Book Description
America is no longer a country but a multimillion-dollar brand, says Kalle Lasn and his fellow "culture jammers". The founder of Adbusters magazine, Lasn aims to stop the branding of America by changing the way information flows; the way institutions wield power; the way television stations are run; and the way the food, fashion, automobile, sports, music, and culture industries set agendas. With a courageous and compelling voice, Lasn deconstructs the advertising culture and our fixation on icons and brand names. And he shows how to organize resistance against the power trust that manages the brands by "uncooling" consumer items, by "dermarketing" fashions and celebrities, and by breaking the "media trance" of our TV-addicted age.
A powerful manifesto by a leading media activist, Culture Jam lays the foundations for the most significant social movement of the early twenty-first century -- a movement that can change the world and the way we think and live.
Customer Reviews:
The newest culture movement?.......2007-07-13
He sets the stage for culture jammers to take on the newest set of problems being discovered in our culture, Corporate rule, causing people to be addicted to tv, shopping, eating, and consumption in general.
Wanting us to be what feminism was in the 70s, and what environmentalism was in the 80s.
he tries to show how the culture jammers can fight their meme fight using the media, yet starts to fight the wrong people a few times, yet quickly gets back on track.
Maybe culture jamming with be the movement of the 10's, but right now its a fight few are participating in.
Subversion at its best.......2007-07-11
This is an exceptional book. It is written by the founder of Adbusters. This is a book that challenged me to my core about my consumption habits. And in more specific the marketing that goes on to sell me things that I may or may not need. The book is sort of what you would imagine if an Old Testament prophet were to challenge the American Dream today. It's raw, honest, and thought provoking about how do we challenge and subvert the system without withdrawing from it. And what type of alternatives do we have besides living in a hole and pretending like nothing is happening. It's a bit of an older book (written in 2000) so some of the cultural references are obviously a bit out of date. But the content and ideas are really intriguing. The author shares a lot of stories about their battles and conversations with executives from all of the privately owned television stations and how they wouldn't take their money to run perfectly decent and normal ads. It shows how biased our entertainment industry is towards consumption and how embedded our entertainment is with commercialism. Just watch American Idol and you can see the gross product placement in that one show. This is the first book I bought all year (a fact to which I am proud since I bought close to 50 last year) because they didn't have it at any of my local libraries. So I bought it used on Amazon and gave it away to a friend, who will hopefully pass it on to someone else.
Interesting and different.......2005-10-25
This book is excellent for studying culture. The author is interesting and relates to the reader easily. The topics vary and bring many different ideas to the plate for anyone interested in culture. I would suggest that this would be interesting for a teenager to an adult to read. It will change your perception of culture.
Yes-No-Maybe-I don't know-Can you repeat the question?.......2005-10-20
I bought this book thinking it was going to briefly spell out what I already know--that our advertising-soaked world is toxic--and then get to the heart of the matter: what I personally could do to make my own life saner. It did not do that. It was mostly a diatribe against "the way the world is today" and how "things were better in the old days."
Well, hold the phone, because (a)Things aren't 100% hellish now and (b)The world is no worse than it ever was, it's just crummy in a different way. This is one great argument that IT IS IMPERATIVE TO KNOW YOUR HISTORY! So here goes:
Life up till the 1950s was not all one big back-to-nature love-in. Most people have been unable to build a fire without using matches since at least the Industrial Revolution. Nobody but an idiot would have drunk from a stream in the Middle Ages; the water was polluted (albeit with feces rather than mercury), and that's why they all guzzled ale instead. Life on the land basically meant you were one crop away from starvation and you worked yourself pretty much to death just to get by. And if you want to talk about long hours and fast paces, how about 7-year-olds toiling in textile factories and mines for 12 to 15 hours a day--less than a century ago?
Yes, we are inundated with advertising to a ridiculous degree. And yes, it breeds cynicism. And yes, the levels of noise and chatter have become deafening. These are Bad Things. But the book really doesn't give any positive steps for turning these things down in your own life...and I thought that was the point? I can bemoan the state of the world quite well on my own; what I want is some ideas other people have tried that worked. Like another reviewer, I'm hoping for a sequel that would deal with these things--plus not leave me so depressed I want to stick my head in the oven. Maybe it could be titled: *Okay, the Sky's Not Falling, Let's Lighten Up*?
It is the points being made that matter.......2005-07-16
This book is a little all over the place, but its basic premises and ideas are what matters. I won't go into any details - read the book for those. Just let me say if everyone read this book (with an open mind), then maybe we would all realize that huge corporations are having a very negative impact on the quality of all of our lives and it is time to do something about it. This book should be mandatory reading for all high school students. Read this book and try to get your friends to read it. It is time to wake up and take your life back.
Amazon.com
While the 16 years that have passed since the first edition of this book hit the stands have been marked by an increase in sensitivity toward many ethnic, racial, and sexual minorities, the easy acceptance of stereotypes and prejudices in the portrayal, depiction of, and reporting about Islamic peoples has remained largely constant. In this updated version of this rigorous but engaging volume Edward Said looks at how American popular media has used and perpetuated a narrow and unfavorable image of Islamic peoples, and how this has prevented understanding while providing a fictitious common enemy for the diverse American populace.
Book Description
From the Iranian hostage crisis through the Gulf War and the bombing of the World Trade Center, the American news media have portrayed "Islam" as a monolithic entity, synonymous with terrorism and religious hysteria. In this classic work, now updated, the author of Culture and Imperialism reveals the hidden agendas and distortions of fact that underlie even the most "objective" coverage of the Islamic world.
Customer Reviews:
A Must Read For The Uneducated Westerner.......2006-06-27
Edward Said is one of my favorite social writers when it comes to Middle Eastern politics. Being a Palestenian Christian, it is obvious he wouldn't simply side with the East because of his religious ties with Islam. The book is very fair in showing exactly how the West's propaganda against the Middle East is a self-fulfilled prophecy. It's undoing will certainly be its downfall. This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand some tenets of journalism and is definately a must read for anyone who has ever taken an anthropology class. Pick it up!
Interesting but flawed thesis.......2006-06-10
In the latter stages of `Orientalism', Edward Said's monumental and controversial treatise on the `otherness' of Eastern cultures as perceived by Western writers and colonial figures, the German anti-Islamist Gustave von Grunbaum - writing some five decades ago - is taken to task. Said notes his `essentially reductive, negative generalisations' about Islam and supplies quotations to substantiate the charge. Despite Said's strictures, though, von Grunebaum's statements concerning the `basic anti-humanism of Islamic civilization' which `does not separate the things of Caesar from those of God' have a definite bearing on one side of the current debate in the light of more recent catastrophic events. This view of Islam as prescriptive, authoritarian, resistant to change is by its nature `Orientalist', in the pejorative sense which Said implies, because it is held by an outsider whose Western intellectual baggage must inevitably compromise any attempt on his part to be objective. Much as I usually defer to Said's prodigious scholarship I find myself in serious disagreement with him here. Likewise, the sequel `Culture and Imperialism' contains a discussion of W.B. Yeats in which Said objects to two American commentators on post '79 Iran quoting Yeats in their reports. He feels that the words of Ireland's greatest poet about `the worst being full of passionate intensity' would be better applied to the Western colonial intervention of 1953 than to those caught up in, or leading, the upheaval which would be its eventual outcome. Of course, many would take the view that Yeats' `Second Coming' could quite legitimately be referred to when the subject of the Ayatollah Khomeini's bloodstained Islamofascist regime is under discussion.
Unfortunately this propensity for denial and omission to some extent pervades `Covering Islam'. Written in the wake of Iran's 1979 `revolution' and the ensuing hostage crisis it deals with Western media perception of Islam and the Islamic world. Essentially what is presented is a further ramification of the argument in `Orientalism', which is referred back to, concerning the problem of negative, sometimes racist, Muslim stereotypes in mainly the US media. `I have no quarrel with the view that the Islamic world is in a dreadful state', Said concedes, acknowledging that at least some of the criticism might be justified. He also admits that most Islamic societies are `poor, tyrannical, militarily inept' and `incompetent, crude dictatorships', although without any attempt to analyse the possible underlying reasons for this. When even a respected authority like Bernard Lewis refers to Islam as something `static, determinist and authoritarian' - as distinct from the rationalist, secular West - he is in effect shouted down, possibly because Said senses in the remark some hint of an explanation which Lewis would like to offer for the inherent backwardness of Islamic countries. John Kifner of the New York Times gets similar treatment for an article in which he contrasts the Western mind - post-Reformation - with Islam, noting that the latter observes no separation of Church and State and remarking on the difficulty we in the West are bound to have in grasping the power exerted by Islam. Again, these seem to me pertinent observations although Said disallows them.
The main focus of the book is Iran and the various references to Khomeini, far from being critical, seem calculated not to offend his supporters whose hysterical adulation was dramatically pointed up at the time by the Western media. Incredibly, as an example of the hostile media slant Said even mentions an edition of Khomeini's `Islamic Government', published under the title `Khomeini's Mein Kampf' and carrying a preface by one George Capozi Jnr of the New York Post which compares Khomeini with Hitler. Given the nature of the regime and the psychology of its leader this would seem fair comment, but Said chooses instead to focus on Khomeini's reputation at home as a great reader of Islamic law who thus, as the nation's guide, fulfils the requirements of Iran's new constitution. His moral teachings are mentioned in passing along with his call for an Islamic republic which should `institutionalize righteousness' and act in the best interests of the oppressed. Sadly, these reassuring indications of the tyrant's honourable intentions merely disguise the brutal reality of a system which claimed many innocent lives. Nor, with the benefit of hindsight, is this regretted in the revised 1991 introduction. We have to look elsewhere to be informed about the regime's routine murder of gays, atheists, apostates, prostitutes and adulterers, not to mention the righteous Mullah's revolting prescriptions regarding bestiality and sex with children.
Said also states, at various points, his opinions on what qualifies anyone to report from Muslim countries or comment from the outside looking in. He regrets the fact that those who express negative opinions about the Islamic world often have no grasp of Islamic jurisprudence and are unfamiliar with the languages of the region. Zionist author Michael Walzer, for example, is referred to in this light. I would not normally defend Walzer (his characterisation of the Palestinian resistance as religious rather than political is patently absurd) but this seems a little unfair. By the same logic it might be argued that, in the `30s and `40s, to have criticised Hitler one should ideally have been a German speaker and possessed an in-depth knowledge of Germany's history and culture, also its legal system.
I have too high a regard for Professor Said to dismiss his thesis out of hand. It is valid up to a point. He is right to condemn the media charade of the hostage crisis following the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran, the whole point of which was to force the return of the exiled Shah from the States to face trial. Over the 444-day period of the standoff a cavalcade of network `pundits', with their 3-minute soundbite approach to history, did little to advance public awareness of the background to the crisis. Of the struggle unfolding between the clergy and various political groupings in Iran very little was said. Of course, had there been serious analysis of this and other important issues it would probably have detracted from the entertainment value of the discussions centering upon conspiracy theories rather than facts. Thus, George Ball of the Washington Post's claim that the embassy takeover was `orchestrated by well-known Marxists' (how well known or who they were, exactly, was not specified) typified the general ambience of rumour and paranoia. Other equally informed contributors to the debate alleged PLO involvement and, because the Cold War still had a decade to run, inevitably the Soviet Union must have had a hand in it also. That the Iranian people might actually have suffered under the Pahlavi dynasty and therefore wished to bring its deposed head to account seems scarcely to have been considered. When the crisis was finally resolved rumours of torture and ill-treatment inflicted on the hostages by their captors were shown to have been a cynical lie conceived as part of the media's sensationalist agenda. This attention-grabbing, racist stereotype of the Muslim whose moral backwardness is bound to lead to uncivilized behaviour - played upon at length during the seige - unfortunately continues to have wide currency.
Said also notes hypocrisy in the charge that Islamic societies are theologically backward-looking if it is not equally applied to Israel. The terrorist Begin's citing of Biblical precedent to justify his war on the Palestinians is brought to mind. Indeed, the plethora of pro-Israeli books and journals masquerading as serious scholarship and responsible journalism, in their eagerness to portray Israel as a victim of Islamic violence, say little or nothing about the bombing and invasion of several Islamic countries by Israel and the US, or Palestinian dispossession. This is familiar territory and all of a piece with, elsewhere, Said's excoriating and entirely proper denunciations of Israeli oppression in the occupied territories. Various examples of hate propaganda in American right-wing publications are mentioned, one particularly repellent example being Martin Peretz of the `New Atlantic' who is shown nailing his racist, anti-Arab colours firmly to the mast in a theatre review. Such unpleasant media stereotypes seem to have multiplied following the OPEC price rises of 1974 and the increase in the cost of imported oil. This strand of Said's argument ultimately connects with his analysis, in the concluding chapter, of the corporate or government-driven agenda which dictates the angle of Islamic studies in American universities and the careers open to graduates in the subject area.
In sum, more than twenty-five years after its initial publication `Covering Islam' remains thought-provoking and merits reconsideration in the context of the post 9/11 debate. For the sake of balance, however, I would strongly recommend Muslim apostate scholar Ibn Warraq's rigorous critique of Islam `Why I Am Not A Muslim' as a powerful refutation of Said's assertion in his introduction that the religion is `doctrinally blameless' vis-à-vis the absence of personal freedoms in many Islamic societies. Also, those who might be persuaded of Islam's allegedly benign attitude towards women could do worse than read `Price Of Honour', Jan Goodwin' chilling account of its practical realization in some of these very societies. Of particular relevance to this discussion is her chapter on Iran entitled `There Is No Fun In Islam' - those being the Ayatollah's very words - which shows how the initial euphoria following the Shah's overthrow soon gave way tragically to the realization that one barbaric torture state had been swept away only to be replaced by another.
Contrarian worth reading . . ........2006-06-08
First published in 1981 and updated in 1997, Said's critique of the media's coverage of Islam, particularly in the Middle East, is a thought-provoking challenge to any reader's perceptions of what is reported as news from that war-torn part of the world. Written before 9/11, subsequent military intervention in Afghanistan, and the current conflict in Iraq, the book's interpretation of events unfolding there (the aftermath of the Islamic revolution in Iran) are often prophetic. An understanding of Islam based solely on Western "interest," he argues, will lead to further and protracted conflict rather than resolution of differences.
Despite a carping tone that becomes irritating and a tendency to make its points with a thoroughness that seems like overkill, the book throws a searching light on how Islam is represented by news gatherers, experts, and policy makers. Emphasis on violence, anti-American rhetoric, and resistance to "modernization," for example, belie the fact that there is not a single monolithic Islam but many Islams and that what news organizations perpetuate is an undifferentiated form of cultural stereotyping - as if it were sufficient to say about the Dutch that they all wear wooden shoes.
Said's arguments are dismissed (see other reviews here) for reasons that may have some validity (as a Palestinian-American, his sympathies are clearly not pro-Israeli), but readers can benefit nonetheless from his contrarian views, especially since they throw into question assumptions about the Middle East, which so far show a tendency (as in the case of Iran and Iraq) to seriously misjudge political and cultural realities.
Important points, but..........2006-01-04
In Covering Islam, Edward W. Said makes some vitally important points that remind us that our relationship with many countries (and not just in the countries/cultures/peoples who are Arabic or Islamic or in the Middle East) is informed by a media that does not always do justice to the people they cover -- in many cases, the media generalizes and demonizes. Making one of the most important points in the book, Said reminds us that Islam (like "Christendom" or "the West" or any broad cultural category) is not a monolithic homogeneous structure, but that many journalists, pundits, spokespeople, and citizens see and portray it as such.
Said cites many examples of journalists (and academics) who fall into lazy habits when looking at and writing these cultures. Unfortunately, it seemed to me that Said makes many generalizations himself, about American media and journalists (although, to be fair, he does give some examples in the last chapter of academics and writers who he believes have a more broad and insightful and accurate viewpoint) which made it harder for me to stay engaged with the book.
Finally, I wanted to know his solutions and suggestions, not just the problem. If everything an American journalist or adademic touches in a country such as Iran or Iraq or Afghanistan is tainted by post-colonialism and oil and government, how can the average person learn about that part of the world in a genuine manner? What information is trustworthy? Said has told us the problem, or part of it, but did not seem, in this book anyway, to offer solutions.
Islam covered.......2005-08-19
How Islam is portrayed in the Western media shows how the tail wags the dog - a minority determines how the majority sees the rest of the world by giving them access to selective information about the Other.
This book should be added to your post-9/11-book shelf.
Book Description
"When was the last time you felt this comfortable in a relationship?"
-- An ad for sneakers
"You can love it without getting your heart broken."
-- An ad for a car
"Until I find a real man, I'll settle for a real smoke."
-- A woman in a cigarette ad
Many advertisements these days make us feel as if we have an intimate, even passionate relationship with a product. But as Jean Kilbourne points out in this fascinating and shocking exposé, the dreamlike promise of advertising always leaves us hungry for more. We can never be satisfied, because the products we love cannot love us back.
Drawing upon her knowledge of psychology, media, and women's issues, Kilbourne offers nothing less than a new understanding of a ubiquitous phenomenon in our culture. The average American is exposed to over 3,000 advertisements a day and watches three years' worth of television ads over the course of a lifetime. Kilbourne paints a gripping portrait of how this barrage of advertising drastically affects young people, especially girls, by offering false promises of rebellion, connection, and control. She also offers a surprising analysis of the way advertising creates and then feeds an addictive mentality that often continues throughout adulthood.
Customer Reviews:
EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK.......2007-01-25
My title says it all. It's very informative and allows the reader to understand why she/he thinks about and responds to american culture in certain ways. Very eye opening.
Also see the DVD with Jean Kilbourne.......2006-08-07
This book's ideas need to reach more people. It seems we're inundated with stories of child molesters, drug pushers, and other threats to us and our children; but the 200 billion dollars spent by the junk food makers, pharmaceutical pushers, military recruiters and others to colonize the hearts and minds of our kids is often overlooked. Sadly, many of those who are learning to look critically at the commercial media are often more privileged economically. Maybe we can find ways to reach out to other sectors of our society through letters to editors, calls to talk radio, writing on message boards and so forth. Also, there are additional resources that we can use to share perspectives to help protect people (kids and adults) from the psychological warfare of Big Business. I'd recommend DVDs like "Deadly Persuasion" from the Media Education Foundation, which is an expose of tobacco and alcohol advertising presented by Jean Kilbourne. There is also the award-winning film called "The Corporation" available from Amazon. Subscriptions to "Adbusters" and "New Moon" are also very helpful outreach tools.
An Absolute Must Read!!.......2005-10-25
Can't Buy My Love is an extraordinary book, insightful, critical, and without a doubt, an eye-opener. This book should be required reading by all Americans! Personally, it has played a pivotal role in my life. I would say I'm your average American citizen. I grew up in New York, immersed in the typical American culture. I watched plenty of television and movies and thus was exposed to an endless array of advertisements. As most people, I didn't think that my thoughts and actions were influenced by these advertisements. But after reading this book, I clearly saw how the messages and images of the media had a huge impact in my life. Until I read this book, I was sort of unconscious of this influence. I just went shopping as though it was a ritual and followed the mainstream culture. I went out drinking and pretended to have a good time while engaged in superficial conversations in loud smoky bars. Essentially, this book brought me to many realizations and my mentality started to shift for the better. I started to see things for what they are. Jean Kilbourne does an excellent job of analyzing numerous ads and clearly demonstrates the manipulation and false promises imbedded within these cleverly designed ads. Corporations spend millions of dollars on advertising and psychological research. As the targets of these ads, we as citizens need to be critical thinkers and media literate. In this day and age, we need to have an understanding of how the media industry works and in particular, the advertising industry, which constantly bombards us with messages on how we should live our lives and what is considered "normal." I highly, highly recommend this book. It's clear, concise, understandable, and will definitely have a positive impact in your life. I especially recommend this book to teenagers, who unfortunately have become the victims of massive amounts of advertisements. Profit-driven corporations have taken advantage of young impressionable minds and for that reason, I urge you to pick up a copy of this book for yourself and someone you care about! This one book was able to jump start a transformation in my life. I promise you won't regret reading it!
A fantastic and important book.......2005-10-13
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In our culture of product placements, "ambient" advertising (ie sticker ads on fruit peels, cars wrapped in company logos) and "tie ins" between just about every form of entertainment and commerce, this book does an amazing job of looking at how commercial forces shape definitions of 'normal', 'beautiful' etc.
I found Can't Buy My Love (which is written by Jean Kilbourne, NOT Mary Pipher) packed with interesting, relevant, easy-to-digest content that was both fascinating (companies spend over a half a million dollars to produce commercials aired during the Superbowl?!) and maddening (the real reason some companies seem suddenly to support a minority group, ie teens, the gay community etc, is that they seem them as an emerging market)--but I guess the maddening part is good because it lays bare how the media operate and how we're subjected to their sophisticated selling strategies whether we want to be or not .
I had no idea how much I *didn't* know about media and marketing until I read this book.... and having read some of the other titles mentioned by other reviewes, I think Kilbourne's book does a superior job explaining how the media (and manufacturers who hire them) affect nearly every aspect of our daily lives...and what we can do about it..
Unbelievably terrible: more of a rant than a true analysis.......2005-10-06
Mary Pipher has a great premise for "Can't Buy My Love": that corporations and the media use advertising to manipulate our emotions. And, throughout the book, she makes several insightful points about this phenomenon. However, Pipher's personal agenda, lack of self-awareness, humorless writing, and faulty interpretations quickly negate any good this book could do.
Pipher obviously has personal issues with cigarettes, alcohol, and sex/relationships. Unfortunately, she allows her subjectivity to color her writing, making "Can't Buy My Love" less thoughtful analysis and more personal diatribe. Pipher comes across as bitter, vindictive, and--most importantly in a book of this type--more full of opinions than of facts and research.
Many of Pipher's interpretations of various advertisements are faulty; she likes to "reach" with her interpretations, and in several cases, it's obvious that she has completely misread. Even more damaging to her case, Pipher rarely supports her own interpretations with any sources or even with any true commentary. Rather, she shows a picture of an ad and offers only a paragraph or two of her own interpretation before moving on. The book often feels unorganized and disconnected, especially when Pipher inserts a rant that is only vaguely related to the ads she's discussing--or even to advertising itself.
What really destroys the book, in my opinion, is Pipher's almost complete lack of humor. She doesn't recognize obvious humor or satire in certain advertisements, and she rarely lightens her vitriolic tone. She comes across as bitter, angry, and a little insane.
I would not recommend this book to anyone who wants an academic look at how advertising affects our emotions and behavior. Rather, you should read Stephen Kline's "Social Communication in Advertising: Persons, Products, and Images of Well-Being" or Judith Williamson's "Decoding Advertisements."
Book Description
"We the Media, has become something of a bible for those who believe the online medium will change journalism for the better." -Financial Times
Big Media has lost its monopoly on the news, thanks to the Internet. Now that it's possible to publish in real time to a worldwide audience, a new breed of grassroots journalists are taking the news into their own hands. Armed with laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras, these readers-turned-reporters are transforming the news from a lecture into a conversation. In We the Media, nationally acclaimed newspaper columnist and blogger Dan Gillmor tells the story of this emerging phenomenon and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make--and consume--the news.
Gillmor shows how anyone can produce the news, using personal blogs, Internet chat groups, email, and a host of other tools. He sends a wake-up call to newsmakers-politicians, business executives, celebrities-and the marketers and PR flacks who promote them. He explains how to successfully play by the rules of this new era and shift from "control" to "engagement." And he makes a strong case to his fell journalists that, in the face of a plethora of Internet-fueled news vehicles, they must change or become irrelevant.
Journalism in the 21st century will be fundamentally different from the Big Media oligarchy that prevails today. We the Media casts light on the future of journalism, and invites us all to be part of it.
Dan Gillmor is founder of Grassroots Media Inc., a project aimed at enabling grassroots journalism and expanding its reach. The company's first launch is Bayosphere.com, a site "of, by, and for the San Francisco Bay Area."
Dan Gillmor is the founder of the Center for Citizen Media, a project to enable and expand reach of grassroots media. From 1994-2004, Gillmor was a columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper, and wrote a weblog for SiliconValley.com. He joined the Mercury News after six years with the Detroit Free Press. Before that, he was with the Kansas City Times and several newspapers in Vermont. He has won or shared in several regional and national journalism awards. Before becoming a journalist he played music professionally for seven years.
Customer Reviews:
A neat topic.......2007-03-18
The book was a good guide to citizen media and gave some great examples of places where citizen media would work.
I enjoyed the examples thoroughly and found the book a useful guide. I can't wait for an updated version.
Very Sensible and Interesting.......2006-10-15
Dan Gilmor here presents the attitude toward technology & journalism that any journalist will need to have if he/she will survive long in this new era. They need to embrace, or at least reckon with, the new media.
Here Gilmor gives an enlightening look at the changing face of journalism and the negative and positive changes it makes.
I'm not a professional journalist, but I found this book to be fascinating and informative. I credit it with helping me to stick with blogging, and seeing it as something more significant than a passing fad. All journalists should read this, I believe!
Interesting read about the changes occurring in journalism..........2006-07-16
If you ever wondered what is changing in journalism, then this book is for you. It not only describes the logging phenomenon, but also describes why the big media might not last.
A Journalist Passionately Embraces the Internet.......2006-06-21
Many people blame the Internet for accelerating the long-term decline of newspaper circulation, and think that the Internet is crippling the future of American journalism.
Don Gillmor believes that the Internet has the potential to dramatically improve American journalism and widen its appeal.
Gillmor is no naive innocent. He demonstrates that he has an extraordinarily detailed command of the interrelationships and applications of the many internet and software technologies and journalism. I met Gillmor in April, 2004, at the BloggerconII conference organized by Dave Winer and held at Harvard Law School. He held the attention of his audience of bloggers through his mixture of detailed knowledge and passionate advocacy for the worth of blogging and the value of it becoming an income-generating activity.
No journalist should fail to read this book. Nor should any citizen consumer of journalism who participates online. Only a small part manifesto, this book is a detailed roadmap of the future of journalism for those informed enough and bold enough to take it. Those in business and government who are the subjects of journalism would also do well to read it.
The future of journalism, Gillmor says, will be much more participatory in the future than it has been in the past. The many to many communications style of the Internet will become the style of successful journalism. Journalism will less about lecturing and more about leading a discussion. The "eat your spinach" school of civic advocacy will be replaced by a greater connection between readers and journalists in which readers will influence both the definition of news and the content of individual news stories.
The proliferation of tens of millions of blogs means that the separation of news producers and news consumers is far less than it used to be. Everyone can produce news in the blogosphere. One duty of journalists is to sift the through the blogosphere and find out what is relevant. Another duty of journalists is to actively engage the public in the news gathering process. The definition of what professionalism in journalism is will be rapidly changing.
What is now at the edges, Gillmour says, will and should be moved to the center. Public concerns that once were marginal now will become mainstream.
As a Pennsylvania state legislator, I believe that this will have significant public policy effects--especially the areas of taxation and public welfare expenditures. For the first time, those with average and below average incomes are able to communicate their concerns to a mass audience. The more the digital divide in Internet access erodes, as the divide in telephone and television access has eroded, the greater the erosion will be of the upper middle class dominance of the political process. The stakes for putting the brakes on the trends Gillmor describes will get increasingly large in the years ahead.
This is not just a book for journalists and the subjects of journalism, or even just a book for currently active internet participants. The detailed accounts of the consumer applications of various technologies of what he calls the "the read-write web" or "technology that makes we the media possible" are alone worth the effort to get through this book.
Others may understand individual technologies better than Gillmor, but it is unlikely that anyone has a better understanding of how they all--HTML,mail lists and forums,weblogs, wikis, SMS, mobile connected cameras, internet "broadcasting," peer to peer, RSS,Technorati, API, and many others--come to together to create a radically different architecture of information, news, personal reach, and circle of potential friends and allies for many millions of Americans.
This is not a book to be read and put aside. Gillmor clearly struggled to get his text into 241 pages, plus 36 pages of acknowledgements, websites, and detailed notes. While there is occasional redundancy, on the whole a longer book would have been clearer in some respects.
This is a book to be carefully studied and used as a springboard to continued learning about new applications, new technologies, and new interrelationships as they emerge.
The idea of the public as part of the media is not totally new.
Going back at least to the 1940's, public opinion research focused on the stages of influence: the mass media first influenced the opinion leaders in a community, who then influenced others by word of mouth.
What is new is the dramatically improved publishing capacity for the individual citizen, regardless of whether he or she had the community stature and web of influence to have been a community leader--formal or informal--in the past.
The media had been steadily eroding the influence of opinion leaders, by influencing more and more people directly, but now the opinion leaders are back in record-high numbers and with greatly expanded spheres of influence.
"I hope I've helped you understand how this media shift--this explosion of conversations--is taking place and where it is headed," Gllmour says on the last page of his book. "Most of all, I hope I've persuaded you to take up the challenge yourself.
"Your voice matters. Now, if you have something to say, you can be heard.
"You can make your own news. We all can.
"Let's get started."
Journalism in the 21st century is changing .......2006-05-21
Any interested in the future of new media must have WE THE MEDIA: GRASSROOTS JOURNALISM BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE: a survey of how common folk are producing more meaningful news coverage using personal blogs, Internet chat groups, and email as their delivery tools. Journalism in the 21st century is changing - and will be quite different from the media-controlled presentations we know today. To find out just how different, you have to consult WE THE MEDIA: it comes from a journalist and founder of the very grassroots media making big changes.
Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch
Amazon.com
Beginning with the explosion of the dirigible Hindenburg in 1937, this book and double-CD collection of audio broadcasts recalls a series of dramatic events so urgent that they interrupted regularly scheduled broadcasting in America. The text of this package includes capsule explanations of such events as the attack on Pearl Harbor and the death of Elvis, accompanied by dramatic black-and-white stock photos. Introduced by the sonorous voice of TV journalist Bill Kurtis, the recordings of the news broadcasts revive the panic and thrill of some of the defining moments (mostly American) of the 20th century.
We Interrupt This Broadcast offers, in some ways, a strange view of the past. News that interrupts broadcasts is always sensational, and usually tragic. Of the 39 recordings, only five or so don't involve assassinations, explosions, death or defeat; furthermore, only the deaths of Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana represent the female side of modern events. Nevertheless, these recordings will fascinate many listeners too young to have heard the original broadcasts, and those who were alive might enjoy hearing them again in all their crackling, nostalgic glory. --Maria Dolan
Book Description
Revised and Updated!
Contains 3 New Shocking Events Straight From Today's Headlines
Updated to include the shocking and terrifying events of the past two years, We Interrupt This Broadcast brings to life the famous and infamous moments of the twentieth century. This second edition covers in striking detail the impeachment proceedings of President Clinton, the Columbine High School tragedy and the death of JFK Jr.--along with 38 other history-making moments--with memorable audio, vivid photographs and compelling text. From the dawn of electronic media to today, these are the 41 events that stopped us in our tracks and changed our world. We Interrupt This Broadcast recounts the details of the events and spotlights the photographs that tell the stories.
Customer Reviews:
M.I.A........2005-07-04
Missing from this book: Mt ST Helen's eruption on 5/18/80, Passing of Ronald Regan, Space Shuttle Columbia should be added in the next edition. Regular broadcasting was inerupted for these stories. Otherwise this book is worth it.
If you like history you will want to have this book.......2005-05-03
Perhaps one of the most innovative ways to study and share history, We Interrupt This Broadcast contains not only information on 43 of the most important events of the 20th century but also actual audio tracks from the original radio broadcasts. The stories told and broadcasts heard range from the Hindenburg explosion to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan's Surrender, Lee Harvey Oswald's Assassination, Martin Luther King Jr.'s Assassination, Apollo 13, the Kent State Massacre, Nixon's resignation, the shooting of President Reagan, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the O. J. Simpson saga, Princess Diana's death, the 2000 election, and finally the September 11th attacks, as well as 29 other historically important events. Each event is described in detail including important facts leading up to the event and the effect it had on the U.S. We Interrupt This Broadcast is very highly recommended and should be in the library of everyone who loves or teaches history.
Please Keep True to the Title.......2004-05-10
I have a previous edition of this book. It covered the Diana death, and I believe that is where it stopped. My complaint with the book is only that, as the topics progresses closer to current times, the interruptions became less "spontaneous."
The book's premise was to provide the first live broadcast interruption that the public heard, to create the same chills that people felt, to relive the first realization of the shocking event just as it happened. By the time the book got to Dianna's death, the news clips became more general, more like an end of the year re-cap of what had happened, instead of the first terror-filled report that something had gone wrong.
But a great book, other than that! Perhaps the problem has been fixed in this newer edition.
The narrator needs to shut up.......2003-12-28
The narrator explains what is written in the book already. The book would be a lot better if there was no narrator.
A time capsule of major twentieth-century American news.......2003-10-18
We Interrupt This Broadcast is a statement that never fails to send a little chill up my spine, as these four words have introduced many tragic news stories over the years. In today's jaded world, these words do not have the connotation I still associate with them, and that is both a good and a bad thing. In a world where so much is forgotten so quickly, it is important, especially for the younger generation, to not only know about important events in history but to have a real understanding of sorts concerning them. This book does much to help everyone living today, both young and old, to learn about, remember, and vicariously experience some of history's most memorable (many of them tragic) events. Over forty important moments of the twentieth century are detailed in this coffee table-like book, ranging from the fiery death of the Hindenburg in 1937 to (in my 2nd edition copy) the death of John Kennedy, Jr. in 1999. The third edition offers additional material of important events in the time period between releases.
While none of these events is covered in-depth by any means, the book offers worthwhile summaries and plenty of informative photographs throughout its pages. More importantly, though, the book comes with two CDs containing broadcast footage of these events, letting today's listener hear the words by which America was informed of such tragedies as the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, as well as tales of horror such as the explosion of Flight 800, the fiery end of the Waco standoff with David Koresh and his followers, and the Challenger explosion. Of course, all the news was not bad: here you can hear and read about man taking his first steps on the moon, bear witness to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, and celebrate retroactively the end of the World War II.
In a sense, this is a time capsule of sorts, as it holds a significant part of the history of twentieth-century America inside its pages and burned onto its two CDs. We Interrupt This Broadcast would make an excellent teaching tool for youngsters, but anyone who wants to come to a greater appreciation of history could profit much by this book, as well.
Book Description
Best–selling author Andy Kessler ties up the loose ends from his provocative book, Running Money, with this history of breakthrough technology and the markets that funded them.
Expanding on themes first raised in his tour de force, Running Money, Andy Kessler unpacks the entire history of Silicon Valley and Wall Street, from the Industrial Revolution to computers, communications, money, gold and stock markets. These stories cut (by an unscrupulous editor) from the original manuscript were intended as a primer on the ways in which new technologies develop from unprofitable curiosities to essential investments. Indeed, How We Got Here is the book Kessler wishes someone had handed him on his first day as a freshman engineering student at Cornell or on the day he started on Wall Street. This book connects the dots through history to how we got to where we are today.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book.......2007-02-21
I haven't read Running Money but its next on my list. Andy Kessler does a phenomenal job on grasping your attention and then holding onto to it till the end. Very informative and educational... a must read !!
mildly entertaining.......2006-07-29
This book is a fast read and keeps your attention. I enjoyed the authors viewpoint on how recent history progressed as it did. I have not read the author's first two books "Wall Street Meat" and "Running Money", but from the reviews they are much different than this book, and have a lot to offer. He grabbed my attention, so I will add the other books to my wish list.
Fun, light reading for a sunday long bus ride...........2006-06-26
Nothing more than entretaining fare for a long tedious bus ride. Would not dissapoint the casual reader. No more no less.
Fun and Important Book.......2006-01-02
Fascinating story about the history of technology and capital markets. More fun than most books I've read, it's like riding a roller-coaster through history.
By giving us a detailed account of how these areas are interwoven, Kessler also looks to the future - showing how important it is for America (and the world) to make smart decisions that will lead to further advances.
Chris "SparkGuy" Downie
SparkPeople Founder & CEO
Not what I expected. I love his first two books much more.......2005-12-02
I rated the author's first two books "Wall Street Meat" and "Running Money" five stars with the praise that "if you like Liar's Poker, Fiasco, Pit's Bull, Confessions of a Street Addict, Trading with the Enemy..., you must not miss this one". However, this book is a >90 degree diversion of the author's prior course, which is, in my opinion, to write interesting knowledge from an analyst and a hedge fund manager's perspectives. Sorry to say that his latest work had turned into records of history falling short of sharp analysis that made his prior works so unique and outstanding. Actually, when I was reading it, "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman" which I read after "Running Money" always jumped out of my mind. Vice versa, when I was reading "Running Money". However, I am obliged to say that "The World is Flat" is a better alernative to this. For those, in particular traders and investors, who havent read any of the author's books, please read his first ones. They are great reads. For old fans of the author, you might have to change your expectation quite a bit.
Customer Reviews:
most comprehensive sociological approach to media and political scandal.......2006-05-09
As a doctoral student in Sociology and a scholar of the media, this is one of the best books out there. Comprehensive and myth-dispelling, I think this is an essential read for anyone interested in politics, the media, and/or collective memory.
Once again I must bail out a good book.......2004-11-30
I encourage others to place a quick 5-star review with me to help offset the insipid nonsense review left by a child.
Worst Book Ever.......2004-02-23
This book is so bad. The author, Michael Schudson, doesn't realize that books are around longer than human beings live and some people around the age of 16 at present day don't know what watergate was about. He should've explained what it was in the beginning of the book. I had to ask my dad about it because I couldn't understand what the author was talking about without background knowledge about watergate. I'd take the Scarlet Letter over this book anyday (and believe me the scarlet letter was pretty bad itself).
Average customer rating:
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Clash of the Titans: How the Unbridled Ambition of Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch Has Created Global Empires that Control What We Read and Watch Each Day
Richard Hack
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Amazon.com
What do Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch want out of life? Apart from the usual pleasures--love, fortune, good health--they apparently want to control the world's media. And, to judge by this account, each wants the other's head on a platter.
"In another time, they might have dueled on a grassy plain with muskets, or faced each other at high noon at opposite ends of a dusty street, holsters slung low on their hips," writes media/entertainment pundit Hack. Turner and Murdoch have chosen to fight it out, with undisguised venom, in a singularly public venue--Turner through CNN and other networks, Murdoch through Sky and Fox TV, plus a host of magazines and newspapers. Turner espouses liberal views while Murdoch is a hard-line conservative, but both are supreme "controllers of information" and "manipulators of public opinion," according to Hack. Their fight has cost billions of dollars, and it's wounded more than a few bystanders. It has also, as Hack rightly notes, set the tone for the contemporary press, for the worse, sacrificing journalistic integrity in the interest of two "competing political agendas ... until there is one."
Balanced, for the most part, if only because Hack seems to have little affection for either of his subjects, Clash of the Titans is a readable account of a private war between prideful tycoons with long memories. Media buffs will find much of interest in this portrait of "colliding storm fronts," both of whose reach extends far and wide. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
When Robert Edward (Ted)Turner III started out in business, he owned a small billboard company in rural Georgia. What he has eneded up with is the vice-chairmanship of AOL Time Warner throught he sale of his $3 billion empire, which includes CNN, superstation WTBS, Turner Network Television,Turner Classic Movies, the Atlanta Braves, the goodwill Games and MGM Studios.
Risk-taking, careful planning and steely determination are the hallmarks of this brash, outspoken and wildly succesful media mogul.
On the other side of the world his counterpart, Keith Rupert Murdoch, impeccably dressed, ruthless and hungry for success, began with one small Australian newspaper and parlayed it into 125 newspapers and magazines around the glove, the Fox, Inc., motion picture and television conglomerate, and news satellites on four continents.
These two men, controllers of much of the news and entertainment we receive every day, have long traded barbs and vitriolic attacks, creating an intense race for complete domination of the media. Turner and Murdoch are the major players in the media world today - and both have personal lives as complicated as their business dealings. Family squabbles, public divorces, high-profile romances, huge charitable bequests and their appearances at the most exclusive gatherings in the world have made both moguls entertainment news in their own papers and news magazine shows.
This meticulously researched look at media business is also a dual biography. In great detail it delves into both the personal and professional lives of these two outsize figures, their fierce competition, and their enormous effect on American daily life.
Customer Reviews:
Shallow, but satisfying.......2003-08-28
Rupert vs. Ted! Ted vs. Rupert! Great, easy to read narrative of the most modern media battle. If you want to know about the ideology and shenanigans behind Mr. Fair & BalancedTM, this is the book.
Book Description
Almost half a century ago, Jean-Luc Godard famously remarked, "I await the end of cinema with optimism." Lots of us have been waiting for-and wondering about-this prophecy ever since. The way films are made and exhibited has changed significantly. Films, some of which are not exactly "films" anymore, can now be projected in a wide variety of ways-on screens in revamped high tech theaters, on big, high-resolution TVs, on little screens in minivans and laptops. But with all this new gear, all these new ways of viewing films, are we necessarily getting different, better movies?
The thirty-four brief essays in The End of Cinema as We Know It attend a variety of topics, from film censorship and preservation to the changing structure and status of independent cinema-from the continued importance of celebrity and stardom to the sudden importance of alternative video. While many of the contributors explore in detail the pictures that captured the attention of the nineties film audience, such as Jurassic Park, Eyes Wide Shut, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, The Wedding Banquet, The Matrix, Independence Day, Gods and Monsters, The Nutty Professor, and Kids, several essays consider works that fall outside the category of film as it is conventionally defined-the home "movie" of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee's honeymoon and the amateur video of the LAPD beating of Rodney King.
Examining key films and filmmakers, the corporate players and industry trends, film styles and audio-visual technologies, the contributors to this volume spell out the end of cinema in terms of irony, cynicism and exhaustion, religious fundamentalism and fanaticism, and the decline of what we once used to call film culture.
Contributors include: Paul Arthur, Wheeler Winston Dixon, Thomas Doherty, Thomas Elsaesser, Krin Gabbard, Henry Giroux, Heather Hendershot, Jan-Christopher Hook, Alexandra Juhasz, Charles Keil, Chuck Klienhans, Jon Lewis, Eric S. Mallin, Laura U. Marks, Kathleen McHugh, Pat Mellencamp, Jerry Mosher, Hamid Naficy, Chon Noriega, Dana Polan, Murray Pomerance, Hillary Radner, Ralph E. Rodriguez, R.L. Rutsky, James Schamus, Christopher Sharrett, David Shumway, Robert Sklar, Murray Smith, Marita Sturken, Imre Szeman, Frank P. Tomasulo, Maureen Turim, Justin Wyatt, and Elizabeth Young.
Customer Reviews:
A Great Movie Book!.......2002-12-30
This is probably the best film book I've read in the last five years. The organization of the book is extremely intelligent, the range of authors is incredible, and their comments are always useful, thought provoking, and fun to read. Most books that cover a range of films offer only descriptions of individual movies. Lewis' book, of course, tells us about the important films of the nineties. But it also explains the practices of the film industry during the period, the important stylistic developments, the conflict and cooperation between independent companies and established studios, shifts in the thinking about censorship, the relationships between video and film, and a whole lot more. The tone of the writers is fantastic--they're all movie fans, they take movies very seriously, and they connect movies to important cultural and political trends. This book is a constant pleasure. If you have any interest in the films of the last decade of the twentieth century, this is the book for you.
Book Description
Written by a senior marketing and media executive, Branded for Life makes sense of a world where Wal-Mart is richer than 85% of the nations on earth; where well-informed, obese consumers continue to drink Coke and eat at McDonalds; where rabbis discuss market segmentation strategies to counteract declining market share; and where naming rights to newborns may be sold to the highest corporate bidder.
Branded for Life explains who we really are as consumers, and how large corporations and political leaders exploit our trust. The book also provides sane, actionable advice for people who want to make a difference.
Books:
- Data Analysis and Decision Making with Microsoft Excel (with InfoTrac and CD-ROM)
- Data Structures and Algorithms in Java, Second Edition
- Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems (7th Edition)
- Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)
- Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design
- designing web graphics.4, Fourth Edition
- Discrete-Time Signal Processing (2nd Edition)
- Dr. Atkins' New Diet Cookbook
- Embedded C Programming and the Microchip PIC
- Enterprise Service Bus
Books Index
Books Home
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- The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Perfect Resume, 4th Edition
- Perceiving the Arts: An Introduction to the Humanities
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- On Call In Hell: A Doctor's Iraq War Story
- In Amazonia: A Natural History
- MP College Accounting 1-32 w/Home Depot AR
- Growth With Equity: Economic Policymaking for the Next Century
- La Velocidad De La Luz/the Speed of Light
Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers
Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture
Design Anarchy
Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate
Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture
