MEDIA, CULTURE AND SOCIETY

Media, Culture and Society

Media, Culture and Society

Introduction

The world in which we live today is moving fast and with a rapid pace. In this fast moving world, the role of media is integral and significance. Media is one of the fields that is growing and expanding at a rapid pace. Due to this development and advancement the field of media has broadened its horizons and everyday embracing new technologies and new phenomenon. In this scenario, the influence exerted by the mass media on society is undeniable. In some cases, the ability to intervene on the individual, and hence on social community can be beneficial, but at other times, may actually be harmful. As John Paul II in 1996 expressed that:

"The media have an unquestionable value, but should not deceive or take over our live" (John 2005, 6).

Thus, modern societies have political systems mainly based on democratic principles, thus, for these management entities, or governmental bodies there is a fundamental character for their purposes, which can be regarded as teledemocracy. According to journalist John Luis Cebrian:

"Television was born under the sign of politics"

According to the psychiatrist Luis Rojas Marcos

"Television does much good as a source of information, such as the factor of cohesion and strengthening of democracy"

Hence it follows that we make our first important distinction between information, misinformation and manipulation with the help of media and the information that it provides. The media, according to the writer Van Dijk,

"Create universes that, being so influential in society, leading the life of every individual: fashions, styles of behavior, use and customs of social communication. It also controls the development, organization change and society's views. This implies that any social event is governed by the ideology of the media"

As the above discussion shows the importance and significance of the media this topic and field has also became the integral part of the academic courses. As a result scores of new books, journals and articles are published every day. The aim and objective of this paper is to talk about few of such books and journals that are written on the topic of media. The following part of the paper presents annotated bibliography of three different books and two journals.

Gill, B., and Roy, S. (2010), “The Media Student's Book”, Taylor & Francis

The Media Student's Book is a book that is written by Gill Branston and Roy Stafford. This book was first published by Routledge in 1996. In 1999, the second edition of the book was published with few amendments. The year 2003 and 2006 presented the third and fourth editions of the book. This is the fifth edition of this book about which the annotated bibliography is presented below (Gill and Roy 2010, IV).

The writer Roy Stafford works as a freelance lecturer and he also writes books and engaging and invigorating material for teachers and students in the field of media. Together with Gill Branston he wrote this book. This book is a complete guide and provides ...