This exploration of violence in films questions why adults are often entertained by films that social and cultural consensus considers extreme and brutal. Hill argues that understanding the process of viewing violence is one way to open up the current debate concerning the effects of violence to include objective and broad-minded responses to this phenomenon.
In this imaginative new work, Adam Lowenstein explores the ways in which a group of groundbreaking horror films engaged the haunting social conflicts left in the wake of World War II, Hiroshima, and the Vietnam War. Lowenstein centers Shocking Representation around readings of films by Georges Franju, Michael Powell, Shindo Kaneto, Wes Craven, and David Cronenberg. He shows that through allegorical representations these directors' films confronted and challenged comforting historical narratives and notions of national identity intended to soothe public anxieties in the aftermath of national traumas. Borrowing elements from art cinema and the horror genre, these directors disrupted the boundaries between high and low cinema. Lowenstein contrasts their works, often dismissed by contemporary critics, with the films of acclaimed "New Wave" directors in France, England, Japan, and the United States. He argues that these "New Wave" films, which were embraced as both art and national cinema, often upheld conventional ideas of nation, history, gender, and class questioned by the horror films. By fusing film studies with the emerging field of trauma studies, and drawing on the work of Walter Benjamin, Adam Lowenstein offers a bold reassessment of the modern horror film and the idea of national cinema.
Designed for AS & A2 level students, this series encapsulates the fundamental concepts that shape the study of Media and Communications. It offers quick and easy-to-read summaries of key ideas and key theories enabling students to attain and assimilate knowledge quickly.
Ill Effects argues that the question of media influence needs to be debated by those with a clearer understanding of how audiences and media interact with one another.
Drawing on quantitative and qualitative audience research to understand how viewers categorize the reality genre. From Animal Hospital to Big Brother, this book examines the voices of people who watch reality programmes.
Between 1996-97 an almost unprecedented campaign was mounted in the British press against on one film: David Cronenberg's Crash. What motivated this campaign? What can it tell us about British film culture? What impact did the campaign have on general audiences? This book, which draws on a year-long investigation supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, offers a series of important and challenging findings and is a major contribution to our understanding of censorship campaigns, how audiences respond to films, and the strategies employed in engaging with such texts.
Why is there so much violence portrayed in the media? What meanings are attached to representations of violence in the media? Can media violence encourage violent behaviour and desensitize audiences to real violence? Does the 'everydayness' of media violence lead to the 'normalization' of violence in society? Violence and the Media is a lively and indispensable introduction to current thinking about media violence and its potential influence on audiences.Adopting a fresh perspective on the 'media effects' debate, Carter and Weaver engage with a host of pressing issues around violence in different media contexts - including news, film, television, pornography, advertising and cyberspace.The book offers a compelling argument that the daily repetition of media violence helps to normalize and legitimize the acts being portrayed. Most crucially, the influence of media violence needs to be understood in relation to the structural inequalities of everyday life. Using a wide range of examples of media violence primarily drawn from the American and British media to illustrate these points, Violence and the Media is a distinctive and revealing exploration of one of the most important and controversial subjects in cultural and media studies today.
Since ratification of the First Amendment in the late eighteenth century, there has been a sea change in American life. When the amendment was ratified, individuals were almost completely free of unwanted speech; but today they are besieged by it. Indeed, the First Amendment has, for all practical purposes, been commandeered by the media to justify intrusions of offensive speech into private life. In its application, the First Amendment has become one-sided. Even though America is virtually drowning in speech, the First Amendment only applies to the speaker's delivery of speech. Left out of consideration is the one participant in the communications process who is the most vulnerable and least protected--the helpless recipient of offensive speech. In Rediscovering a Lost Freedom, Patrick Garry addresses what he sees as the most pressing speech problem of the twenty-first century: an often irresponsible media using the First Amendment as a shield behind which to hide its socially corrosive speech. To Garry, the First Amendment should protect the communicative process as a whole. And for this process to be free and open, listeners should have as much right to be free from unwanted speech as speakers do of not being thrown in jail for uttering unpopular ideas. Rediscovering a Lost Freedom seeks to modernize the First Amendment. With other constitutional rights, changed circumstances have prompted changes in the law. Restrictions on political advertising seek to combat the perceived influences of big money; the Second Amendment right to bear arms, due to the prevalence of violence in America, has been curtailed; and the Equal Protection clause has been altered to permit affirmative action programs aimed at certain racial and ethnic groups. But when it comes to the flood of violent and vulgar media speech, there has been no change in First Amendment doctrines. This work proposes a government-facilitated private right to censor. Redisco
Enjoy this witty, charming romantic comedy series from award-winning author Laura Heffernan. Life after TV is looking up: Jen moved to Florida and her themed bakery is prepared to open with a bang. Then a major competitor threatens to put Sweet Reality out of business before they sell their first goodies. She’s going to need a smash hit to keep the store afloat. Then she has a brilliant idea: Jen joins a filmed cruise to convince fellow reality star Tammy Rae to give her the secret recipe for her baking-show-winning cupcakes. Problem is, Tammy Rae watched Jen on The Fishbowl, and she thinks Jen faked her relationship with Justin to trick the viewers. To get the key ingredient, Jen must convince Tammy Rae that their love is real—-right when the Network puts it to the ultimate test. Saving the bakery means nothing if Jen loses Justin. She must find a way to remain true to herself, protect her relationship from her arch-nemesis, and save the bakery-all within the confines of a one-week cruise. Because once the ship docks back in Miami, she’s sunk. The Reality Star series will appeal to readers who love reality TV, witty romantic comedies, and quirky heroines. Fans of Melanie Summers, Becky Monson, Tracie Banister, Whitney Dineen, and Annabelle Costa will love this second installment of Jen and Justin's adventure.
