Viewer Discretion Advised: Taking Control of Mass Media Influences - Hardcover

McCall, Jeffrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0742555194 ISBN 13: 9780742555198

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007

Synopsis

Viewer Discretion Advised shows where our media has gone wrong and what we can do about it. Established media critic Jeffrey McCall illustrates the problems with much of contemporary media content, why it is this way, and how consumers can actively shape the media. He sets out to increase our understanding of how different media work and how media content affects us daily, addressing a number of key media issues. McCall explains how the news agenda is shaped and why it fails to effectively inform the citizenry; how the First Amendment does and doesn't work; and how to manage children's media use. He further highlights the overwhelming influence of big media corporations in dictating cultural standards and the government's role in regulating the media. The final chapter is a helpful guide on how readers can actively challenge media companies. Stop complaining about media content_change it!

About this title

About the Author

Jeffrey McCall is a media studies professor at DePauw University. He is also a contributing op-ed columnist on contemporary media issues. His columns have been published in a number of newspapers. He is a widely quoted media observer and critic, having been interviewed and quoted by over 75 newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Christian Science Monitor, and others. He has also made a number of appearances on radio and television shows.

Reviews

More alarming than the amount of time Americans spend absorbing messages to change their values or political views, or induce them to buy things, is the lack of insight about how and why those messages are structured and delivered. Through classrooms and newspaper columns, media studies professor McCall has educated Americans about the operation, finance, and regulation of the media, as well as their role in influencing decisions from buying soap to electing presidents. Eschewing media literacy that focuses on one week without television or take-control-of-the-remote-control campaigns, McCall offers analysis of media elements from the First Amendment to the advent of video news releases. He explores shortcomings in television from the level of sex and violence in programming to the paucity of serious coverage of social issues or political campaigns. McCall devotes a chapter to media-saturated children exposed to antisocial behavior on television and via video games. In the final chapter, McCall offers practical advice on how Americans can insist on more responsible media and better control their own viewing habits and those of their children. Bush, Vanessa

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0742555194
• ISBN 13: 9780742555198
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 172