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Media Theory, Religion and Theology
Title:M
Total number of titles: 317
Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America
Author: Giles Slade
ISBN: 9780674025721
Pages: 336
Summary: Listen to a short interview with Giles Slade Host: Chris Gondek | Producer: Heron & Crane
If you've replaced a computer lately--or a cell phone, a camera, a television--chances are, the old one still worked. And chances are even greater that the latest model won't last as long as the one it replaced. Welcome to the world of planned obsolescence--a business model, a way of life, and a uniquely American invention that this eye-opening book explores from its beginnings to its perilous implications for the very near future.
"Made to Break" is a history of twentieth-century technology as seen through the prism of obsolescence. America invented everything that is now disposable, Giles Slade tells us, and he explains how disposability was in fact a necessary condition for America's rejection of tradition and our acceptance of change and impermanence. His book shows us the ideas behind obsolescence at work in such American milestones as the inventions of branding, packaging, and advertising; the contest for market dominance between GM and Ford; the struggle for a national communications network, the development of electronic technologies--and with it the avalanche of electronic consumer waste that will overwhelm America's landfills and poison its water within the coming decade.
History reserves a privileged place for those societies that built things to last--forever, if possible. What place will it hold for a society addicted to consumption--a whole culture made to break? This book gives us a detailed and harrowing picture of how, by choosing to support ever-shorter product lives we may well be shortening the future of our way of life as well. (20060313)
The Making of American Liberal Theology: Crisis, Irony, and Postmodernity: 1950-2005
Author: Gary Dorrien
ISBN: 9780664223564
Pages: 688
Summary: In this concluding volume of his magisterial trilogy, Gary Dorrien sustains his previous definition of liberal theology and his mixture of theological, philosophical, and historical analysis, while emphasizing the unprecedented diversity of liberal theology in the postmodern age. Dorrien argues that liberal theology has been in crisis for the past half-century, yet despite the crisis, and also because of it, it has also experienced a “hidden renaissance” of intellectual creativity. Liberal theology in the early twenty-first century is more diverse, complex, and marginalized than ever before in its history, he concludes, but its essential idea—creating a progressive, credible, integrative third way between orthodox over-belief and secular unbelief—remains as necessary as ever.
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
Author: Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky
ISBN: 9780375714498
Pages: 480
Summary: In this pathbreaking work, now with a new introduction, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky show that, contrary to the usual image of the news media as cantankerous, obstinate, and ubiquitous in their search for truth and defense of justice, in their actual practice they defend the economic, social, and political agendas of the privileged groups that dominate domestic society, the state, and the global order.
Based on a series of case studies—including the media’s dichotomous treatment of “worthy” versus “unworthy” victims, “legitimizing” and “meaningless” Third World elections, and devastating critiques of media coverage of the U.S. wars against Indochina—Herman and Chomsky draw on decades of criticism and research to propose a Propaganda Model to explain the media’s behavior and performance. Their new introduction updates the Propaganda Model and the earlier case studies, and it discusses several other applications. These include the manner in which the media covered the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement and subsequent Mexican financial meltdown of 1994-1995, the media’s handling of the protests against the World Trade Organization, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund in 1999 and 2000, and the media’s treatment of the chemical industry and its regulation. What emerges from this work is a powerful assessment of how propagandistic the U.S. mass media are, how they systematically fail to live up to their self-image as providers of the kind of information that people need to make sense of the world, and how we can understand their function in a radically new way.
Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America
Author: Dr. Colleen Mcdannell
ISBN: 9780300074994
Pages: 324
Summary: It's tough to be devout and kitschy at the same time, but Colleen McDannell strikes that delicate balance with admirable poise in "Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America". Her book is an argument that "American Christians ... want to see, hear, and touch God. It is not enough for Christians to go to church, lead a righteous life, and hope for an eventual place in heaven." This argument is amply defended by smart essays about family Bibles, gravestone design, and Lourdes Water, as well as hundreds of illustrations of vestments, churches, portraits of Jesus, rapture T-shirts, and backyard statues of Our Lady. Where "Material Christianity" gets really interesting, however, is in its assertion that "Christian material culture does not simply reflect an existing reality. Experiencing the physical dimension of religion helps "bring about" religious values, norms, behaviors, and attitudes." For example, the warmth and intimacy of Warner Sallman's painting "Head of Christ," which hung in almost every Protestant Sunday School classroom in America until the 1960s, was probably every bit as influential as any given phrase from the Sermon on the Mount in determining the personal nature of Protestants' relationships with Jesus. "Material Christianity" covers a lot of ground--from Mormonism to fundamentalism--and every chapter is as theologically wise as it as aesthetically astute. "--Michael Joseph Gross"
McDonaldization: The Reader
Author: George Ritzer
ISBN: 9781412926003
Pages: 408
Summary: The Second Edition of McDonaldization: The Reader includes a wide array of sources, from journal articles, to essays from edited books, to newspaper, and magazine articles. George Ritzer, best-selling author of McDonaldization of Society, has updated this popular anthology to build upon and go beyond the thesis of McDonaldization. Classic articles from the First Edition remain in this volume and are supplemented by a significant number of new pieces which bring the discussion about McDonaldization up to date.
New to this Edition:The volume includes interviews with two of the most important recent contributors to our understanding of McDonaldization- documentarian Morgan Spurlock ("Supersize Me") and journalist/author Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation). A whole new section (Part IV) discusses the implications of McDonaldization for globalization, and includes several essays that critically analyze the relationship between these concepts. Discussion questions and "Thinking Critically" sections aid students in reviewing the material presented and further extending the conversation about and surrounding McDonaldization.
Intended Audience:
This reader can be used in conjunction with McDonaldization of Society, Revised New Century Edition, in place of it, or as a supplementary text in a variety of courses, including Introduction to Sociology, Popular Culture, Social Theory, and Globalization. (20070601)
Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks
Author: Douglas Kellner
ISBN: 9781405132589
Pages: 776
Summary: Bringing together a range of core texts into one volume, this acclaimed anthology offers the definitive resource in culture, media, and communication.
A fully revised new edition of the bestselling anthology in this dynamic and
multidisciplinary field.
New contributions include essays from Althusser through to Henry Jenkins, and a completely new section on Globalization and Social Movements.
Retains important emphasis on the giant thinkers and “makers” of the field: Gramsci on hegemony; Althusser on ideology; Horkheimer and Adorno on the culture industry; Raymond Williams on Marxist cultural theory; Habermas on the public sphere; McLuhan on media; Chomsky on propaganda; hooks and Mulvey on the subjects of visual pleasure and oppositional gazes.
Features a substantial critical introduction, short section introductions and full bibliographic citations.
Media Ethics with PowerWeb : Issues and Cases
Author: Philip Patterson, Lee C Wilkins, Lee Wilkins
ISBN: 9780073021928
Pages: 318
Summary: By combining real-life and hypothetical cases with a succinct introduction to ethical theory, this text helps students prepare for the ethical situations they will encounter in the media professions. It is an ideal choice as the main text in a media ethics course or as a supplemental text in any course in journalism. The new edition reflects changes in the world post 9/11, including the war in Iraq, the Enron and WorldCom scandals, and a new look at media and democracy in light of FCC-approved media consolidation.
Media Unlimited, Revised Edition: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives
Author: Todd Gitlin
ISBN: 9780805086898
Pages: 272
Summary: “A balanced yet biting critique . . . Gitlin is a savvy guide to our increasingly kinetic times.”—"San Francisco Chronicle" In this original look at our electronically glutted, speed-addicted world, Todd Gitlin evokes a reality of relentless sensation, instant transition, and nonstop stimulus, which he argues is anything but progress. He shows how all media, all the time fuels celebrity worship, paranoia, and irony, and how attempts to ward off the onrush become occasion for yet more media. Far from bringing about a “new information age,” Gitlin argues, the digital torrent has fostered a society of disposable emotions and casual commitments, and threatens to make democracy a sideshow. In a new afterword, Gitlin takes measure of the most recent wave of inundation in the form of iPods, blogs, and YouTube. Both a startling analysis and a charged polemic, "Media Unlimited" reveals the unending stream of manufactured images and sounds as a defining feature of our civilization and a perverse culmination of Western hopes for freedom.
Media Virus!
Author: Douglas Rushkoff
ISBN: 9780345397744
Pages: 368
Summary: The most virulent viruses today are composed of information. In this information-driven age, the easiest way to manipulate the culture is through the media. A hip and caustically humorous McLuhan for the '90s, culture watcher Douglas Rushkoff now offers a fascinating expose of media manipulation in today's age of instant information.
Mediated: How the Media Shapes Our World and the Way We Live in It
Author: Thomas De Zengotita
ISBN: 9781596910324
Pages: 304
Summary: In this utterly original look at our modern “culture of performance,” de Zengotita shows how media are creating self-reflective environments, custom made for each of us. From Princess Diana’s funeral to the prospect of mass terror, from oral sex in the Oval Office to cowboy politics in distant lands, from high school cliques to marital therapy, from blogs to reality TV to the Weather Channel, "Mediated" takes us on an original and astonishing tour of every department of our media-saturated society. The implications are personal and far-reaching at the same time.
The Medium Is The Message
Author: Marshall Mcluhan And Quentin Fiore
ISBN:
Pages:
Summary: Marshall McLuhan argued that the content of a medium was irrelevant to the effect of the medium to culture.
McLuhan argued that the application of a technology was less relevant then the inherent effect of the technology itself. It is important to understand what McLuhan considered technology in order to understand how broad of a concept that McLuhan considered his statement on technology to be. McLuhan stated "any technology that ... creates extensions of the human body and senses" (McLuhan 1995, 239). It can be seen from this statement that McLuhan had a very broad definition of technology. Using the word any in a statement that is used as a definition of limitation on an idea or concept is somewhat like using an endless string of ors in a Boolean logic search. A definition of the type that McLuhan puts forth is not limiting but rather endlessly inclusive.
Taking the argument from McLuhan one step further it would be fare to say that we cannot always discern the message since it is nearly fully obscured by the medium. The medium itself is emotionless but a lack of emotion or even self-direction does not mean that there is no harm. "Who's going to put new media artists out of business? The process itself. All that cutting edge business cuts both ways - it's a knife that's all blade, no handle" (Brand, 1993). Brand goes even further saying (Brand, 1993) "Has technology swallowed art, and so is art gone now? Or are we so inside technology that from here it's all art? Or is that confusing art with artifice?" The art, or the message, has been completely swallowed by the technology, or the medium. What the content was meant to be is no longer relevant, only the method of communication.
I would assert that most members of our culture and society would argue that no method of communication or much less any invention or technology is inherently good or bad. Most members of society or culture would argue that the use to which something is put to determines to good or ill of any idea, item or technology. McLuhan vehemently disagrees with this view.
It is apparent from what McLuhan has shown us that we make far too many suppositions in our daily life and planning. Currently we plan the message and then find the correct medium to communicate this idea or concept the furthest and most effectively. Perhaps what is needed is not a content to technology approach rather symbiotic approach. We need to address the fact that the content needs a medium but that medium does not need the content. We need to find ways to make the content such an integral part of any technology of communication that it is useless and more importantly not effective without a separate and clear message.
Can technology be addressed in such a way that it plays an equal rather then a superior role to the message? The answer to this question has to be yes but the method of accomplishing this has not been define thus far by anyone that I am aware of and certainly not by I.
The Megachurch and the Mainline: Remaking Religious Tradition in the Twenty-first Century
Author: Stephen Ellingson
ISBN: 9780226204901
Pages: 256
Summary: Religious traditions provide the stories and rituals that define the core values of church members. Yet modern life in America can make those customs seem undesirable, even impractical. As a result, many congregations refashion church traditions so they may remain powerful and salient. How do these transformations occur? How do clergy and worshipers negotiate which aspects should be preserved or discarded?
Focusing on the innovations of several mainline Protestant churches in the San Francisco Bay Area, Stephen Ellingson’s "The Megachurch and the Mainline" provides new understandings of the transformation of spiritual traditions. For Ellingson, these particular congregations typify a new type of Lutheranism—one which combines the evangelical approaches that are embodied in the growing legion of megachurches with American society’s emphasis on pragmatism and consumerism. Here Ellingson provides vivid descriptions of congregations as they sacrifice hymns in favor of rock music and scrap traditional white robes and stoles for Hawaiian shirts, while also making readers aware of the long history of similar attempts to Americanize the Lutheran tradition.
This is an important examination of a religion in flux—one that speaks to the growing popularity of evangelicalism in America. (20060926)
The Money Shot: Trash, Class, and the Making of TV Talk Shows
Author: Laura Grindstaff
ISBN: 9780226309118
Pages: 325
Summary: He leaped from his chair, ripped off his microphone, and lunged at his ex-wife. Security guards rushed to intercept him. The audience screamed, then cheered. Were producers concerned? Not at all. They were getting what they wanted: the money shot.
From "classy" shows like Oprah to "trashy" shows like Jerry Springer, the key to a talk show's success is what Laura Grindstaff calls the money shot—moments when guests lose control and express joy, sorrow, rage, or remorse on camera. In this new work, Grindstaff takes us behind the scenes of daytime television talk shows, a genre focused on "real" stories told by "ordinary" people. Drawing on extensive interviews with producers and guests, her own attendance of dozens of live tapings around the country, and more than a year's experience working on two nationally televised shows, Grindstaff shows us how producers elicit dramatic performances from guests, why guests agree to participate, and the supporting roles played by studio audiences and experts.
Grindstaff traces the career of the money shot, examining how producers make stars and experts out of ordinary people, in the process reproducing old forms of cultural hierarchy and class inequality even while seeming to challenge them. She argues that the daytime talk show does give voice to people normally excluded from the media spotlight, but it lets them speak only in certain ways and under certain rules and conditions. Working to understand the genre from the inside rather than pass judgment on it from the outside, Grindstaff asks not just what talk shows can tell us about mass media, but also what they reveal about American culture more generally.
The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for a Third-Culture Church
Author: Dave Gibbons
ISBN: 9780310276029
Pages: 224
Summary: The Monkey and the Fish decodes profound shifts and events taking place in the world today due to globalism, multiculturalism and technology, and introduces an original approach to ministry, church, and leadership known as The Third Culture. The book title refers to an Eastern parable that will challenge you to reexamine fundamental assumptions of the evangelical movement, including erroneous interpretations that have made the church increasingly irrelevant in North America and the global village.
The Multi-Site Church Revolution: Being One Church in Many Locations
Author: Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon, Warren Bird
ISBN: 9780310270157
Pages: 224
Summary: This book captures the story of a widespread movement of churches that are expanding their ministries to include multiple formats, venues, and locations, using dozens of in-the-trenches examples, identifying the primary reasons churches succeed as well as how they overcome common snags on the route to “one church—many congregations."
Myspace to Sacred Space: God for a New Generation
Author: Christian Piatt, Amy Piatt
ISBN: 9780827223349
Pages: 176
Summary: Recently, MySpace.com has become one of the most-visited Web sites in the world. With millions of young users, this one site has made a giant impact on youth pop culture in just a matter of a few years. At the same time, themes of spirituality pervade our lives. From television to film and popular literature, theology is a burgeoning enterprise in popular culture.
In contrast, most churches and denominations are built on eighteenth-century principles, and are fighting to remain relevant to young members. The collective fear is that if the church doesn't adapt to this new generation, they will be left behind forever.
Christian and Amy Piatt believe church leaders have a responsibility to stay tuned in to the values and vernacular employed by the younger generations. "MySpace to Sacred Space" combines first-hand accounts with case studies from people both within and outside the church, as well as findings from surveys of young adults and their views on spirituality, religion, and modern cultural values. It examines church models that seemed destined for success, yet failed, while also considering ministries that some may not consider legitimate church structures, yet they are reaching people and changing lives forever.
Far from tolling the death knell forthe established church, "MySpace to Sacred Space" is an affirming, hopefull look at the ever-growing need for what the Chrsitian faith can offer the world. Much of the relevance for the twenty-first century church can be found in our oldest traditions. By reconnecting with our past and by setting time aside for God and for one another, we have an opportunity to create sacred space and time wherever we are.
The Myth CNN Effect: The Myth of News Media, Foreign Policy and Intervention
Author: Piers Robinson
ISBN: 9780415259057
Pages: 224
Summary: From the Gulf War to Kosovo, the last decade has seen a new found willingness by Western governments to use force to intervene in "distant" humanitarian crises. Central to this new policy is the so-called "CNN effect," the saturation of western viewers with non-stop, real-time news footage from civil wars, which constitute a powerful plea for action. But is the media genuinely influential in shaping foreign policy, or are governments oblivious to partial news coverage.
"The CNN Effect" examines the relationship between the state and its media, and considers the role played by the CNN effect in a series of "humanitarian" interventions in Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda. Piers Robinson challenges traditional views of media subservience and argues that sympathetic news coverage at key moments in foreign crises can influence the response of western governments. Included is discussion of the US' recent "bread and bombs" tactics in Afghanistan.