Film Studies

Radio is the original mass electronic medium and it continues to be critical for audiences wanting news, information, music and entertainment. For over a century enthusiasts, scholars, practitioners, governments, businesses and listeners have developed and influenced radio, making it a fascinating medium to explore today. There is still no mass medium as ubiquitous as radio and the Internet has extended its geographical and temporal reach even further. Radio remains a key media form and technology, not only surviving the challenges of the screen and digital ages, but developing despite and because of them. This book is a collection of contemporary research by radio scholars from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It explores different aspects of this both simple and complex medium, from early radio histories to the contemporary developments of radio on the Internet. ...

Radio Cultures examines the manifold ways in which radio has influenced the nation's social and cultural environment since its inception nearly a century ago. Written by leading scholars in the field, chapters address a wide range of topics, including how this powerful medium has impacted and affected non-mainstream segments of the population throughout its history and how these repressed and neglected groups have employed radio to counter and overcome discrimination and bias. The use of the audio medium for political, economic, and religious purposes is comprehensively probed and analyzed in this insightful and innovative volume.

While cultural historians and media scholars have been looking at television for decades, they have only recently turned their eyes (and ears) to radio. Studies of television rarely acknowledge that many of its forms-soap operas, situation comedies, quiz shows, sportscasts, etc.-all evolved out of the earlier medium. The essays collected here demonstrate that radio set patterns that have effected all forms of media that have followed it, and also look at how it has survived the coming of media that supposedly made it obsolete.

From Media, Culture & Society March 2008, v. 30, no.2, p151-166.

In this account of the political wrangling and technological breakthroughs that led to the creation of HDTV, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter does for television...what Tracy Kidder did for computers.

Funny Or Die is a comedy video website that combines user-generated content with original, exclusive content. The site is a place where celebrities, established and up-and-coming comedians and regular users can all put up stuff they think is funny. At the same time, the site hopes to eliminate all the junk that people have to pick through to find videos. That means around here you get to vote on what videos are funny and what videos deserve to die.

From New Scientist 3/15/2008, Vol. 197 Issue 2647, p36-39.

The book's journey into the future of television begins with "You Are Here," delving into "The Great Convergence" of television and Internet and the vortex of change we all inhabit now.

From Time Magazine, September 14, 2009.

Tele-Visions: An Introduction to Studying Television Studies has been specifically designed to offer a comprehensive, authoritative, accessible and lively introduction to the subject of television studies. Written by many of the leading international figures in the field, it covers all the major issues, debates, key terms, histories and methodologies that go to make up this exciting new area of expertise. ...