Full Description
Politics, Society, and the Media is the first comprehensive political sociology of the media to be published in Canada. Paul Nesbitt-Larking draws upon a range of disciplines, including cultural and media studies, political economy, social theory, and political science to provide an analysis of the relationship between power and representation in Canada. The framework for the book presents a model of the mutual interaction between politics and the media. Attention is focused in the early chapters on how cultural, ideological, economic, and governmental forces shape and condition the production of media in Canada. Chapters on the work of Innis, Grant, McLuhan, and their postmodern successors place the evolution of McLuhan's theoretical argument that "the medium is the message" at the heart of the book. Canadian identity, and how to understand Canadian media politically, is the subject of a chapter on textual analysis. Two extensive chapters follow on the media's influence and effects on politics.
In addition to standard topics on politics and the media, this new edition offers much more: an examination of the media on the politics of gender and aboriginal peoples, the micro-politics of the media workplace, and an exploration of important media-related considerations. Throughout, reference is made to relevant and compelling issues placed within the context of media theory.
Contents
Acknowledgements * Why? How? What? * Press Gangs: The Role of the Newspaper in Canadian Political Life * The Masses and the Masseys: The Political History of Broadcasting in Canada * The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Culture, Ideology, and the Media *(Almost) Everywhere They Are in Chains: The Political Economy of Communications in Canada * Sticks, Carrots, and Party Favours: State and Political Regulation of the Media * Life in the Sausage Factory: Possibilities and Constraints of Media Organizations * The Decline and Fall of the American Empire: Space and Time in the Work of Innis, Grant, and McLuhan * Mass Rallies, Mass Consumption, and (Mass) Confusion: Approaches to the Media in the Postmodern World * Drums and Wires: The Political Deconstruction of Canadian Texts * Moving Voters, Moving Accounts, and Moving Wallpaper: The Politics of Reading * Lies, Damn Lies, and Opinion Polls: Do the Media Massage the Message? * From Experience to Editorial: Gatekeeping, Agenda-Setting, Priming, and Framing * Social Responsibility and Antisocial Irresponsibility: Ethics, Participation, Political Activism, and the Media Bibliography Index
