Media Theory, Religion and Theology

Author: Neil Postman, Charles Weingartner
ISBN: 9780385290098
Pages: 240
Summary: This book is easily within the five best books I ever read. I read it through maybe 15 times. It helped explain to me my 12 years of school - what actually went on there. It has highly provocative ideas concerning what goes on in school. It still help guides me in my advanced and home studies. Highly recommended for all students, and teachers. A very good read for all who are not brain dead. I am not a teacher

Author: Neil Postman
ISBN: 9780679745402
Pages: 240
Summary: In this witty, often terrifying work of cultural criticism, the author of Amusing Ourselves to Death chronicles our transformation into a Technopoly: a society that no longer merely uses technology as a support system but instead is shaped by it--with radical consequences for the meanings of politics, art, education, intelligence, and truth.

Author: Shelly Palmer
ISBN: 9780240808642
Pages: 248
Summary: What's happening to the business of television? "Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked Television" will empower you to make informed business, career and investment choices by giving insights into the technologies, business rules and legal issues that are shaping the future. You'll learn about: Time-shifted and on-demand viewing, mobile video, file sharing, interactive and advanced media, advertising, copyright laws, paradigm shifts, parlor tricks and much, much more.

This book will serve as a baseline to help executives, investors or professionals get a handle on the future of television and the role it plays in evolving media.

Table of Contents
1: The Businesses of Television
2: Disrupting Television Using Existing Network Technologies
3: Internet
4: Existing Wireless Networks
5: Emerging Networks
6: Content, Storytellers, Gatekeepers and Related Skills
7: Networked Value Propositions
8: Media Consumption
9: Digital Rights Management and Copyright Laws
10: The Evolution of Advertising and Audience Measurement
11: Emerging Advertising Technologies
12: Television Disrupted

About the Author
Shelly Palmer, Managing Partner, Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC, is an award-winning inventor, technologist, composer and television producer. He is the host of Media 3.0 with Shelly Palmer, a weekly business news show that can be seen on public television and online at www.media30.com. He invented Enhanced Television (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Monday Night Football), the most popular form of interactive television in the United States. Mr. Palmer is 1st Vice President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY. He created and chairs the Advanced Media Technology Emmy Awards which honors excellence in the science and technology of the media business. He is the author of one of the most popular television business news blogs, www.EmmyAdvancedMedia.com and he is a weekly columnist for www.Mediapost.com.

Author: Raymond Williams
ISBN: 9780415314565
Pages: 176
Summary: Twenty-first century TV offers an apparently endless stream of images, unfolding at high speed. We no longer watch individual programs but flick from channel to channel, absorbing a continuous flow of news, game shows, comedy, drama, movies, advertising and trailers. "Television: Technology and Cultural Form" was first published in 1974, long before the dawn of multi-channel TV, or the reality and celebrity shows that now pack the schedules. Yet Williams' analysis of television's history, its institutions, programs and practices, and its future prospects, remains remarkably prescient. TV offers an apparently endless engagement with a flood of Williams stresses the importance of technology in shaping the cultural form of television, while always resisting the determinism of Marshall McLuhan's dictum that "the medium is the message". If the medium really is the message, Williams asks, what is left for us to do or say? Williams argues that, on the contrary, we as viewers have the power to disturb, disrupt and to distract the otherwise cold logic of history and technology - not just because television is part of the fabric of our daily lives, but because new technologies continue to offer opportunities, momentarily outside the sway of transnational corporations or the grasp of media moguls, for new forms of self and political expression.

Author: Horace Newcomb
ISBN: 9780195301168
Pages: 784
Summary: First published in 1976, Television: The Critical View set the foundation for the serious study of television, becoming the gold standard of anthologies in the field. With this seventh edition, editor Horace Newcomb has moved the book from one merely intended to legitimize the critical inquiry of television to a text that reflects how complex critical approaches to television have become today. Comprised of virtually all new selections that deal with both classic and contemporary programming, the seventh edition adds new material on television history, the reception context of television, and international programming such as Chinese soap operas and Brazilian telenovelas. Television: The Critical View remains a well established and critically acclaimed text essential for courses in critical studies, communication studies, cultural studies, media history, television criticism, television history, and broadcasting.

Author: Michael Dowd
ISBN: 9780670020454
Pages: 432
Summary: Finally, the war between science and religion is over. The winner? All of us. With supporters from an incredibly wide spectrum of backgrounds and beliefs, including five Nobel laureates, "Thank God for Evolution!" builds bridges, provides guidance, and restores realistic hope for humanity and the body of life as a whole.
A movement has been growing over the past few decades that takes our common creation story -- the epic of cosmic, biological, and human evolution revealed by science -- as the basis for a meaningful view of our place in the universe. Reverend Michael Dowd, America's evolutionary evangelist, is at the forefront of this movement. This well informed, thoroughly researched, and inspired book proclaims a gospel billions of years old.
"Thank God for Evolution!" presents in a lively and accessible manner the reasons why it is now possible to view evolution as a divine process; how current science shows that evolution is not meaningless blind chance; practical methods for using evolutionary insights to achieve greater personal fulfillment and thriving relationships; and how aligning with evolutionary trends can guide activists and others hoping to make our world a better place. As a Christian minister, Dowd especially addresses the concerns that Christians have about evolution, but this book contains insights that will appeal to people of all faiths and of no faith. Fun and uplifting, "Thank God for Evolution!" goes beyond the current debate to offer up a whole new way of thinking about science, religion, and the meaning and purpose of our lives.

Author: Philip Goff
ISBN: 9780807855591
Pages: 392
Summary: Designed to serve as an introduction to American religion, this volume is distinctive in its approach: instead of following a traditional narrative, the book is arranged thematically. Eleven chapters by top scholars present, in carefully organized and accessible fashion, topics and perspectives fundamental to the understanding of religion in America. Some of the chapters treat aspects of faith typical to most religious groups, such as theology, proselytization, supernaturalism, and cosmology. Others deal with race, ethnicity, gender, the state, economy, science, diversity, and regionalism--facets of American culture that often interact with religion.
Each topical essay is structured chronologically, divided into sections on pre-colonial, colonial, revolutionary and early republican, antebellum, postbellum and late nineteenth-century, early twentieth-century, and modern America. One can study the extended history of a certain theme, or read "across" the book for a study of all the themes during a specific period in history. This book's new approach offers a rich analysis of the genuine complexity of American religious life. With a helpful glossary of basic religious terms, movements, people, and groups, this book will become an essential tool for students and teachers of religion.

Author: Mark Gottdiener
ISBN: 9780813397658
Pages: 216
Summary: From Graceland to Dollywood, from Las Vegas to Disneyworld, this book explores the origins, nature, and future of themed environments in information-overloaded America. The Theming of America explores the nature of social change in America since the 1960s-from Graceland to Dollywood, from Las Vegas to Disneyworld, from the Mall of America to your local mall. Modern Americans cannot escape the profusion of recognizable symbols and signs attached to virtually all aspects of our culture, tying our media culture and the seductions of consumerism to the production of ingeniously designed spaces. This accessible second edition has been revised and updated. This second edition of Theming of America is an analysis of American society in which the author, Mark Gottdiener explores the nature of social change since the 1960s as reflected in the "theming" of America--from Graceland to Dollywood, from Las Vegas to Disneyworld, from the Mall of America to your local mall. Nowhere can modern Americans escape the profusion of recognizable symbols and signs attached to virtually all aspects of our culture, constantly reminding us that we are on familiar and comforting ground."Just come in, friend, and buy; make yourself at home," these symbols seem to say, thus tying our media culture and the seductions of consumerism to the production of ingeniously designed symbolic spaces. Mark Gottdiener's book is the first to explore the origins, nature, and future of themed environments in our information-overloaded world. This second edition has been revised and updated. Gottdiener begins with a brief historical account of the shifting importance of themes in the construction of built space. He then evaluates the economic basis for the increasing reliance on symbols in the marketing of commercial enterprises and analyzes contemporary trends in themed restaurants, malls, airports, theme parks, museums, and war memorials. Final chapters are devoted to examining such critical issues as the disappearance of public space, the relation between themes and mass media industries, and the future of symbolic spaces.
"Gottdiener's historical and semiotic exploration of the cultural forces behind 'theming' will engage readers across a number of disciplines. His inquiry into the ways in which material culture enables consumers to coproduce the experience of consumption is especially timely. Just how pervasively these structured environments shape and reflect consumer culture is revealed in his thoughtful treatment." -John F. Sherry Jr., Northwestern University
"This book is a much-needed and valuable addition to the literature on semiotics and the built environment. Gottdiener's use of a semiotic methodology to link themed environments as diverse as Disneyland and Las Vegas is brilliant and contributes to our understanding of the multiple meanings such environments have for all of us." -Talmadge Wright, Loyola University at Chicago
"The Theming of America brings cultural studies down to earth and illuminates some of our most familiar public spaces. It helps us to understand and navigate the themed environments that are colonizing our everyday life." -Douglas Kellner, University of Texas at Austin
Praise for the first edition, Theming of America: "Rich in historical detail and critical interpretation. It shows a thinking mind at work." -Contemporary Sociology

Author: Jeffrey T Nealon And Susan Searls Giroux
ISBN: 9780742519947
Pages: 232
Summary: This text involves students in understanding and using the tools of critical social and literary theory from the first day of class. It is an ideal first introduction before students encounter more difficult readings from critical and postmodern perspectives. Nealon and Giroux describe key concepts and illuminate each with an engaging inquiry that asks students to consider deeper and deeper questions. Written in students' own idiom, and drawing its examples from the social world, literature, popular culture, and advertising, The Theory Toolbox offers students the language and opportunity to theorize rather than positioning them to respond to theory as a reified history of various schools of thought. Clear and engaging, it avoids facile description, inviting students to struggle with ideas and the world by virtue of the book's relentless challenge to common assumptions and its appeal to common sense. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Author: Kara Swisher, Lisa Dickey
ISBN:
Pages: 320
Summary:

Author: Michael Port, Mina Samuels
ISBN: 9780470432372
Pages: 176
Summary: Think Bigger. About Who You Are. And What You Offer the World.
Stand for something before someone stands on you. Revolt against the play-it-safe, don't disturb the peace, cynical and silenced society that, more often than not, buries big thoughts.
Michael Port, bestselling author and creator of ThinkBigRevolution.com, knows it's not always easy to think big. But big thinking must happen now; today, tomorrow, and forevermore.
At this very moment, you are the change you want to see in the world—should you choose to accept personal responsibility. Devour every word of The Think Big Manifesto. It is the handbook to your personal revolution.
You are more than you know. And you can do more with less than you think...
Unhook from the guru track
Learn how to be comfortable with discomfort
Join people doing powerful things
Be one of the big thinkers that others rave about
This book, and life, is not a conceptual, theoretical experiment in how to do big things. No, this is just what you need if you're on, or want to be on, the path to doing big things and are willing to invest in your future.
Join or incite a worldwide revolution that inspires others to follow. All it takes is one big thought and the revolution is unleashed. One thought, one person at a time, quickly followed by another—soon big thinking becomes the norm. Your big thoughts enable you to achieve greatness, be remarkable, and create a better world.
Are you a member of the Think Big Revolution? If so, this is your Manifesto.

Author: International Bible Society
ISBN: 9781563203398
Pages: 1816
Summary: Do you ever tire of the endless parade of specialty Bibles that fill the shelves of Christian bookstores? There are Bibles for everyone - teens, kids, women, men, former alcoholics, students, the elderly.



The optimistic side of me rejoices at seeing so many Bible resources available. The cynical side of me can't help but scoff at the ways in which publishers market the Bible to niche audiences.



Yet there are certain specialty Bibles that deserve a place on the shelf. The International Bible Society has recently released a book called The Books of the Bible - which compiles the Bible books in a fresh, creative way while omitting chapter and verse divisions.



Here's what I like about The Books of the Bible:



Easy to Read.



This is not a Bible for study; it's a Bible for reading.

After I received my copy, I started reading Samuel-Kings (a compilation of 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings). To my amazement, after what seemed like only a few minutes, I realized that I had read 13 chapters! Because the chapter divisions, verse numbers and footnotes are absent, The Books of the Bible removes all distractions and puts the focus completely on the text. The layout is one column, so it's easy to follow.



The combination of books.



The Books of the Bible puts books together in ways that help illuminate the relationship between the books.



Take the New Testament, for example. Instead of beginning with the four Gospels, the books are compiled by theme and author. The first book of the New Testament is Luke-Acts (combined into one seamless narrative). Next come all of Paul's letters, in chronological order. (Reading Paul this way helps you follow Paul's thought pattern throughout his life.) The Gospel of Matthew is paired with Hebrews and James (also written for Jewish audiences). The Gospel of Mark starts off Peter's section, since Mark is widely regarded as a compilation of Peter's memoirs. The last part of the New Testament belongs to John. You read his Gospel, his letters, and then Revelation.



The Narratives.



The combining of books helps carry on the Old Testament narrative. To read Samuel and Kings together as one long story avoids chopping up the narrative into different chapters and books. The same benefit comes from reading Luke-Acts, and Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah this way.



The only downside to The Books of the Bible is the translation it uses: the TNIV. I do not subscribe to the dynamic philosophy of translation behind the TNIV, and I believe some key passages get muddled by the attempt to make the language gender-neutral.



At the same time, I like certain aspects of the TNIV (for example, the keeping of "Messiah" instead of "Christ" in several New Testament letters). While the ESV still remains my translation of choice for preaching, memorization, and personal study because of its word-for-word equivalence, I enjoy reading the Bible in other translations, including some of the more dynamic-equivalent translations like the NLT, TNIV and the NRSV.



The Books of the Bible is a creative repackaging of the Bible. Some will dismiss it as just another attempt to profit from the Bible market. But I have found it to be a handy resource and a nice Bible to read for enjoyment.

Author: Henry Petroski
ISBN: 9780307266361
Pages: 464
Summary: Like "The Pencil," Henry Petroski’s "The Toothpick" is a celebration of a humble yet elegant device. As old as mankind and as universal as eating, this useful and ubiquitous tool finally gets its due in this wide-ranging and compulsively readable book. Here is the unexpected story of the simplest of implements—whether made of grass, gold, quill, or wood—a story of engineering and design, of culture and class, and a lesson in how to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Petroski takes us back to ancient Rome, where the emperor Nero makes his entrance into a banquet hall with a silver toothpick in his mouth; and to a more recent time in Spain, where a young señorita uses the delicately pointed instrument to protect her virtue from someone trying to steal a kiss. He introduces us to Charles Forster, a nineteenth-century Bostonian and father of the American toothpick industry, who hires Harvard students to demand toothpicks in area restaurants—thereby making their availability in eating establishments as expected as condiments.

And Petroski takes us inside the surprisingly secretive toothpick-manufacturing industry, in which one small town’s factories can turn out 200 million wooden toothpicks a day using methods that, except for computer controls, haven’t changed much in almost 150 years. He also explores a treasure trove of the toothpick’s unintended uses and perils, from sandwiches to martinis and beyond.

With an engineer’s eye for detail and a poet’s flair for language, Petroski has earned his reputation as a writer who explains our world—from the tallest buildings to the lowliest toothpick—to us.

Author: Rodney Clapp
ISBN: 9781587431067
Pages: 288
Summary: "Tortured Wonders" shows how orthodox Christian spirituality "never gives up on the body." Rodney Clapp begins by addressing the incarnation of Christ and the resurrection of the body, and the place of sacraments in Christian spirituality. Then he takes up the likes of Elvis and Bambi to explore the spiritual consequences of our contemporary obsession with celebrity and the fear of death. He calls us to embrace our creatureliness through a string of irresistible topics: Is there sex in heaven? What is the most "biblical" posture for prayer? Can we learn anything from non-Christian spiritual traditions? Pastors, counselors, and anyone interested in Christian spirituality will appreciate this lucid and insightful book.

Author: Dave Ramsey
ISBN: 9780785289081
Pages: 272
Summary: The success stories speak for themselves in this book from money maestro Dave Ramsey. Instead of promising the normal dose of quick fixes, Ramsey offers a bold, no-nonsense approach to money matters, providing not only the how-to but also a grounded and uplifting hope for getting out of debt and achieving total financial health.
Ramsey debunks the many myths of money (exposing the dangers of cash advance, rent-to-own, debt consolidation) and attacks the illusions and downright deceptions of the American dream, which encourages nothing but overspending and massive amounts of debt. "Don't even consider keeping up with the Joneses," Ramsey declares in his typically candid style. "They're broke!"
The Total Money Makeover isn't theory. It works every single time. It works because it is simple. It works because it gets to the heart of the money problems: you.

Author: John Nichols, Robert W. Mcchesney
ISBN: 9781595581297
Pages: 224
Summary: How American media are failing our democracy, by the authors Bill Moyers calls "the Paul Revere and Tom Paine of our time."

""As this book makes clear, the problem is deeper than the administration or the right-wing echo chamber…the very structure of our conglomerated media system conspires against real journalism and, hence, against truth.""—Tim Robbins, from the Foreword

Thomas Frank called "Tragedy & Farce" "an appeal to reason in a dark time. " Including the sharpest analysis of 2004 election coverage yet and the first detailed look at the burgeoning media reform movement, this book is both an exposé and a call to action. In it John Nichols and Robert McChesney—two of the country's leading media analysts—argue that during the 2004 election and throughout the Iraq war and occupation, Americans have been starved of democracy's oxygen: accurate information. More than anything John Kerry, George Bush, or even Karl Rove did, the media's mis-coverage of the campaign and war decided the election. Most disturbingly, the flawed coverage reflects new, structural problems within U.S. journalism.

"Tragedy and Farce" dissects the media failures of recent years and show how they expose the decline in resources and standards for political journalism—as well as the methodical campaign by the political right to control the news cycle. In our highly concentrated media system it has become commercially and politically irrational to do the kind of journalism a self-governing society requires. 10 b/w illustrations.

Author: Ron Martoia
ISBN: 9780310287698
Pages: 240
Summary: Author Ron Martoia is one of today’s keenest Christian observers and thinkers. And in his latest book he explains why evangelism is more difficult now than ever before: postmodern society has lost its overarching stories. People today are disillusioned, disenfranchised, and less open to the biggest “story” of all: the message of God’s redeeming grace.

Author: Sheldon Rampton, John Stauber
ISBN: 9781585421398
Pages: 368
Summary: The book that unmasks the sneaky and widespread methods industry uses to influence opinion through bogus experts, doctored data, and manufactured facts.

"Finally a long-overdue exposé of the shenanigans and subterfuge that lie behind the making of experts in America." (Jeremy Rifkin)

"If you want to know how the world wags, and who's wagging it, here's your answer." (Bill Moyers)

"Meticulously researched . . . Rampton and Stauber's documentation of PR campaigns proves that they are the real 'experts.' " ("Brill's Content") AUTHOBIO: John Stauber is the founder and director of the Center for Media & Democracy. He and Sheldon Rampton write and edit the quarterly "PR Watch: Public Interest Reporting on the PR/Public Affairs Industry".

Author: Walter Truett Anderson
ISBN: 9780874778014
Pages: 272
Summary: Anderson's introduction and the first essay or two are worth the entire book.



Some of the essays are tough to grasp, but French philosophers of the age have never been easy to figure out. The other contributions well make up for the ones that are difficult, but the difficult ones are important, too.



This book is still one of the best discussions of postmodernism I've come across. The variety of contributors prevent any unilateral opinions about postmodernism, which is only fitting for postmodernity. It provides an excellent means of understanding current society and culture. After reading it, one will be much more able to recognize postmodern themes while reading current magazines, watching TV, or talking to others.

Author: Bart D. Ehrman
ISBN: 9780195308594
Pages: 544
Summary: This superb two-volume set combines a revealing look at the many historical inaccuracies to be found in The Da Vinci Code with a brilliant, brief account of the life and work of Leonardo, written by a leading authority on the great artist.

Author: J. Richard Middleton, Brian J. Walsh
ISBN: 9780830818563
Pages: 250
Summary: Here is the book for those who wonder what postmodernism is and how biblical Christians might best respond to its challenges. In this book the authors survey postmodern culture and philosophy, offering lucid explanations of such difficult theories as deconstruction.

Author: Lynn Spigel
ISBN: 9780226769684
Pages: 402
Summary: While critics have long disparaged commercial television as a vast wasteland, TV has surprising links to the urbane world of modern art that stretch back to the 1950s and ’60s During that era, the rapid rise of commercial television coincided with dynamic new movements in the visual arts—a potent combination that precipitated a major shift in the way Americans experienced the world visually." TV by Design" uncovers this captivating story of how modernism and network television converged and intertwined in their mutual ascent during the decades of the cold war.
Whereas most histories of television focus on the way older forms of entertainment were recycled for the new medium, Lynn Spigel shows how TV was instrumental in introducing the public to the latest trends in art and design. Abstract expressionism, pop art, art cinema, modern architecture, and cutting-edge graphic design were all mined for staging techniques, scenic designs, and an ever-growing number of commercials. As a result, TV helped fuel the public craze for trendy modern products, such as tailfin cars and boomerang coffee tables, that was vital to the burgeoning postwar economy. And along with influencing the look of television, many artists—including Eero Saarinen, Ben Shahn, Saul Bass, William Golden, and Richard Avedon—also participated in its creation as the networks put them to work designing everything from their corporate headquarters to their company cufflinks. Dizzy Gillespie, Ernie Kovacs, Duke Ellington, and Andy Warhol all stop by in this imaginative and winning account of the ways in which art, television, and commerce merged in the first decades of the TV age.