Media Theory, Religion and Theology

Author: Bob Edwards
ISBN: 9780471477532
Pages: 192
Summary: "Get it, read it, and pass it on."--Bill Moyers

"Most Americans living today never heard Ed Murrow in a live broadcast. This book is for them I want them to know that broadcast journalism was established by someone with the highest standards. Tabloid crime stories, so much a part of the lust for ratings by today's news broadcasters, held no interest for Murrow. He did like Hollywood celebrities, but interviewed them for his entertainment programs; they had no place on his news programs. My book is focused on this life in journalism. I offer it in the hope that more people in and out of the news business will get to know Ed Murrow. Perhaps in time the descent from Murrow's principles can be reversed."--Bob Edwards

Author: Philip Patterson
ISBN: 9780899004204
Pages: 206
Summary: Philip Patterson has identified that chasm between children and television with this informative essay on the subject.

Author: Neil Postman
ISBN: 9780679750314
Pages: 224
Summary: Postman suggests that the current crisis in our educational system derives from its failure to supply students with a translucent, unifying "narrative" like those that inspired earlier generations. Instead, today's schools promote the false "gods" of economic utility, consumerism, or ethnic separatism and resentment. What alternative strategies can we use to instill our children with a sense of global citizenship, healthy intellectual skepticism, respect of America's traditions, and appreciation of its diversity? In answering this question, The End of Education restores meaning and common sense to the arena in which they are most urgently needed.



"Informal and clear...Postman's ideas about education are appealingly fresh."--New York Times Book Review

Author: Ernest Becker
ISBN: 9780029024508
Pages: 188
Summary: "Man is an animal...moving about on a planet shining in the sun. Whatever else he is, is built on this." So begins the opening pages of Becker's "Escape". "Existence, for all organismic life, is a constant struggle to feed--a struggle to incorporate whatever other organisms they can fit into their mouths and press down their gullets without choking. Seen in these stark terms, life on this planet is a gory spectacle...in which digestive tracks fitted with teeth at one end are tearing away at whatever flesh they can reach, and at the other end are piling up the fuming waste excrement as they move along..." Becker's "Denial of Death" dealt with the way man controls his basic anxiety by keeping it unconscious, "Escape from Evil", once again, tracks man from his organismic beginning to his emphatic end--detailing man's various ways he USES culture, ritual, power, inequality, money, etc as modes to achieving an expansiveness of meaning in the limited form of his physical body. Becker: "Man is an organism who KNOWS that he wants food and who KNOWS what will happen if he doesn't get it. This translates into a principle of prosperity...Once we have an animal who recognizes that he needs prosperity, we also have one who realizes that anything that works AGAINST continued prosperity is bad." Other insights: Becker's great insights into the primitive economy as religious because nature always gave freely to man, causing man to sacrifice food to remove his basic guilt...which may solve the dilema as to why native people were not content to just "exist" in paradise and be happy: Primitve life was a rich and playful dramatization of cosmic flirtation until Western man, who had long ago forgoten how to "play", came into the picture. Becker: "Society...is a dramatization of dependence and an exercise in mutal safety by the one animal in evolution who had to figure out a way of appeasing himself...We can conclude that primitives were more honest about these things---about guilt and debt---because they were more realistic about man's desperate situation vis-a-vis nature. Becker's insights unfold in front of you like a nasty animal you shine light on in your basement in the darkness. Read "Escape from Evil" along with "Denial of Death" and be prepared to either deny it all...or sit upright in the silent confines of your home and wonder what to do next...

Author: Steven Johnson
ISBN:
Pages: 256
Summary: From the author of the "New York Times" bestseller "Mind Wide Open" comes a groundbreaking assessment of popular culture as it's never been considered before: through the lens of intelligence.

The $10 billion video gaming industry is now the second-largest segment of the entertainment industry in the United States, outstripping film and far surpassing books. Reality television shows featuring silicone-stuffed CEO wannabes and bug-eating adrenaline junkies dominate the ratings. But prominent social and cultural critic Steven Johnson argues that our popular culture has never been smarter.

Drawing from fields as diverse as neuroscience, economics, and literary theory, Johnson argues that the junk culture we're so eager to dismiss is in fact making us more intelligent. A video game will never be a book, Johnson acknowledges, nor should it aspire to be-and, in fact, video games, from Tetris to The Sims to Grand Theft Auto, have been shown to raise IQ scores and develop cognitive abilities that can't be learned from books. Likewise, successful television, when examined closely and taken seriously, reveals surprising narrative sophistication and intellectual demands.

Startling, provocative, and endlessly engaging, "Everything Bad Is Good for You" is a hopeful and spirited account of contemporary culture. Elegantly and convincingly, Johnson demonstrates that our culture is not declining but changing-in exciting and stimulating ways we'd do well to understand. You will never regard the glow of the video game or television screen the same way again.

Author: Brian D. Mclaren
ISBN: 9780849901836
Pages: 256
Summary: How do the life and teachings of Jesus address the most critical global problems in our world today?
In "Everything Must Change, "you will accompany Brian around the world on a search for answers. Along the way you'll experience intrigue, alarm, challenge, insight, and hope. You'll get a fresh and provocative vision of Jesus and his teachings. And you'll see how his core message can infuse us with purpose and passion to address the economic, environmental, military, political, and social dysfunctions that have overtaken our world.
Jesus' message is more than a ticket to heaven or a formula for personal prosperity. It is an invitation to personal and global transformation. It is a radical challenge to the underlying stories that drive our suicidal systems-social, economic, and political. It invites us to imagine what would happen
-if people of faith moved beyond political polarization and a few hot-button issues to the deeper questions nobody is asking.
-if the world's leading nations spent less on weapons and more on peace-making, poverty-alleviation, and creation-care.
-if a renewed understanding of Jesus and his message sparked a profound spiritual awakening in a global movement of faith, hope, and love.
-if we believed that God's will really could be done on earth and not just in heaven.

If you are hungry for a fresh vision of what it means to be a person of faith, "Everything Must Change "applies the good news of Jesus to a world in need, igniting a revolution of hope that can change everything. Beginning with you. Beginning now.""
 

Author: Adam Greenfield
ISBN: 9780321384010
Pages: 272
Summary: Ubiquitous computing--almost imperceptible, but everywhere around us--is rapidly becoming a reality. How will it change us? how can we shape its emergence?Smart buildings, smart furniture, smart clothing... even smart bathtubs. networked street signs and self-describing soda cans. Gestural interfaces like those seen in "Minority Report". The RFID tags now embedded in everything from credit cards to the family pet.All of these are facets of the ubiquitous computing author Adam Greenfield calls "everyware." In a series of brief, thoughtful meditations, Greenfield explains how everyware is already reshaping our lives, transforming our understanding of the cities we live in, the communities we belong to--and the way we see ourselves.What are people saying about the book?""Adam Greenfield is intense, engaged, intelligent and caring. I pay attention to him. I counsel you to do the same." "--HOWARD RHEINGOLD, AUTHOR, "SMART MOBS: THE NEXT SOCIAL REVOLUTION"""A gracefully written, fascinating, and deeply wise book on one of the most powerful ideas of the digital age--and the obstacles we must overcome before we can make ubiquitous computing a reality.""--STEVE SILBERMAN, EDITOR, "WIRED MAGAZINE" ""Adam is a visionary. he has true compassion and respect for ordinary users like me who are struggling to use and understand the new technology being thrust on us at overwhelming speed.""--REBECCA MACKINNON, BERKMAN CENTER FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY"Everyware" is an AIGA Design Press book, published under Peachpit's New Riders imprint in partnership with AIGA.

Author: Miroslav Volf
ISBN: 9780687002825
Pages: 336
Summary: Life at the end of the twentieth century presents us with a disturbing reality. Otherness, the simple fact of being different in some way, has come to be defined as in and of itself evil. Miroslav Volf contends that if the healing word of the gospel is to

Author: Douglas Rushkoff
ISBN: 9781887128902
Pages: 375
Summary: Douglas Rushkoff's latest salvo on complacent media culture, set in 2008, features Jamie Cohen, a young hacker who, like the biblical Joseph, suffers betrayal and then penance (via the talk-show circuit) before joining forces with a venture capitalist determined to turn everyone into mindless consumers. Meanwhile, Jamie's former pals have developed a way to kill the Web's - and the stock market's - profit-making capacities. A dazzling satire of 1990s dot-com mania, this McLuhanesque cultural critique establishes a new publishing precedent: it is the first "open-source" ebook, annotated by online readers. This first print edition includes the best of their footnotes chosen by the author.

Author: B. Joseph Pine, James H. Gilmore
ISBN: 9780875848198
Pages: 254
Summary: Future economic growth lies in the value of experiences and transformations--good and services are no longer enough. We are on the threshold, say authors Pine and Gilmore, of the Experience Economy, a new economic era in which all businesses must orchestrate memorable events for their customers. The Experience Economy offers a creative, highly original, and yet eminently practical strategy for companies to script and stage the experiences that will transform the value of what they produce. From America Online to Walt Disney, the authors draw from a rich and varied mix of examples that showcase businesses in the midst of creating personal experiences for both consumers and businesses. The authors urge managers to look beyond traditional pricing factors like time and cost, and consider charging for the value of the transformation that an experience offers. Goods and services, say Pine and Gilmore, are no longer enough. Experiences and transformations are the basis for future economic growth, and The Experience Economy is the script from which managers can begin to direct their own transformations.