The Contradictions of Media Power defines media power by looking at the key contexts in which power is negotiated - economically, politically and technologically - offering an understanding of the power of media in today's complex environment.
Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CHAPTER 1: APPROACHES TO MEDIA POWER ELEMENTS OF THE PUZZLE POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL DIMENSIONS OF MEDIA POWER FOUR PARADIGMS OF MEDIA POWER CONCLUSION CHAPTER 2: ELITES, OWNERSHIP AND MEDIA POWER POWER ELITE THEORY AND THE MEDIA MEDIA POWER ELITES AND NEOLIBERALISM OWNERSHIP AND MEDIA POWER CONCLUSION CHAPTER 3: MEDIA POLICY AND POWER POLICY ACTIVISM IN NEOLIBERAL TIMES POWER, DECISION-MAKING AND THE POLICY PROCESS MEDIA POLICY SILENCES Silences in Pluralism Policy Debates Silences in Net Neutrality Debates CONCLUSION CHAPTER 4: POWER SHIFTS AND SOCIAL MEDIA A RADICAL REDISTRIBUTION OF POWER? DECENTRALIZATION: THE RISE OF THE ‘POWER MOSAIC’ DISINTERMEDIATION: POWER TO THE PEOPLE? ‘IT’S CALLED CAPITALISM’ – ERIC SCHMIDT, CHAIRMAN OF GOOGLE CHAPTER 5: CHALLENGING MEDIA POWER MEDIA, CONTRADICTION AND RESISTANCE THE DOMINANCE/RESISTANCE MODEL IN ACTION: THE WAR IN IRAQ THE POLITICS OF MEDIA REFORM CONCLUSION CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION – MEDIA POWER PARADIGMS REVISITED BOOK REFERENCES
Des Freedman is a Professor of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the author of The Politics of Media Policy, co-author (with James Curran and Natalie Fenton) of Misunderstanding the Internet, co-editor (with Michael Bailey) of The Assault on Universities: A Manifesto for Resistance and co-editor (with Daya Thussu) of Media and Terrorism: Global Perspectives. He is particularly interested in issues of media power and media reform. He is the chair of the UK Media Reform Coalition and on the national council of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom. He is an editor of the journal Global Media and Communication and a member of the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre.
Over the past decade Des Freedman has established himself as one of
the preeminent media scholars in the world. The Contradictions of
Media Power is his finest work to date, demonstrating Freedman's
superior command of political and social theory. Each page bristles
with keen and original insights. The book is absolutely mandatory
reading for anyone seeking a critical analysis of media and
society.
*Robert W. McChesney, Professor of Communication, University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, and author of Digital
Disconnect*
Des Freedman provides a much needed boost to radical approaches to
power with this highly sophisticated and interrogation of the
workings of media power. This book is simply the best version of
the political economy reading of media power that we have. It faces
head on how the economic power vested in media institutions is
being reconstituted in the age of social media, while occasionally
generating media products that make powerful critiques of the very
processes of capitalism that produced them.
*Nick Couldry, Professor of Media, Communications and Social
Theory, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK*
Des Freedman’s book offers a critical, dialectical, analysis of
media power which links this to the possibilities for resistance
and fightback. This book is expansive in its range, covering issues
such as ownership, net neutrality, press freedom, and digital
switchover.
*Counterfire*
Freedman brilliantly tackles the central issue concerning the media
in modern life: their power. He is critical but never simplistic,
rigorous without being pedantic, and passionate without ever
sacrificing intellectual depth.
*David Hesmondhalgh, Professor of Media and Music Industries,
University of Leeds, UK*
Des Freedman is among the world’s leading analysts of media power.
Always cogent, always scholarly, and always lively, his work takes
us into the grubbiest corners and cleanses them with brilliant
illumination.
*Toby Miller, Sir Walter Murdoch Professor of Cultural Policy
Studies, Murdoch University, Australia, and Professor of
Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University, UK*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |