Canonic Texts in Media Research
ARE THERE ANY? Many of us have our own canonic texts - the kind that won't go away. We tell them that their time has passed, that it's embarrassing they're still around, but they turn up repeatedly on our reading lists and in our bibliographies. They inspire us, haunt us, argue with us — but they won't leave. Typically, we keep them to ourselves.\ SHOULD THERE BE? Of course there should be, and there's no reason to hide them. Canons (and saints) should be shared, because they define fields...
Search in google:
ARE THERE ANY? Many of us have our own canonic texts - the kind that won't go away. We tell them that their time has passed, that it's embarrassing they're still around, but they turn up repeatedly on our reading lists and in our bibliographies. They inspire us, haunt us, argue with us — but they won't leave. Typically, we keep them to ourselves. SHOULD THERE BE? Of course there should be, and there's no reason to hide them. Canons (and saints) should be shared, because they define fields and communities. These texts are not simply monuments, however. They are alive and breathing, standing the test of time by shedding old meanings and assuming new ones. The minimal care they need - occasional brushing off and bulb-changing - is well worth the trouble. HOW ABOUT THESE? The field of media studies is now more than 50 years old, and the contributors to this volume offer their own candidates for canonization. Each of the thirteen essays in the book presents a critical reading of one of these classics and debates its candidacy. You are invited to disagree. The texts are summarized, analysed and re-examined for their contemporary relevance. They are grouped together in schools (Chicago, Columbia, Frankfurt, Toronto, British Cultural Studies) to highlight the different perspectives that characterize the field. This book offers thirteen pairs of shoulders to stand on, the better to see the field of media studies. It will serve as an excellent teaching text for advanced students in communications and media and cultural studies.
ContributorsIntroduction: Shoulders to Stand On1Pt. IThe Columbia School91Critical Research at Columbia: Lazarsfeld's and Merton's "Mass Communication, Popular Taste, and Organized Social Action"122Herzog's "On Borrowed Experience": Its Place in the Debate over the Active Audience39Pt. IIThe Frankfurt School553The Subtlety of Horkheimer and Adorno: Reading "The Culture Industry"584Benjamin Contextualized: On "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"745Redeeming Consumption: On Lowenthal's "The Triumph of the Mass Idols"90Pt. IIIThe Chicago School1036Community and Pluralism in Wirth's "Consensus and Mass Communication"1067The Audience is a Crowd, the Crowd is a Public: Latter-Day Thoughts on Lang and Lang's "MacArthur Day in Chicago"1218Towards the Virtual Encounter: Horton's and Wohl's "Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction"137Pt. IVThe Toronto School1539Harold Adams Innis and his Bias of Communication15610Canonic Anti-Text: Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media191Pt. VBritish Cultural Studies21311Retroactive Enrichment: Raymond William's Culture and Society21712Canonization Achieved? Stuart Hall's "Encoding/Decoding"23113Afterthoughts on Mulvey's "Visual Pleasure" in the Age of Cultural Studies248Index260
