Learning on ScreenNew books in December
Local Radio, Going Global
By Guy Starkey
(Palgrave Macmillan), 224 pages
ISBN: 978-0230276895 (hardback), Price: £50
www.palgrave.com
This book examines the development of local radio broadcasting and the trend in the UK and abroad for locally-owned, locally-originated and locally-accountable commercial radio stations to fall into the hands of national and even international media groups. They in turn disadvantage the communities from which they seek to profit, by removing from them a means of cultural expression and democratic participation. In essence, localness in local radio is an endangered species, despite being a relatively recent phenomenon. By tracing the early development of local radio through ideologically-charged debates around public-service broadcasting and the fitness of the private sector to exploit scarce resources, to present-day digital environments in which traditional rationales for regulation on ownership and content have become increasingly challenged, the book provides a manifesto for informed speculation around future developments in local radio.
About the Author: Guy Starkey is Professor of Radio Journalism and Head of the Department of Media at the University of Sunderland. His publications include Radio in Context (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Balance and Bias in Journalism: Representation, Regulation and Democracy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) and Radio Journalism with Professor Andrew Crisell (Sage, 2009).
Public Service Media and Policy in Europe
By Dr Karen Donders
(Palgrave Macmillan), 248 pages
ISBN: 978-0230290969 (hardback), Price: £50
www.palgrave.com
Public Service Media and Policy in Europe provides an in-depth account of EU policies in the area of public service broadcasting, focusing mainly on the application of the European State aid rules. The book discusses when, how and with what impact the European Commission deals with public service broadcasting. There is an element of fear towards the intervention of the European Commission, and a worry that it is overly focused on economic goals to the detriment of public interest objectives. More specifically, the fear exists that ‘Europe’ might hamper the evolution from public service broadcasting to public service media and introduce harmonized European rules for public service broadcasting. Private media companies have lobbied extensively against the expansion of public broadcasters’ tasks and for a European straitjacket in this regard. Karen Donders evaluates whether the European Commission has indeed satisfied private sector interests by marginalising public broadcasters, or whether it has in fact contributed to the emergence of a public service media project.
About the Author: Dr Karen Donders is Senior Researcher with the Centre for Studies on Media Information and Telecommunication (SMIT) and the Institute for European Studies (IES) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
Scripting Hitchcock: Psycho, The Birds, and Marnie
By Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick
(University of Illinois Press), 168 pages
SBN: 978-0252078248 (Paperback), £14.99
www.combinedacademic.co.uk
Explores the collaborative process between director Alfred Hitchcock and the screenwriters he hired to write the scripts for three of his most important films: Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). Drawing from extensive interviews with the screenwriters and other film technicians who worked for Hitchcock, Walter Raubicheck and Walter Srebnick illustrate how much of the filmmaking process took place not on the set or in front of the camera, but in the adaptation of the sources, the mutual creation of plot and characters by the director and screenwriters Jay Presson Allen, Joseph Stefano, and Evan Hunter.
About the Authors: Walter Raubicheck is a professor of English at Pace University and the co-editor of Going My Way: Bing Crosby and American Culture (University of Rochester Press, 2007). Walter Srebnick is Professor Emeritus of English at Pace University and the co-editor of Hitchcock’s Rereleased Films: From Rope to Vertigo (Wayne State University Press, 1991).
Television Journalism
By Stephen Cushion
(Sage Publications), 240 pages
ISBN: 978-1446207413 (Paperback), Price: £22.99; ISBN: 978-1446207406 (Hardback), Price: £65.00
www.uk.sagepub.com
Despite the democratic promise of new media, television journalism remains the most viewed, valued and trusted source of information in many countries around the world. Comparing patterns of ownership, policy and regulation, this book explores how different environments have historically shaped contemporary trends in television journalism internationally. Informed by original research, Television Journalism lays bare the implications of market forces, public service interventions and regulatory shifts in television journalism’s changing production practices, news values and audience expectations. Accessibly written and packed with topical references, this authoritative account offers fresh insights into the past, present and future of journalism, making it a necessary point of reference for upper-level undergraduates, researchers and academics in broadcasting, journalism, mass communication and media studies.
About the Author: Stephen Cushion is a lecturer at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University, UK. He is the Deputy Director of the MA in Journalism, Media and Communications and Political Communications programmes. He co-edited The Rise of 24-Hour News Television: Global Perspectives with Justin Lewis (2010, Peter Lang).
