Media Matters

Fülszöveg

Media Studies
• O. J. Simpson confounds his captors as millions watch the "chase" live on television.
• Dan Quayle chastises Murphy Brown and the press goes ballistic.
• Anita Hill testifies and the whole nation tunes in.
• An amateur video leads to a trial that sparks a mass riot.
• Black Liberation Radio calls AIDS an ethnic weapon designed for Black genocide.
Is the world out of whack? Are media events and "real" ones mixing and combusting? Or does such a mixture, as John Fiske suggests, merely bring some balance to a picture already badly skewed? In this incisive book, leading cultural critic John Fiske illustrates how people engaged in struggles over race, class, and gender have been exploited by the media and in turn have used the media to make room for their point of view. He details how the events listed above spurred nationwide debates and provides keen insight into our media-crazed culture.
" one of the most valuable resources on contemporary American culture. .... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Media Studies
• O. J. Simpson confounds his captors as millions watch the "chase" live on television.
• Dan Quayle chastises Murphy Brown and the press goes ballistic.
• Anita Hill testifies and the whole nation tunes in.
• An amateur video leads to a trial that sparks a mass riot.
• Black Liberation Radio calls AIDS an ethnic weapon designed for Black genocide.
Is the world out of whack? Are media events and "real" ones mixing and combusting? Or does such a mixture, as John Fiske suggests, merely bring some balance to a picture already badly skewed? In this incisive book, leading cultural critic John Fiske illustrates how people engaged in struggles over race, class, and gender have been exploited by the media and in turn have used the media to make room for their point of view. He details how the events listed above spurred nationwide debates and provides keen insight into our media-crazed culture.
" one of the most valuable resources on contemporary American culture. . . . Urgently argued and compellingly,insightful, it reminds the reader of the necessity for balance as a democratic practice. . . . What emerges is nuanced, revelatory, and compassionately visionary."
—Patricia Williams, author of The Alchemy of Race and Rights
' Fiske is a provocative writer and like the existing body of his work, Media Matters makes interesting connections forcing readers to think about cultures and media in new ways."
—Herman Gray, author of Producing Jazz: fibe Experience of an Independent Record Company
Detailing tlie eroding line
between "real" and "media" events, Fiske explores the media's treatment of the 0. J. Simpson arrest and pretrial hearings, the L.A. uprisings, the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings, and the "family values" debate between Dan Quayle and Murphy Brown. He illustrates how African Americans, Korean Americans, Latinos, and women have succeeded in making their hitherto unheard voices heard and have influenced the nation's reaction to media events such as these.

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Fiske also analyzes speeches by George Bush, Dan Quayle, and Pat Buchanan, along with media commentary by Rush Limbaugh and CNN's Greg LaMotte, to reveal what Americans successfully rejected in ushering out the Reagan era. Through his analysis of the contradictory and diverse voices that make up U.S. culture, Fiske traces the nation's swing away from Reaganism and offers urgent warnings for the future. Vissza