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Solid Overview of Media Studies
Reviewed by Kirsten Cowan How have the dramatic changes in mass communications technology
affected the way we understand every aspect of our world? This is
the question posed, in a multitude of guises, by many of the contributors
to The Media Studies Reader. The need to understand the impact
of media on our lives has affected every academic discipline, from
philosophy to sociology, political science to literature. An interdisciplinary
approach, loosely labeled as media studies or cultural studies,
has slowly taken shape, and its formative texts and tenets make
their appearances in this formidable text, definitely aimed at the
student. Articles close with questions for discussion and reflection,
a particularly valuable addition for some of the more impenetrable
material. Our relationship to mass communications vehicles has changed drastically
over the past decades. This is demonstrated vividly by one of the
first articles in The Reader, "The Invasion From Mars".
Originally published in 1940, this piece takes a sober look at the
hysteria following the 1938 radio broadcast of H.G. Wells' The War
of The Worlds. The widespread belief in the infallibility of the
mass media is starkly illustrated by the implicit faith many listeners
had in the veracity of the reports of Martian invasions. The discussion
question poses an interesting thought, comparing this event to the
current common categorization of television as a "dangerous
medium". Could the War of the Worlds panic reoccur? Or is the
modern media consuming audience too sophisticated? Perhaps we are
heirs to that panic in the intense media fervour that surrounds
such created "news" as the O.J. Simpson trial and the
death of Princess Diana. A contrast with the 1930s War of the Worlds listener is provided
in a later section with "Looking at the Sun: Into the Nineties
with a Tabloid and its Readers." The sophistication of readers
of the British tabloid The Sun emerges from this paper. According
to its author, many of those enjoying the right-wing, puerile Thatcherism
of The Sun are in fact interacting with it on a multitude of levels,
including an articulate and conscious one of irony and mockery. The Media Studies Reader takes on the formidable task of
providing an overview of thought produced in one of academia's most
prolific new fields. By ranging across time as well as subject matter,
The Reader manages to achieve its goal quite admirably. Not only
an examination of the most stylish thought of the day, but also
a look back at the founding principles that have helped modern media
critics and analysts understand something of the often unacknowledged
power which the media hold in all our lives. By tackling local and
global manifestations of the power of the media, as well as its
permutations in the areas of race, gender and that strength of British
publications, class, The Media Studies Reader provides a
balanced look at an exciting discipline. It is hardly an easy read.
Although many of the articles are surprisingly accessible, the bulk
are clearly best explored in a classroom setting. The discussion
questions appended to every reading, and the grouping of the pieces
into thematic clusters do help the reader grapple with them. A commitment
to the study of media or a love of theory is a prerequisite for
this text, but it will make a long-lasting and valuable contribution
to the appropriate bookshelf. Kirsten Cowan is Marketing and Circulation Co-ordinator for
Sources. Published in Sources, Number 44, Summer 1999.
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