Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology, 2008 Update

"Blog" is short for "Web log"-an online site with time-dated postings, maintained by one or more posters, that features links and commentary. But that is like saying a car is a means of transportation featuring four wheels. Millions are changing their habits when it comes to information acquisition, and the blogosphere has appeared so suddenly as to surprise even the most sophisticated of analysts. In Blog, best-selling author Hugh Hewitt helps you catch up with and get ahead of this phenomenon.

Up until now no influential blogger has written a definitive book about this phenomenon. Since Hugh Hewitt's blog site- HughHewitt-was launched in early 2002, more than 10 million people have visited this site. Why does this visitor traffic matter? People's attentions are up for grabs. If you depend upon the steady trust of others, suddenly you have an audience waiting to hear from you. The race is underway, though, to gain mindspace and to be part of the blogosphere readers' habits and to position yourself as well as your business or organization at the forefront of this information movement.

Recently nominated one of five finalists selected for the 2005 Berry-AMA Book Prize for best book in marketing!

"Tellis has done a remarkable job. He has brought together an amazingly diverse literature. Unlike some other sources that claim to be able to measure the effects of advertising, Tellis's thoroughness and ability to understand and convey results of various experiments and statistical analyses helps the reader to separate the wheat from the chaff. Any student of advertising, whether new to the field or a seasoned veteran executive or researcher, should read this book."
--Alan G. Sawyer, University of Florida

Effective Advertising: How, When, and Why Advertising Works reviews and summarizes an extensive body of research on advertising effectiveness. In particular, it summarizes what we know today on when, how, and why advertising works. The primary focus of the book is on the instantaneous and carryover effects of advertising on consumer choice, sales, and market share. In addition, the book reviews research on the rich variety of ad appeals, and suggests which appeals work, and when, how, and why they work.

The first comprehensive book on advertising effectiveness, Understanding Effective Advertising reviews over 50 years of research in the fields of advertising, marketing, consumer behavior, and psychology. It covers all aspects of advertising and its effect on sales, including sales elasticity, carryover effects, content effects, and effects of frequency. Author Gerard J. Tellis distills three decades of academic and professional experience into one volume that successfully dismisses many popular myths about advertising, such as:

* Advertising has a powerful influence on consumers and often generates consumer need

* The effects of advertising persist for decades

* If an ad fails initially, repetition will ensure its ultimate success

* Ads need only one to three exposures to succeed

* Advertising by argument is the most effective method

* The best ads are unique and original

* Advertising is very profitable

Tellis then provides alternatives and establishes the following truths about advertising:

* Advertising is vitally important for free markets, but its action is subtle and its discovery is fragile

* The effects of advertising are short-lived

* If ads are not initially effective, repetition will not make them more effective

* Scientific principles can show which ads work, though firms often ignore advertising research and persist with ineffective ads

* Advertising by emotion may have the most effective appeal

* Templates can yield very effective ads

* Advertising is often unprofitable

Effective Advertising will be an important addition to courses at the graduate or undergraduate level in advertising, marketing, communication, and journalism. It will also be an invaluable reference for professionals and researchers working in these fields.

Understanding Media Economics provides a clear, precise introduction to the key economic concepts and issues affecting the media.

The book: explains the fundamental concepts relevant to the study of media economics; considers the key industrial questions facing the media industries today; relates economic theory to business practice; covers a wide range of media activity - advertising, television, film, print media, and new media; and looks at the impact of economics on public policy.

Understanding Media Economics offers a stimulating perspective on the contemporary media environment. This book will be an essential purchase for all students of the media and mass communication.

A "clear guide to internet technologies": this is it - read it! It's well produced, clearly illustrated, a concise paperback of 150 pages, easy to read and full of information. As a Professional Telecoms Engineer and internet user, I found myself captivated from cover to cover, with one question after another handled and answered. Some will be irritated by its simplifications and will want to go further, but it is an excellent introduction and summary overview of the whole subject.

It begins with the History of the Internet and its dependence on the TCP Internet Protocol (Chapter 1) clearly explaining the conventions for naming and addressing (Ch 2), the Domain Name System (DNS - Ch 3), and the Windows Internet Naming System (WINS - Ch4). Do you know what a Fully Qualified Domain Name is (FQDN), a NetBIOS name, a MAC address and how they relate: you will when you have read through these chapters.

The next three chapters consider the evolution of three of the internet services: FTP (Ch 5), World Wide Web (Ch 6) and E-mail (Ch 7). The WWW (Ch 6) is characterised by HTML (devised by a Brit) the standard hypertext mark up language, which introduced the concept of a "hyperlink". There is useful discussion on Browsers and the use of the Universal Resource Locater (URL). When you have read about e-mail (Ch 7) you'll understand the terminology of your computer support department when they refer to: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), and POP3 (Post Office Protocol).

If you travel round with your lap top, and link up to the internet at various locations, then it may be useful to understand how the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP - Ch 8) allocates IP addresses to your PC.

You'll be introduced to the Index Server and Proxy Server (Ch 9), Simple Network Management Protocol (Ch 10), Security, Data Encryption and E-Commerce (Ch 11), and (in Ch 12) the five examples of how all the parts function together, followed (in Ch 13) by useful information on Search Engines and how to register your own Domain Name and Web Presence.

The Author scans the future (in Ch 14) in terms of the evolution of IP, use of ADSL and Napster, and (in Ch 15) Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), UMTS and Bluetooth. Appendix A is a useful overview of the physical structure of the internet, and Appendix B gives some useful URLs. The book is furnished with a helpful glossary and index.

This book is highly recommended for users of the internet who will be greatly helped by a real appreciation of the internet technologies, and how they all work together. It will also provide a valuable framework for those who specialise in some of the technologies, and a good introduction for students. It may be a little expensive at $39.99 but this reviewer thinks it is good value for money.

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Understanding Media Culture (Hodder Arnold Publication)

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Understanding Media Culture (Hodder Arnold Publication)
Jostein Gripsrud
Manufacturer: A Hodder Arnold Publication
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0340720352

Recent years have seen an astonishing growth in the adaptation of program formats in television systems across the world. Under the new market conditions of the multi-channel cluster brought about by new technologies and increased privatization of service, the adaptation of successful and popular TV formats from one place to another is occurring on an increasingly regular basis. Hence, the remaking of different national versions of Big Brother and Pop Idol are only part of what is going on. In fact, from Chinese versions of Coronation Street and Sex and the City, Indian and Indonesian remakes of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, program clones of Ground Force and other make-over and renovation shows across Europe and the UK, the present is the era of the global TV format.

But what exactly is a format? After all, programs have been copied and imitated since the beginnings of broadcasting. In this, the first book in the English language to systematically deal with the subject, Albert Moran and Justin Malbon provide a valuable guide to the institutional, cultural and legal dimensions of the format. Now widely referred to although equally often misunderstood, the TV format is a commodity of production, finance, distribution, broadcasting and marketing knowledges, that is facilitating the international reconfiguration of program making.

Understanding the Global TV Format thus addresses the different stages and issues of the business. It tracks the steps whereby formats are devised, developed and distributed. Major companies are profiled as are the international markets and festivals at which trade occurs. However, there is also a great deal of piracy taking place so that the book is concerned with the control and regulation of format remaking. Legal protection is often both the first and last recourse of parties and the authors examine the relevance of laws relating to such matters as copyright and contract.