Product Description
A reference guide to jobs in show business which do not involve performing; these include writing, directing, designing, and managing; indicates training required, employment prospects, and expected income. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Very helpful-gave me all the info I needed.
I thought this book was most helpful because it told me about all the jobs I could do in theater or film without having to worry about being an actor. She told me what the jobs were and where I could get the education andtraining I needed. And famous people had loads of things to say. ... Read more

Product Description

From viral videos on YouTube to mobile television on smartphones and beyond, TV has overflowed its boundaries. If Raymond Williams' concept of flow challenges the idea of a discrete television text, then convergence destabilizes the notion of television as a discrete object.

Flow TV examines television in an age of technological, economic, and cultural convergence. Seeking to frame a new set of concerns for television studies in the 21^st century, this collection of all new essays establishes television’s continued importance in a shifting media culture. Considering television and new media not as solely technical devices, but also as social technologies, the essays in this anthology insist that we turn our attention to the social, political, and cultural practices that surround and inform those devices' use. The contributors examine television through a range of critical approaches from formal and industrial analysis to critical technology studies, reception studies, political economy, and critiques of television's transnational flows. This volume grows out of the critical community formed around the popular online journal Flow: A Critical Form on Television and Media Culture (flowtv.org). It is ideal for courses in television studies or media convergence.

Product Description

Today, with thousands of TV hours to fill, there's room on television for virtually every product, service, and personality—and no one understands that better than producers Marta Tracy and Terence Noonan. Their one-of-a-kind handbook shows you how to make your dreams of on-screen success come true—whether that dream is to appear on reality television, to showcase your catering skills on The Martha Stewart Show, to promote your flower shop on a local morning show, or to launch a thousand different TV-centered personal or professional goals. Starring You! outlines everything you need to market your business, product, point of view, or yourself, including:

Customer Reviews (6)

Great info on how the TV industry works!
I really think this is a great book if you are interested on getting on tv. The two authors are the real thing. They have been in the industry for a long time and are still presently working. What a great opportunity! Easy to read, fun at times and really informative. I would highly recommend it!

A must read
I read this book in one sitting. It had all of the inside info that a person should know in marketing oneself. I will be implementing the strategies in this great book! Highly recommended.

What An Honor!
This is a FABULOUS book filled with truly "insider" and "behind the scenes" information from television producers, agents, and talent. Marta Tracy is a true pro and her wisdom and advicewill not only inspire but actively help a person, brand or business grow their constituency and succeed. Terence Noonan's voice is a fresh and witty and knowing. The stories and true tales from the trenches of such personalities at Paula Deen, Nancy Grace, Fred Barnes,Tucker Calrson, Joe Tacopino and others are very insightful and simply fun to read. Thank you for the honor of working on this book!
Karen Kelly
[...]

Great Book!Really informative!
I love this book!It has so many practical ideas."Starring You" has all the information you need to get on TV...in one place.I highly recommend this book to anyone trying to launch a brand or sell a product on TV.

A Must Read to Help Launch Your Business!!!
The advice these two TV veterans offer is both insightful and authentic.What makes this book so distinctive is that it not only features real stories from celebrities like Paula Deen, Diane Sawyer, Isaac Mizrahi, and Nancy Grace but also features real advice from the experts behind the scenes.I found it to be very inspiring. ... Read more

Product Description
"You get paid to watch games, and you're on television? What a life you must have!"

Yes, on the surface television sportscasting seems like a dream job. You're rubbing elbows with well-known athletes and even enjoying a certain celebrity status of your own. But it also involves a great deal of sacrifice. Would you move to Scottsbluff, Nebraska, or the Quad Cities in Iowa to cover high school sports and junior college athletics? Mark Meisenheimer takes you to the small markets, introducing you to the men and women who have worked their way up the broadcast ladder.

Truth is stranger (and often more entertaining) than fiction, and No Pants Required proves it. Whether you have sportscasting aspirations of your own or you're simply a fan, you'll love this insider's look at the industry. ... Read more

Product Description
This enormous treasury of sparkling memories and candid photographs presents a fascinating history of the medium that changed the world, recreating TV's early years through more than 500 interviews with those who invented, manufactured, advertised, produced, directed, wrote, and acted in them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Outstanding!
I cannot recommend this book highly enough.I've always been fascinated by the history of broadcasting, and this book is an absolute must-have.I purchased it several years ago, and I find that I regularly go back to this book, gaining new insights each time.

Great book for TV junkies and other
Jeff Kisseloff has written a fine volume on the formative years of TV. He takes some time to take you into the very early roots of TV and its intimate relationship with radio. He organizes the chapters simply by giving the reader a good readable introduction then following that with some wonderful oral history quotes to expand the chapter premises. The chapters hit most of the big topic for TV's early days. He really allows the participants to tell stories and give their opinion. When there is some controversy he allows those folks to tell their stories. I wish I could have been along for some great interviews and research that he did. I am a self trained radio/tv historian and he seems to have the basic facts in line. His stuff on the early days of TV is some of the best I have read. He also takes some big technology issues and puts them in understandable words. If you like TV history this is a must read.

amazing
This is a great book, funny as hell, about the early days of TV. Covers all aspects -- the technology, the first TV sets, the programs, advertising. The hilarious anecdotes from forgotten old timers are usefulto anybody working on "new media" today.You read about earlyvideo being blurry on a tiny screen, about programs trying to concoctdifferent advertising models, and you realize that the Internet is only thecurrent new medium. A lot of similar stuff has been done before.

Howard Stern hated this !(must be good)
I've heard Howard Stern did not like this book. This is not suprising that he wouldn't like something of excellent quality.What is suprising about this is that it reveals that Howard Stern might actually be capable ofreading.

Hmmm...

I've seen more television that any human probablyshould (this happens when you've worked in a museum dedicated to thestuff...) and I can safely say that this book is the real thing.BUY IT ! ... Read more

Product Description
This survey of the field of modern electronic media includes the new technologies, regulations, programming, and competition that affect our world and the broadcasting industry. The text conveys the excitement of the industry in a readable text that makes even the most difficult information understandable. This edition addresses the latest trends and debates in the field, including satellite radio and new terrestrial digital radio, ipods and podcasting, the growth of Google, and cable and internet advertising . ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

amazonlover
Great deal on this book. It was delivered very quickly and arrived before the estimation date. Brand new, packaged in shrink wrap.
I would buy from this seller again.

College books
Book was received quickly and in good condition.This is only my third time purchasing college books on Amazon and I have been completely satisfied with my experiences. ... Read more

Product Description
A book for everyone who's ever flipped past the religious channel and thought, "I haven't the faintest clue what's going on there," or "That church doesn't seem like my church at all," or even, "Wow, so that's what happened to Kirk Cameron."With the personalities of Christian broadcasting constantly talking about every major issue from abortion to culture to war, and given the amount of influence they have on the political discourse in this country, the more one understands about religious television, the more one understands America's religious landscape.On an average day, the largest religious broadcast channel in the country reaches millions of viewers,featuring programming from figures such as Benny Hinn, T.D. Jakes, Pat Robertson, Paul and Jan Crouch, Jesse Duplantis, Joel Osteen, and others. Yet, despite its presence in well over 50 million households, many people have little concept of what kind of faith happens there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

The skills I would expect from a first call pastor....
Nadia approaches this topic with humor and accessiblity. On one hand, the humor that she employs makes the book a delight to read.However, as someone who is beginning a ministry career as well, I find the book disappointing. Its disappointing because the knowledge she displays is more of how any new pastor should start their career: Its apparent that her own research has not gone beyond a masters of divinity, and she is relying very heavily on other people for the holes in her education.Any new pastor SHOULD be able to make connections to their surrounding world this way with what they have learned, and SHOULD be finding ways to be in community with people from all walks of life and SHOULD be finding ways to build collegial relationships with other people. Kudos to Nadia for demonstrating these really important pastoral skills through the unexpected means of Christian television in this book.This is the way pastors need to be, and I know that her ministries in Colorado are amazing!My criticism is that what she is saying is not anything new to me as someone who paid attention in my seminary classes and who wants to bring the church to the realities of the world that we live in, that it leaves me wondering how she was singled out to write this book, which inevitably lead to the popularity that she has received.This sums up my disappointment in the book itself but an admiration for her as a pastor...

Fun read
While the premise lends itself to a superficial treatment (24 straight hours of watching religious programming), the author did a fine job of balancing perspectives.As a Lutheran myself, I particularly enjoyed seeing the programming through her eyes and thinking that our observations probably would have been very similar.I gave it four stars instead of five because I would have liked to have seen a treatment of this subject over a longer period of time, and in a way that didn't carry the risk of a loss of attention after having been up for many hours. (Also, there were some editing errors that bothered me.) Still, I very much enjoyed the book and hope the author turns her attention to another subject soon!

A unique and humorous work that may surprise you
What's Christian about Christian TV? "Salvation on the Small Screen?: 24 Hours of Christian Television" is the results of a social experiment from Nadia Bolz-Weber about her one straight day of being a couch potato, exposing herself to an unhealthy dose of Christian programming. Witty and insightful, Weber draws insights from herself and those who just happen to stop by to endure her torture alongside her. Not to be confused as an indictment of Christianity, but instead Christian Television, "Salvation on the Small Screen?" is a unique and humorous work that may surprise you.

Interestingreview - funny and provocative
The author and many friends spent 24 hours listening and commenting on TBN programs.Many religious statements from a variety of people of faith and of no faith made an interesting commentary.I also liked the fact, that, in spite of her initial cynicism, she developed a better understanding of her relationship, as well as that of others, to God.

By the way, she missed the question: Which book of the bible is the story of Jonah in? Off the top of the head, Do you know?

A fun and surprising read
Nadia Bolz-Weber is a tall, brash, heavily tattooed Lutheran pastor from Denver who speaks with the sarcastic delivery of a stand-up comic. It turns out she used to be a stand-up comic and her blog is entitled The Sarcastic Lutheran.Her writing is in some ways reminiscent of Anne Lamott.I attended a reading from the book by the author and was intrigued enough to purchase a copy. I've just finished it and found it to be a quick and entirely fun read.

The set-up for the book is this: Bolz-Weber, a blogger and essayist on Jim Wallis' God's Politics site, was asked by a publisher to watch TBN (Trinity Broadcast Network) for 24 hours straight and then write about the experience. She asked, "Can I bring my friends?" and when the publisher agreed, she took on the job.

Nadia begins her journal of TBN watching at 5am and concludes at 5am the next day. Throughout that 24 hour period she is joined by a revolving cast of friends and strangers (ranging from seminary professors to gay community workers to her parents to an ex-boyfriend to a Jewish atheist to a Methodist pastor) who sit on her couch and provide running commentary--ala Mystery Science Theatre 3000--on what unfolds on the screen before them. She admits up front that not only has she never watched TBN (other than occasionally passing it while channel-surfing and thinking, "What the...?"), but that she also harbors deep feelings of derision towards Fundamentalist Evangelical Christianity (originating, no doubt, from her upbringing in a Fundamentalist Evangelical home).

One expects snarkiness and mockery, and one is not disappointed. The surprise, however, is the author's chagrin/discomfort at her own cynicism, her willingness to examine her own attitudes, prejudices and shortcomings and her attempts to find something (anything) of value in the tepid swill served up on TBN.

Rather than walk away from her 24 hour ordeal with a smug sense of superiority, Nadia comes to the realization that her own faith tradition also contains plenty of holes and flaws. She wonders "...what the TBN folks would think of me, a heavily tattooed Christian progressive from a liturgical denomination. How would people in their theological camp respond to my preaching? Would they think, as I do of them, that I misuse scripture? Would they be offended at the aesthetic in the community I serve? Would they dismiss my years of theological education as silly and unnecessary? When it comes right down to it, so many of my criticisms of TBN could go both ways, and if that's true then could it also be true, despite us both, that God is at work in my community and (gulp) TBN?"

Thankfully, she also clarifies that "Allowing for the possibility that God may be at work in both my community and TBN is not the same as conceding that TBN's theology and methods are sound."

Throughout the book a tally is kept of the amount of money one would spend by purchasing the trinkets, teaching tapes, books, DVDs and other products hawked during each ministry's TBN segment. The 24 hour grand total, revealed at the end of the book, is flabbergasting. Bolz-Weber also ponders such inevitable questions as What is really being sold on TBN?; Are preachers like Benny Hinn sincere in their beliefs?; and What is the appeal of these ministries, particulary to the elderly and shut-ins? The answers to these questions are disturbing, not only because of what they say about those ministries on TBN but also about Western Christian culture as a whole (including you and I).

Salvation on the Small Screen? is put out by a small publishing company with limited distribution. You're certainly not going to find it at your local Family Christian Bookstore. I do hope that it catches on though because it conveys some great observations in a thoroughly enjoyable manner. It's gotten me to thinking that it might be really fun to have some friends over for a round of TBN viewing.

Or not. ... Read more

Product Description
This landmark text is intended to be the most complete source of information ever published covering all aspects of sports broadcasting. Catsis first examines the history of radio and TV sports broadcasting, opportunities to work in the industry, how ratings work, the business side of sports broadcasting, radio and TV technology, and the role of the producer. Then, the hands-on aspects of sports broadcasting, such as preparation through play-by-play and color commentary, are explored. This comprehensive text aids students and professionals in sharpening their skills and creates a greater awareness of the broad complexities involved in creating a quality sports broadcast. ... Read more

Product Description

Television Field Production and Reporting introduces the art of visual storytelling with the most contemporary, professionally-oriented look at television field production and reporting on the market.  Widely adopted and universally respected, the National Press Photographers Association endorses Television Field Production and Reporting as a resource for college students and working professionals alike.

Customer Reviews (4)

The Bible of the craft
A majority of the people currently employed in the business don't employ the concepts promulgated by this book.If you can, you should be able to replace them.

Well done!
The book was wrapped in plastic and not even touched. It was incredible and delivered in a timely manner. I'd recommend this person again!

Television Field Production and Reporting
This publications has most all of the information I was looking for and it is written in terms easily understood.It gives a good foundation for moving in to a more indepth study of each area.

Required reading for my new staff at our new in-house studio
This book focuses on the most important part of making television and video - the story.It's an incredible how-to book with solid techniques and tricks-of-the-trade that are described by working professionals.As the senior producer of the second studio I've built for a Fortune 100 corporation, I'm making it required reading for my in-house staff.Our programs will be created this way or we will fail. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
This is the first non-specialist introduction to the economics of the contemporary film and television business. This global industry is significant both financially and culturally, and the political economy of its trade is an extremely sensitive issue. Are cultural goods merely entertainment goods? And why does the US dominate this territory? The present volume offers a systematic, structured explanation of how the global markets for TV and film operate while also discussing the implications for public policy and business strategy. By listing in detail the economic and cultural characteristics related to such trade, the authors provide the tools necessary for the evaluation of international communications issues. They also stress the uniqueness of cultural products and put forth the argument that the economic and cultural development approaches to cultural issues can be largely reconciled. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Book - Well-written and Accessible
This overview of the global film and television industry is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in film, and especially for managers in production companies or the like.It is very readable and accessible, and helps you understand the larger economic forces that structure your work environment. ... Read more

Product Description
the last ten years, television has reinvented itself in numerous ways. The demise of the U.S. three network system, the rise of multi-channel cable and global satellite delivery, changes in regulation policies and ownership rules, technological innovations in screen design, and the development of digital systems like tivo have combined to transform the practice we call watching tv. If tv refers to the technologies, program forms, government policies, and practices of looking associated with the medium in its classic public service and three-network age, it appears that we are now entering a new phase of television—a phase that comes after tv. Exploring these changes, the essays in this collection consider the future of television in the United States and Europe and the scholarship and activism focused on it.

With historical, critical, and speculative essays by some of the leading television and media scholars, Television after TV examines both commercial and public service traditions and evaluates their dual (and some say merging) fates in our global, digital culture of convergence. The essays explore a broad range of topics, including contemporary programming and advertising strategies, the use of television and the Internet among diasporic and minority populations, the innovation of new technologies like tivo, the rise of program forms from reality tv to lifestyle programs, television’s changing role in public places and at home, the Internet’s use as a means of social activism, and television’s role in education and the arts. In dialogue with previous media theorists and historians, the contributors collectively rethink the goals of media scholarship, pointing toward new ways of accounting for television’s past, present, and future.

Contributors
William Boddy
Charlotte Brunsdon
John T. Caldwell
Michael Curtin
Julie D’Acci
Anna Everett
Jostein Gripsrud
John Hartley
Anna McCarthy
David Morley
Jan Olsson
Priscilla Peña Ovalle
Lisa Parks
Jeffrey Sconce
Lynn Spigel
William Uricchio ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

High-level scholarship
"Television After TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition" by Lynn Spigel and Jan Olsson (Editors) is a scholarly collection of essays about TV culture, technology, industry, and culture. Professionals who have studied these issues in depth offer insightful analysis and criticism, and offer a range of opinions on what the future may hold. Through its consistently high-level scholarship, the book also offers the next generation of media abalysts many outstanding examples to emulate as well as suggestions on how the field of study might remain relevant.

The book is divided into four sections.

Part One is "Industry, Programs and Production Contexts". John Caldwell discusses the post-Fordist media industry's shift to producing branded content and TV's increasingly strategic relationship with the Web. Charlotte Brunsdon surveys Britain's lifestyle programs to find the social good of inclusiveness partly offset by more aggressive displays of consumerism and spectacle. Jeffrey Sconce convincingly argues that TV narratives have grown more sophisticated over time as conjecture, mythology and self-relexivity have conspired to enrich texts that in turn cultivate ever more demanding audiences. William Boddy recounts the history of interactive technologies and suggests that if the past is a guide, new technologies will merely serve to enhance the TV experience but will not revolutionize it. Lisa Parks deflates microcasting as embodied by the Oxygen network as representing a corporate scheme to more efficently market to profitable niche audiences and encourages social progressives to fight for greater TV self-expression.

Part Two is "Technology, Society and Cultural Form". William Uricchio explores how changing technologies have threatened broadcaster's control of programming flow and predicts a general shift from broadcasting to narrowcasting. Anna McCarthy's fascinating field study about TV in public spaces ultimately discovers that viewing practices are defined by capitalism's exploitation of waiting time created by differentials in power relations. Jostein Gripsrud contends that broadcasting will persist because it continues to serve elite interests in distributing cultural values and anticipates that interactive technologies will only marginally effect viewer behaviors. Anna Everett's case study of the Million Woman March touches on issues of technological self-empowerment and the mainstream media's increased reticence to cover significant social issues and events in depth.

Part Three is "Electronic Nations, Then and Now". Michael Curtin discusses the history of media production to show how national broadcasting was crucial to U.S. capitalist development in the post-World War II era but has more recently entered into an era of uneasy international competition and cooperation between East (Hong Kong) and West (Hollywood). David Morley contemplates TV's role in reinforcing the nation state and the manner in which audiences experience dis-placement through media images. Pena Ovalle analyzes the Pocho.com website's satirical treatment of popular media imagery in order to debate issues effecting the Chicano/a community and its struggle for cultural identity.

Part Four is "Television Teachers". Lynn Spigel recalls how MoMA's anxieties with consumer culture, feminity and domesticity doomed its programming attempts in the 1950s that sought to bridge the gap between hibrow art patrons and lowbrow TV audiences. John Hartley reminds us of the important role TV played in sharing differential experiences and struggles (such as the Civil Rights and Feminist movements) and contends that TV today has become a more democratic medium. Julie D'Acci proposes a new cultural studies model that stresses audience discourses and interdisciplinary study as the keys to yielding meaningful insight and analysis.

I highly recommend this sophisticated book to everyone interested in TV studies. ... Read more

Product Description

Located in the United States, NBC (National Broadcasting Company) is the biggest and most powerful Olympic network in the world, having won the rights to televise both the Summer and the Winter Olympic Games. By way of attracting more viewers of both sexes and all ages and ethnicities than any other sporting event, and through the production of breathtaking spectacles and absorbing stories, NBC’s Olympic telecasts have huge power and potential to shape viewer perceptions.

Billings’s unique text examines the production, content, and potential effects of NBC’s Olympic telecasts. Interviews with key NBC Olympic producers and sportscasters (including NBC Universal Sports and Olympics President Dick Ebersol and primetime anchor Bob Costas) outline the inner workings of the NBC Olympic machine; content analyses from ten years of Olympic telecasts (1996-2006) examine the portrayal of nationality, gender, and ethnicity within NBC’s telecast; and survey analyses interrogate the extent to which NBC’s storytelling process affects viewer beliefs about identity issues. This mixed-method approach offers valuable insights into what Billings portrays as "the biggest show on television".

Customer Reviews (1)

A Complete Exploration of the Olympic Production Process
I had the pleasure of reading Olympic Media: Inside the Biggest Show on Television by Andrew Billings two months before the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Being a sports enthusiast and Olympics junkie, the only fix for my Beijing addiction prior to this book was the occasional Olympic Torch tidbit on the evening news or a visit to the official website of the IOC. Thankfully, Olympic Media came along in time to sufficiently whet my appetite for the largest sports spectacle in the world.

What Billings has accomplished in his examination of NBCs telecast of the Olympics is remarkable. He offers in-depth observations and analyses of the telecast by focusing on organizational processes, production influences, and viewer perceptions of this cultural (and often political) megaevent. In terms of cultural significance, the only other sporting event that rivals the importance of the Olympics is World Cup soccer. It is rare to find a study that explores the media effects process from inception (i.e., NBCs eight-year pre-production planning) to reception (i.e., viewer reactions to and perceptions of the Games). In just under 200 pages, Billings conducts interviews with the gatekeepers and storytellers at NBC Sports, performs content analyses of primetime coverage from the last 10 years of Olympic telecasts with a focus on themes of nationality, gender, and ethnicity, and analyzes the cultivating and agenda-setting effects of the Olympics telecast using survey data collected from viewers.

Chapter 1 opens with a historical review of the Olympic telecast. From the Berlin Summer Games in 1936 to the Torino Winter Games in 2006, he provides a review of key moments in Olympic telecast history. He concludes the chapter with sufficient rationale for this study (viewership, political influence, prestige, viewer attitudes) and his methods of analysis, and concludes with a preview of the remaining chapters.

Chapters 2 and 3 are quite possibly the most interesting chapters in the book because they contain interviews conducted with NBCs producers and reporters juxtaposed with relevant facets of the television production and narration process. Specifically, in chapter 2, Billings offers analyses and excerpts of his interviews with three producers and one director, most notably Dick Ebersol, executive producer of the Olympic telecast. Many questions concerning the evolution of the Olympic broascast are answered by Ebersol in this chapter, including decisions that directly impact viewership (e.g., Ebersol's decision to eliminate boxing from primetime). In chapter 3, Billings presents analyses and excerpts of interviews with seven NCA sportscasters including Bob Costas, primetime anchor, and Jim Lampley, the weekend/late-night anchor. For example, answers from Costas and Lampley to questions concerning "profiles and promotion" of prominent athletes that withdraw from competition or fail to win medals were illuminating and entertaining. Once again, Billings effectively synthesizes questions concerning the storytelling process with relevant, meaningful answers from a variety of sportscasters, many of which are former, multi-medal-winning Olympians.

Read more on this review in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Communication Studies, published by Marquette. ... Read more

Product Description
This project, originally developed for the European Community, examines parental roles in controlling television programs watched by children in Europe. The structure of the study includes:
*an analysis of the technical devices available to assist in parental control of television broadcasting services, including descriptions of devices, their cost, availability, and the infrastructure needed to introduce them;
*a corresponding analysis of potential ratings or labeling systems to work in conjunction with or in the place of technical devices, enabling a comparative analysis of rating systems used in film, video, and online services; and
*an overview and assessment of the educational and awareness measures in the field of protection of minors and harmful content, providing the data for the review of available considerations in this field of viewer literacy.

In addition to these main strands of analysis, the study provides for background information and analysis in the following areas:
*an overview of the main media theories focusing on the effect and impact of specific types of content on children and their behavior;
*an assessment of the economic impact and social efficacy of different protective measures; and
*a comparison of the regulatory contexts and rating systems for film, video, television, and online services concerning the protection of minors from harmful content.

This volume is intended for scholars and students in comparative media studies, media policy, and regulation.
... Read more

Product Description
"News That Matters does matter, because it demonstrates conclusively that television newscasts powerfully affect opinion. . . . All that follows, whether it supports, modifies, or challenges their conclusions, will have to begin here."--Aaron Wildavsky, The Public Interest

"Because of its methodological integrity and richness, News That Matters is likely to be regarded as an impressive, possibliy grounbreaking work."--Neil Postman, New York Times Book Review ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Media and Electoral Behavior
The authors contend that television news plays an important role in shaping American public opinion.The logic is that American's develop opinions on many issues, but they often have little personal experience related to those issues.As such, their opinions are based on information provided by other (Zaller 1992 would agree).Today, such information is disseminated through the media, particularly thorough TV.As such, the television has a great deal of power to shape public opinion.

Iyengar and Kinder contend that television news has an "agenda-setting effect," that is, TV news shapes what issues people view as nationally important."By attending to some problems and ignoring others, television news shapes the American public's political priorities" (pg. 33).However, priority preferences are not static.Rather, they vary with the degree to which the media covers the event.

The authors also contend that stories occurring early in the new broadcast are more influential on the agenda-setting of the public than those occurring in later broadcasts.Still, the authors contend that additional factors play a role in agenda setting.For example, individuals who are personally affected by an issue coved by the media are more susceptible to media agenda-setting.Similarly, the more coverage and issue receives, the more likely citizens are to view that issue as a priority.Again, this parallels much of Zaller's (1992) work on the power of elite discourse.

In regards to demographic data, the authors find that citizens with higher levels of education, stronger feelings of partisanship, and are more politically active are least likely to be influenced by the agenda-setting nature television news coverage.

Iyengar and Kinder also examine "priming effects" and television news.In particular, they examine "priming effects" and perceptions of presidential approval.This is based primarily on the psychological assumption that people cannot analyze all aspects of an issue when making decisions.Rather, they rely on information that is most readily available. As such, "The more attention television news pays to a particular problem - the more frequently a problem area is primed - the more viewers will incorporate what they know about that problem in their overall judgment of the president" (65). In regards to priming, the authors contend that people's perceptions of presidential qualities depend on "which aspects of national life television news choose to cover and which to ignore" (80).That is, if the media is aiming blame at the president, priming is likely to have the greatest effect, when the media aims away from the president, there is less effect.

Quite importantly, Iyengar and Kinder contend that the priming effects of the media can shape voting decision, and subsequently electoral outcomes."The priorities that are uppermost in the voters' minds as they go to the polls to elect a president or US representative appear to be powerfully shaped by the last minute preoccupations of television news" (110).There can be both positive and negative priming.

Classic -Easy and informative (but a bit dry) read
This is a seminal work in political science for both its study of media effects and its use of experimental methodology.In regards to the latter, this is arguably the book that placed experimental methods on "map".In terms of its media findings, it does an outstounding job of documenting agenda-setting and priming effects; also, there is a lot of sub-analysis that nicely details which people are most prone to and what type of coverage enhances such effects.That said, the findings will likely strike many people today as fairly obvious, but this was not the case at the time (a testament to the research agenda I&K established).While the agenda-setting, priming, and now framing research has progressed in the last two decades, this is still an excellent introduction to the topic.And it is a pretty easy and quick read (only 130 pages).

Start Here
Fairly quick, but vitally important read to anyone studying the media, communication, and politics.Experimental design demonstrates the media has the ability to set the national agenda, prime what people think is important within issues, and frame the way we think about the world.This is the seminal and original work in the field. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best Media Critique
This is the best critique of television I've ever read.Written in plain, concise language with acute observations of the things television does and what the results are. Everyone near or with an interest in the media shouldread this. ... Read more

Product Description

Almost twenty-five years ago, Shanto Iyengar and Donald R. Kinder first documented a series of sophisticated and innovative experiments that unobtrusively altered the order and emphasis of news stories in selected television broadcasts.  Their resulting book News That Matters, now hailed as a classic by scholars of political science and public opinion alike, is here updated for the twenty-first century, with a new preface and epilogue by the authors. Backed by careful analysis of public opinion surveys, the authors show how, despite changing American politics, those issues that receive extended coverage in the national news become more important to viewers, while those that are ignored lose credibility. Moreover, those issues that are prominent in the news stream continue to loom more heavily as criteria for evaluating the president and for choosing between political candidates.

“News That Matters does matter, because it demonstrates conclusively that television newscasts powerfully affect opinion. . . . All that follows, whether it supports, modifies, or challenges their conclusions, will have to begin here.”—The Public Interest

Customer Reviews (2)

Propaganda Spun to Make Censor and Networks Look Good
This book had the potential of being an inside expose of what happened in the TV business over three decades.Instead,it's an incredibly self-censored, lawyer-like (the author's first profession) approach to the subject of television censorship.Each chapter has only two or three examples of what he censored and most of them are NOT interesting,such as a Woody Allen movie or a controversial made-for-TVfrom the '80s that turned out to be not so controversial.Here is the man who was the head censor for shows like Charlie's Angels,Roots,Three's Company,Steven Bochco and others,yet he boringly focuses on a few minor movies or shows that are almost meaningless today.How about the inside scoop and specific details on what exactly he had to tangle with in the hit series?

He totally skips one of the most controversial ABC shows of all time, Turn On (which was cancelled after one episode due to affiliate uproar).He doesn't address viewer or affiliate concerns.He claims studies of TV violence are all wrong and TV doesn't negatively impact people.He fails to admit his own connection to the quiz show scandals of the 50s and glosses over them, spinning them positive!

Namely,he's a lawyer who wants to use the book to propagandize.He wants to make himself and his employer look good.

Despite what the book says, this is not the first book of its kind (check out Bill Clothworthy's book about being an NBC censor written years earlier).And why did CBS programmer Michael Dann write the forward using all-CBS examples?Couldn't the author find someone at ABC to supporthim?

The book is not worth reading unless you enjoy the writing style of legal briefs,where much is written but little is actually said.He spends more time condemning outsiders and promoting his employer than he does telling any type of meaningful stories that would uncover the inside of the TV censorship process.

Behind-the-scenes struggles at ABC between writers
Alfred Schneider served as the American Broadcasting Company's head of standards and practices from 1960 to 1990. His thirty year stint as ABC's chief "censor" gave him a unique vantage point as he strove to manage issues of evolving tastes, sensibilities and moralities of the American viewing public. With the assistance of Kaye Pullen, Alfred Schnieder's The Gatekeeper: My 30 Years As A TV Censor is essential and informative reading for students of television as a cultural medium in general, and the behind-the-scenes struggles at ABC between writers, producers, directors, and actors with the corporate administrators, programers, and executives in particular. ... Read more

Product Description
Ranking the top 100 most memorable mishaps in a countdown format, this book begins with #100 and proceeds all the way to the single most indelible TV blunder. Organizing the material in this manner invites readers to discuss and debate whether Cop Rock was really a bigger fiasco than The New Monkees, or whether the presentation of Elvis Presley only from the waist up on The Ed Sullivan Show was a sillier bit of censorship than the coverage of Barbara Eden's belly button on I Dream of Jeannie. The blunders in this compendium take many forms-good and bad, inexplicable network decisions, casting catastrophes, and TV "events" that weren't. Each entry is covered in a detailed individual essay that answers such questions as "Why did this happen?" and "What were they thinking?" ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Interesting but not well-written.
A fun book but there are many errors. I still found it an interesting read but can't recommend it without reservations. A second edition, with careful editing, would be much more entertaining (since some of the facts are glaringly incorrect*) and I'm surprised that previous reviewers said it was well-written. *(I started making penciled corrections in a library book!)

If any diehard TV fans don't read this book, I'll wonder "what were they thinking?"
Hofstede has done a fine job of recollecting those TV moments many would rather forget (save for a few minor factual errors, but these really don't detract from the book's excellent content, IMO), and the foreword by Tom Bergeron's definitely a nice touch (is it just a coincidence that the network interference which killed his series, Fox After Breakfast, is one of the events that made the top 100? LOL). Plus, Hofstede's humorous comments on each event are sure to leave readers laughing...here's a sample of his wit and wisdom:

- On the viability of QVC's infamous "Poopin' Moose" candy dispesnser as a romantic gift: "I love you, honey, and to show how much I care, here's a moose that craps Milk Duds."
- On Dan Rather's infamous "Courage" signoff: "Was he sending a message to the Cowardly Lion? Did he just discover The Boogaloos?"
- On the two failed attempts to turn Neil Simon plays (Barefoot In the Park and The Odd Couple) into all-black sitcoms: "I look forward to seeing Bernie Mac in Brighton Beach Memoirs any day now."

So if you're a diehard TV fan, or even if you're not, pick it up today...def worth a read!

Fun read, but watch for errors
I enjoyed this well-written book - with some reservations.Some of the entries seem more like philosophical disagreements with certain TV trends (e.g., the corporate-sponsorship craze and the numerous attempts to create TV series from famous and not-so-famous movie franchises) than specific moments in time that one can point to and intone, "Now THAT's dumb!"More troublesome to me were the large number of errors that I spotted in the entries where I had some background knowledge of my own about the series.Case in point: the entry on the Lost in Space episode "The Great Vegetable Rebellion."The retelling of the ep's plot isn't the problem.The first two paragraphs of the entry, however, contain multiple errors about the background and fundamental details of the series.For the record: The Robinson family lifted off in 1997, not 1977; they were traveling to Alpha Centauri, not Alpha "Centurai"; and the comic title Space Family Robinson was not produced by Disney (though Carl Barks did suggest an idea like it long before the actual comic book made its debut).I can only wonder how many other major-league boners -- ones which I lack the expertise to discern -- are sprinkled betwixt the humorous anecdotes and bemused descriptions in which Hofstede specializes.It's still a fun read, but caveat emptor and all that.

Very entertaining trip down TV land lane
Reliving the embarrassment I felt for Farrah Fawcett as she stumbled through her appearance on David Letterman's show was just one of the many highlights this book delivered. It not only relives classic specific moments, but complete network disasters (like the whole 1983 new series line up on NBC where not one show was picked up for a second season) and episodic failures. It travels from the earliest broadcasts to the modern times in an entertaining fashion. I had trouble putting it down as I couldn't wait to read the next entry. It is as enjoyable to the casual viewer (do they exist anymore?) as it is to the "idiot box" junkie and while there are a few mistakes in the book (and a couple proofreaders errors), it is still a new favorite I highly recommend. It makes me want to find "Small Wonder", "Pink Lady and Jeff"and "Supertrain" and watch them again to relive the pity I felt for those involved the first time around. Does anyone know where I can find the show "Turn On"?

Well done book that is mostly accurate
Tom Bergeron teamed up with David Hofstede to write this and the result is good. It mentions embarressments like Dusty's Trail (Bob Denver's post Gilligan flop series) and Cousin Oliver adding to the Brady Bunch and the switching of Darrins on Bewitched. I appreciate the rather factual dates given for when these shows aired. Lots of photographs of the shows too. Just one thing, when reviewing Dark Shadows it says (if I recall) that Barnabas is 240 (or around there). Huh? Barnabas was more like around 204 on DS when we first saw him. ... Read more