press over its increasingly sensationalistic coverage of the news, no liberty is more vulnerable to the vagaries of the current political climate than is freedom of the press. By considering public opinion data from two original surveys (in 1997 and 1999) on free press rights against the backdrop of modern First Amendment jurisprudence, the authors offer new and original insights into the nature of popular support for these rights.

The Freedom Not to Speak. Haig Bosmajian. New York: New York University Press, 1999. 241 pp. $45.00. ISBN: 0-8147-1297-5. 342.730853 B652f.

Bosmajian traces the history of the freedom not to speak from the Middle Ages and Inquisition to the twentieth century and the House Committee on Un-American Activities. His history addresses the Civil War and Reconstruction loyalty oaths by Union Confederate soldiers, and the expulsion of Jehovah's Witnesses from schools for refusing to salute the flag, and includes an analysis of coerced speech in a variety of literary works. Bosmajian also contemplates the future of this right to silence and argues for the importance of a specifically labeled and firmly established freedom not to speak.

Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press. Krsitina Borjesson, editor. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2002. 392 pp. $26.00. ISBN: 1-57392-972-7. 323.4450973 In88.

Award-winning journalists reveal the disturbing fact that the press in the U.S. isn't as free as the public would like to believe. Nearly two dozen reporters, at some risk to their careers, disclose run-ins with corporate or government powers-that-be which have prompted them to reevaluate the significance of journalism in a free and open society. Greg Palast, an American working for the Guardian in Britain, recounts his paper's investigation of voting irregularities in the 2000 U.S. presidential election, long before the lethargic U.S. press took up the story. Borjesson, an independent producer and the editor of this collection, recalls efforts to disclose the cause of the explosion of TWA Flight 800 in New York in 1996. Jake Akre, a television reporter, recounts actions taken by milk producers to thwart a report on the questionable quality of milk from cows fed with growth hormones. These reporters see a troubling trend toward self-censorship as more of their colleagues fear reprisals for the content of their reporting.

A Press Free and Responsible: Self-Regulation and the Press Complaints Commission, 1991-2001. Richard Shannon. London: John Murray, 2001. 392 pp. $37.00. ISBN: 0-7195-6321-6. 323.4450941 Sh196p.

Richard Shannon’s book, which traces the development of the Press Complaints Commission and the debates surrounding it in its first decade, is also a telling picture of British life and public opinion during the 1990s. The book discusses the internal struggles that have divided both the PCC and the industry itself, as well as exploring the serious questions of freedom and control such as how to balance an individual’s right to privacy with a public interest in the free expression of investigative journalism.

Reputations Under Fire: Winners and Losers in the Libel Business. David Hooper. London: Little, Brown and Company, 2000. 552 pp. $37.00, $21.20 (pbk). ISBN: 0-316-64833-7, 0-751-52993-1 (pbk). 345.420256 H766r.

Reputations under Fire is an account of numerous high-profile libel cases in England since the mid-1980s. Hooper, a senior partner of a prominent law firm in London, highlights the abuse of the English libel laws by Robert Maxwell, who developed a policy of using the law of libel to terrorize his opponents, and by Mohammed Fayed, whose libel actions have prevented the news media from breaking his carefully constructed web of deceit about his origins and his wealth.

MAGAZINES AND MAGAZINE WRITING

How to Write For Magazines: Consumers, Trade and Web. Charles H. Harrison. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2002. 180 pp. $40.00. ISBN: 0-205-31743-X. 808.06607 H245h.

This book serves as a guide to the basic tools of magazine article writing: knowing the marketplace, brainstorming, researching, querying editors, and writing to get published. Using a nuts-and-bolts approach, this text presents a step-by-step methodology to writing for magazines that includes significant coverage of trade, professional, and Web magazines. Students learn to master the basics of magazine article writing through hands-on exercises and commentary from current and successful magazine writers and editors.

MASS MEDIA AND SOCIETY

The Anthropology of Media: A Reader. Kelly Askew and Richard R. Wilk, editors. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2002. 416 pp. $64.95, $29.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-631-22093-3, 0-631-22094-1 (pbk). 302.23 An86.

The Anthropology of Media: A Reader is a collection of articles that, taken together, define this emergent field. Owing to the spread of mass media and new forms of expression and communication, anthropologists have been displaced by CNN, Hollywood, the Internet, and other global media in presenting and representing unfamiliar cultures to the majority of our world. People everywhere are seeing and hearing themselves and others in new ways, and have picked up these media to use for their own purposes. The Anthropology of Media offers a critical overview of how mass media represent and construct both Western and non-Western cultures.

Formations: A 21^st Century Media Studies Textbook. Dan Fleming, editor. New York, NY: Palgrave, 2000. 488 pp. $74.95, $29.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-7190-5845-7, 0-7190-5846-5 (pbk). 302.2307 F765.

Formations is a comprehensive work designed for students moving to a deeper engagement with the media studies. The original essays are organized around the broad themes of public knowledge, cultural identity, broadcasting, film, and pop tech. An introductory section explores the fundamentals of the field and a section on method examines how knowledge is constructed within media studies. Throughout, the material is structured into a combination of case studies and integrative essays, punctuated at key moments by "stop and think" advice aimed directly at students. With contributions by well-known scholars, Formations offers a deep engagement with issues, theories, and methods, especially new technologies transforming landscapes of popular culture.

Global Culture: Media, Arts, Policy, and Globalization. Diana Crane, Nobuko Kawashima, Ken’ichi Kawasaki, editors. New York: Routledge, 2002. 286 pp. $85.00, $24.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-415-93229-7, 0-415-93230-0 (pbk). 302.23 G511.

Culture no longer has borders. With the advent of internet sites like Sothebys.com and the increasing reality of globalization, culture itself has gone global. This collection focuses on questions involving national identity, indigenous culture, economic growth, free trade, cultural policy, and global tourism. Global Culture looks at all aspects of the "arts" including: film, art, music, theater, television, and museums. Global Culture fleshes out how current cultural policies are working and forecasts what we can expect the future landscape of global culture to look like.

Manufacturing Consent: Political Economy of the Mass Media. Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky. New York, NY: Patheon Books, 2002. 412 pp. $18.95. ISBN: 0-375-71449-9. 381.4530223 H426m.

In this book Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky show that, contrary to the usual image of the news media as cantankerous, obstinate, and ubiquitous in their search for truth and defense of justice, in their actual practice they defend the economic, social, and political agendas of the privileged groups that dominate domestic society, the state, and the global order. Based on a series of case studies, the authors draw on decades of criticism and research to propose a Propaganda Model to explain the media’s behavior and performance.

Media & Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, 3^rd edition. Richard Campbell, Christopher R. Martin and Bettina Fabos. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002. 614 pp. $30.00. ISBN: 0-312-39070-X. 302.230973 C153m 2002.

Media and Culture introduces the reader to four stages of the critical process -- description, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation -- and uses them to examine the historical context and current processes that shape mass media and culture.

Media Sport Stars: Masculinities and Moralities. Garry Whannel. New York, NY: Routledge, 2002. 268 pp. $75.00, $24.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-415-17037-0, 0-415-17038-9 (pbk). 796.081 W554m.

Media Sport Stars considers how masculinity and male identity are represented through images of sport and sport stars. From the pre-radio era to today's specialist TV channels, newspaper supplements and websites, Gary Whannel traces the growing cultural importance of sport and sportsmen, showing how the very practices of sport are still bound up with the production of masculinities. Focusing on figures like Muhammad Ali and David Beckham, Whannel shows how growing media coverage has helped produce a sporting system, and examines how modern celebrity addresses the issues of race and nation, performance and identity, morality and violence.

The Media Symplex: At the Edge of Meaning in the Age of Chaos. Frank Zingrone. New York, NY: Stoddart Publishing, 2001. 283 pp. $34.95. ISBN: 0-7737-3293-4. 302.234 Z664m.

A paradox lies at the heart of our new media reality: the more complex the instruments of communication, the more simplistic the messages they are able to convey. Television, for example, has become our main source of news. But while CNN and CSPAN can provide more information than ever before and at a greatly accelerated pace, they merely give us simplistic explanations of complex social and economic events: the sound bite. Zingrone warns that by burying literate, artistic culture under an avalanche of TV -- and Internet-processed information, we are changing the nature of our very culture. The new communication technologies are creating an overload that paralyzes us from taking action, except to consume as directed by advertisers.

Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives. Todd Gitlin. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 2001. 260 pp. $25.00. ISBN: 0-8050-4898-7. 302.23 G447m.

Gitlin, a professor of journalism and culture, examines why and how it has come about that so much of our time is spent being bombarded by communications, information, and entertainment from a variety of media. Gitlin wants to avoid the typical analysis of the effects of the media on society and, instead, looks at the media as an experience in itself, with no definitive meaning necessarily attached, analyzing the feelings elicited by a stream of information. Citing observations by Marx, de Tocqueville, Orwell, and a stream of others, Gitlin offers a history of how we got to the point where we are supersaturated with a torrent of information coming at us at incredible speed.

Mind Abuse: Media Violence in an Information Age. Rose A. Dyson. New York, NY: Black Rose Books, 2000. 225 pp. $19.99. ISBN: 1-55164-153-4, 1-55164-152-6 (pbk). 302.23 D995m.

The major concern of this book is the mushrooming problem of media violence. It is defined in terms of programming content and the more subtle, systemic forms of violence as expressed through growing media ownership concentration. This book is the first broad, comprehensive, critical history and analysis. Within Dyson's review of the relevant literature, she includes developing initiatives, as well as the lack of them, on the part of every sector of society--parents, teachers, policy makers at all levels of government, and members of the multifaceted and growing media industry.

Mobocracy: How the Media’s Obsession with Polling Twists the News, Alters Elections, and Undermines Democracy. Matthew Robinson. Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing, 2002. 378 pp. $24.95. ISBN: 0-7615-3582-9. 302.230973 R564m.

Through research and interviews, this book exposes how the questionable science of polls can be manipulated, how poll-driven news leads to shallow coverage, and how many of our elected officials have come to serve poll results more than they serve their constituents. The author explains the ways that polls, not the Constitution or the law, drove the Clinton impeachment process, the 2000 presidential election, the confirmation hearings of government officials, and other critical events. Also included is an explanation of how coverage of many of the most divisive issues, such as abortion, gun control, and health care, is manipulated by polling that too often seeks to further an agenda, not measure opinion.

New Media and Politics. Barrie Axford and Richard Huggins, editors. London: Sage, 2001. 229 pp. $79.00, $25.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-7619-6199-2, 0-7619-6200-X (pbk). 302.523 N423.

Exploring the theme of the putative transformation of political modernity under the impact of new media, this book adopts a questioning approach to the ways in which cultural and technological factors are affecting the temper of political life, and reflects the variety of normative thinking about and empirical research on the changing character of politics in mediatized cultures. New Media and Politics examines: the extent to which commercial populism now dominates electoral and other political discourses; the ways in which the functions of leadership, government and political parties are modified by different forms of both old and new media; the democratic or undemocratic import of such changes; and the ways in which the dominant territorial paradigm of politics is challenged by the space and time devouring capacities of electronic media.

Public Health Communication: Evidence for Behavior Change. Robert C. Hornik, editor. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002. 435 pp. $99.95, $45.00 (pbk). ISBN: 0-8058-3176-2, 0-8058-3177-0 (pbk). 613 P96.

This volume argues the case that public health communication has affected health behavior. It brings together sixteen studies of large-scale communication in a variety of substantive health areas--tobacco, drugs, AIDS, family planning, heart disease, childhood disease, highway safety--prepared by the authors who did the original research. These studies show important effects and illustrate the central conditions for success. The book also includes complementary analytic chapters which provide a meta-analysis of published results, some approaches to developing communication interventions, and alternative methods for evaluation of public health communication projects.

Sex and Money: Feminism and Political Economy in the Media. Eileen R. Meehan and Ellen Riordan, editors. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2002. 312 pp. $49.95, $19.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-8166-3787-3, 0-8166-3788-1 (pbk). 302.23082 Se911.

This book uses the media to show how questions of gender and economics are inextricably linked to issues of power in Western capitalist societies. Integrating political economy and feminism, it offers a new understanding of communication at the personal, experiential, institutional, and structural levels-and exposes all the subtle and complex ways in which sex and money are sutured into individuals' daily lives.

Sex, Religion, Media. Dane S. Claussen, editor. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. 295 pp. $72.50. ISBN: 0-7425-1557-5. 175 Se91.

Each chapter in this explores intersections of sex, religion, and media in our society. An interdisciplinary cast of contributors examines a wide variety of themes, including entertainment producers' roles in disseminating sexual and religious content; news coverage of stories about sex and religion; religious conservatives' efforts to influence media coverage of sex and values; and how religious consumers are influenced by and react to sexual content in media.

MEDIA ECONOMICS

Global Hollywood. Toby Miller, Nitin Govil, John McMurria and Richard Maxwell. London: BFI Publishing, 2001. 279 pp. $65.00, $27.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-85170-846-3, 0-85170-845-5 (pbk). 384.80979494 G51.

This book addresses the vacuum left by textual analysis in analyzing this success turning to political economy, cultural studies, and cultural policy analysis to highlight the material actors underlying this apparent artistic success. Such factors include the numerous hidden subsidies to the U.S. film industry and copyright limitations concerned to prevent the free flow of information. Most of all, by relocating cultural production and through its relationship to World markets, more generally, contemporary Hollywood has transformed itself to attain ever greater global clout and reach. The authors also address these key areas of copyright, marketing, distribution, and exhibition that are cornerstones of the global industry apparatus.

Media Economics: Understanding Markets, Industries and Concepts, 2^nd edition. Alan B. Albarran. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 2002. 229 pp. $39.99. ISBN: 0-8138-2124-X. 338.4730223 Al13m 2002.

The second edition of Media Economics: Understanding Markets, Industries and Concepts provides a thorough introduction to economic concepts and principles and their application to the media industries. This fully updated text reflects the growth and impact of the Internet, globalization of media and other technological advances. Introductory chapters examine the foundations of media economics and subsequent chapters focus on the major players and economic forces at work in radio; television; cable/satellite; the Internet; film; recording; and newspaper, magazine and book publishing. Features include a new chapter devoted to the Internet, chapter objectives, review questions and exercises, numerous tables, figures, graphs, and supplemental materials, which include helpful appendices and a complete glossary.

Veni, Vidi, Video: The Hollywood Empire and the VCR. Frederick Wasser. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2001. 245 pp. $50.00, $22.95 (pbk). ISBN: 0-292-79145-3, 0-292-79146-1 (pbk). 384.558 W282v.

This book chronicles the rise of home video as a mass medium and the sweeping changes it has caused throughout the film industry since the mid-1970s. Frederick Wasser discusses Hollywood's initial hostility to home video, which studio heads feared would lead to piracy and declining revenues, and shows how, paradoxically, video revitalized the film industry with huge infusions of cash that financed blockbuster movies and massive marketing campaigns to promote them. He also tracks the fallout from the video revolution in everything from changes in film production values to accommodate the small screen to the rise of media conglomerates and the loss of the diversity once provided by smaller studios and independent distributors.

NEWSPAPERS AND NEWSPAPER WRITING

The Irish Times Book of the Year 1999-2000. Peter Murtagh, editor. Dublin, UK: Gill & Macmillan, 2000. 221 pp. $22.00. ISBN: 0-7171-3147-5. 941.50824 In47.

The Irish Times Book of the Year is a selection of the very best news stories, features, reports, cartoons and photographs for the year from September 1999 to September 2000. Drawing on the unrivalled resources of The Irish Times, it features the very finest writing from Ireland's finest newspaper.

The Penalty is Death: U.S. Newspaper Coverage of Women’s Executions. Marlin Shipman. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2002. 336 pp. $34.95. ISBN: 0-8262-1386-3. 364.66082 Sh645p.

In The Penalty Is Death, Marlin Shipman examines the shifts in press coverage of women's executions over the past one hundred and fifty years. Since the colonies' first execution of a woman in 1632, about 560 more women have had to face the death penalty. Newspaper responses to these executions have ranged from massive national coverage to limited regional and even local coverage. Throughout the years the press has been guilty of sensationalism, stereotyping, and marginalizing of female convicts, making prejudicial remarks, trying these women in the media, and virtually ignoring or simply demeaning African American women convicts. This thoroughly researched book studies countless episodes that serve to illustrate these points. Shipman's use of reconstructed stories, gleaned from hundreds of newspaper articles, gives readers a deeper understanding of the ways these dailies reported on the trials and imprisonment of women and how these reports reflected the cultural norms of the times.

Time, Change, and the American Newspaper. George Sylvie and Patricia D. Witherspoon. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001. 221 pp. $55.00, $24.50 (pbk). ISBN: 0-8058-3587-3, 0-8058-3588-1 (pbk). 070.4068 Sy58t.

Time, Change, and the American Newspaper focuses on newspapers as organizations, examining the role of change in the newspaper industry and providing a model from which to view and respond to change. Authors George Sylvie and Patricia D. Witherspoon discuss environmental and organizational influences on contemporary newspapers, and they analyze newspapers within the larger context of all organizations. This more general perspective provides insights into the nature of change, the change process, the rationale for organizational changes, resistance to such changes, and initiation and implementation strategies. In its examination of change, this volume explores the causes of newspaper change, how newspaper change takes shape, and when change does not work. This consideration sets the stage for detailed case studies examining the roles of new technology, product, and people as change agents in newspapers.