Media Worlds in the Postjournalism Era (Communication and Social Order) - Softcover

Altheide, David L.; Snow, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0202303772 ISBN 13: 9780202303772

Publisher: De Gruyter, 1991

Synopsis

The concept of media logic, a theoretical framework for explaining the relationship between mass media and culture, was first introduced in Altheide and Snow's influential work, Media Logic. In Media Worlds in the Postjournalism Era, the authors expand their analysis of how organizational considerations promote a distinctive media logic, which in turn is conductive to a media culture. They trace the ethnography of that media culture, including the knowledge, techniques, and assumptions that encourage media professionals to acquire particular cognitive and evaluative criteria and thereby present events primarily for the media's own ends.

Case studies and examples of the mass media presentation of entertainment, news, politics, organized religion, and sports during the past twenty years illustrate how scheduling, sources of information, style, format, and professional awards influence how the world is portrayed in the various media. The authors analyze the influence of media logic on society's perceptions and judgments of issues and its impact on public opinion, culture, and social institutions.

About this title

About the Author

Robert P. Snow is Professor of Sociology at Arizona State University in Ternpe. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota and has been affiliated with the State University of New York at Buffalo. Among his previous books is Creating Media Culture.

Review

“Old-fashioned journalism is dead. A new communication order and a new logic--media logic--now dominate every aspect of life in industrially advanced nations. Media logic refers to the forms, formats, and processes inherent in modern electronic media that interact with all social institutions while communicating information, attitudes, and feelings to the general public. Now the social order is a media order; cultural norms are media norms. Continuing the thesis of their 1979 book, Media Logic, the authors convincingly demonstrate that the mass media are the most powerful entities in the world today... The authors' insightful analyses of politics, religion, and sports establish that society is deeply into the postjournalistic era, in which the entertainment perspective dominates daily lives and in which soundbites and video images determine the reality.”

—R. Cathcart, Choice

About this edition

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0202303772
• ISBN 13: 9780202303772
• Binding: Perfect Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 287