Over the last two decades Oprah Winfrey's journey has taken her from talk show queen to - as Time Magazine has asserted - "one of the most important figures in popular culture." Through her talk show, magazine, website, seminars, charity work, and public appearances, her influence in the social, economic, and political arenas of American life is considerable and until now, largely unexamined.. In "The Age of Oprah," media scholar and journalist Janice Peck traces Winfrey's growing cultural impact and illustrates the fascinating parallels between her road to fame and fortune and the political-economic rise of neoliberalism in this country. While seeking to understand Oprah's ascent to near iconic status that she enjoys today, Peck's book provides a fascinating window into the intersection of American politics and culture over the past quarter century.

Over the last two decades Oprah Winfrey's journey has taken her from talk show queen to - as Time Magazine has asserted - "one of the most important figures in popular culture." Through her talk show, magazine, website, seminars, charity work, and public appearances, her influence in the social, economic, and political arenas of American life is considerable and until now, largely unexamined.. In "The Age of Oprah," media scholar and journalist Janice Peck traces Winfrey's growing cultural impact and illustrates the fascinating parallels between her road to fame and fortune and the political-economic rise of neoliberalism in this country. While seeking to understand Oprah's ascent to near iconic status that she enjoys today, Peck's book provides a fascinating window into the intersection of American politics and culture over the past quarter century.

Since first going on the air in 1972, HBO has continually attempted to redefine television as we know it. Today, pay television (and HBO in particular) is positioned as an alternative to network offerings, consistently regarded as the premier site for what has come to be called "quality television." This collection of new essays by an international group of media scholars argues that HBO, as part of the leading edge of television, is at the center of television studies' interests in market positioning, style, content, technology, and political economy. The contributors focus on pioneering areas of analysis and new critical approaches in television studies today, highlighting unique aspects of the "HBO effect" to explore new perspectives on contemporary television from radical changes in technology to dramatic shifts in viewing habits. It's Not TV provides fresh insights into the "post-television network" by examining HBO's phenomenally popular and pioneering shows, including The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City as well as its failed series, such as K Street and The Comeback. The contributors also explore the production process itself and the creation of a brand commodity, along with HBO's place as a market leader and technological innovator. Contributors: Kim Akass, Cara Louise Buckley, Rhiannon Bury, Joanna L. Di Mattia, Blake D. Ethridge, Tony Kelso, Marc Leverette, David Marc, Janet McCabe, Conor McGrath, Shawn McIntosh, Brian L. Ott, Avi Santo, Lisa Williamson Foreword by Toby Miller Marc Leverette is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Colorado State University. He is author of Professional Wrestling, the Myth, the Mat, and American Popular Culture and co-editor of Zombie Culture: Autopsies of the Living Dead and Oh My God, They Deconstructed South Park! Those Bastards! Brian L. Ott is Associate Professor of Media Studies at Colorado State University. He is author of The Small Screen: How Television Equips Us to Live in the Information Age. Cara Louise Buckley is a lecturer at Emerson College.

This book examines the development of television in India since the early 1990s, and its implications for Indian society more widely. Until 1991, India possessed only a single state-owned television channel, but since then there has been a rapid expansion in independent satellite channels which came as a complete break from the statist control of the past. This book explores this transformation, explaining how television, a medium that developed in the industrial West, was adapted to suit Indian conditions, and in turn has altered Indian social practices, making possible new ways of imagining identities, conducting politics and engaging with the state. In particular, satellite television initially came to India as the representative of global capitalism but it was appropriated by Indian entrepreneurs and producers who Indianized it. Considering the full gamut of Indian television - from "national" networks in English and Hindi to the state of regional language networks - this book elucidates the transformative impact of television on a range of important social practices, including politics and democracy, sport and identity formation, cinema and popular culture. Overall, it shows how the story of television in India is also the story of India's encounter with the forces of globalisation.

Long before cable, satellite dishes, prepackaged syndication, infomercials, and reality shows, there was a brand of entertainment that has today nearly vanished from the airwaves: local TV. From Bozo and Oopsy the clowns to the cheesy antics of Sir Graves Ghastly to Soupy Sales, Detroit TV was a smorgasbord of exuberant, quirky personalities and one-of-a-kind television shows. These vintage programs belong to a dying breed of homemade talent overshadowed by our racier but woefully monochromatic and bland diet of sports figures, musicians, and Hollywood celebrities. Based on actual interviews with the people who made Detroit TV, Gordon Castelnero's ""TV Land - Detroit"" reawakens the emotional attachment and nostalgia our community has for these shows, bringing the characters and the programs back to life. From the glamorous Rita Bell to the campy and kooky Sir Graves Ghastly, the zany Soupy Sales to the opinionated and often confrontational Lou Gordon and the gruff-voiced and somnolent George Pierrot, Castelnero describes a quintessentially American yet nearly extinct folk celebrity that's been replaced by slick productions, big budgets, ironic and edgy program values, and gargantuan egos.

Cinzia Padovani takes an in-depth look at Italian public service broadcasting, covering its history, its role in Italian society, its relationship to the political party system, and its influence on cultural and linguistic unification in Italy. Tracing the history and development of Italian public television broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) to the present, Padovani challenges traditional views by asserting that parties' "interference" in RAI has, at times, strengthened the role of public service broadcasting and that partisan journalism has even enhanced democratic potential.

Mabel Constanduros was one of the first British radio comediennes and a beloved star of the early BBC, best known as the creator and performer of the comic Cockney family, the Bugginses. In this, the first significant biography of Constanduros, Jennifer J Purcell explores Constanduros's career and influence on the shaping of popular British entertainment alongside the history of the nascent BBC. Mother of the BBC provides new insights into programming decisions and content on the early BBC, deepening our understanding of the history and evolution of situation comedy and soap opera. Further, Constanduros's biography considers class in the representation of the British people on BBC radio, the gendered experience and performance of radio celebrity, and the intersections between BBC entertainment and other forms of popular media prior to the advent of television. Constanduros's emphasis on the everyday and the family had far-reaching impacts on the shape of sitcom and soap opera in Britain, two popular lenses through which the nation sees itself at home. Her role in developing entertainment on the BBC and the ways in which she cultivated her career make her the Mother of the BBC, but in constructing a popular image of family life she might also be considered the Mother of the Nation.

Into the Newsroom provides a rigorous investigation into the everyday rituals that are performed in the television newsroom, and offers a unique suggestion that news is both a highly haphazard and yet technologically complicated process of deliberate construction involving the interweaving of reflexive professional journalists as well as developing, unpredictable technologies. Arguing specifically for a recognition and an exploration of technological agency, this book takes the reader on an exciting journey into the digital newsroom, using exclusive observation and interviews from those journalists working on the BBC's recent pilot project of local television news as part of its empirical evidence. This is an essential introduction for both those seeking to understand news processes at the level of every day routines and practices, and for those students and scholars who are eager to adopt new and challenging ways to theorise news as practice.

The significant changes that have swept the television industry over the last two decades, most notably a shift to deregulation in broadcast media, prompt a discussion on how to ensure that meaningful content is available to the viewer. "Television and Public Policy" analyzes the current state of television systems in a selected group of countries by exploring the political, economic, and technological factors that have shaped the sector in such a short span of time. Consequently, by positioning the television sector within issues of media policy and the regulatory framework, the book questions what these trends mean for television, and the historical, political, and cultural role in our societies.
" "
"Television and Public Policy" distinguishes itself in several ways:
*It is a global project in its comparative scope and subject area. Contributors represent countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
*It is contemporary and filled with information largely absent in current literature.
*It offers original analysis of the contemporary television sector.
" "
This book speaks" "to a broad range of academics, postgraduate, and undergraduate students, and can serve as a key resource for courses ranging from media studies, to development studies, international relations, and law.

The significant changes that have swept the television industry over the last two decades, most notably a shift to deregulation in broadcast media, prompt a discussion on how to ensure that meaningful content is available to the viewer. "Television and Public Policy" analyzes the current state of television systems in a selected group of countries by exploring the political, economic, and technological factors that have shaped the sector in such a short span of time. Consequently, by positioning the television sector within issues of media policy and the regulatory framework, the book questions what these trends mean for television, and the historical, political, and cultural role in our societies.
" "
"Television and Public Policy" distinguishes itself in several ways:
*It is a global project in its comparative scope and subject area. Contributors represent countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
*It is contemporary and filled with information largely absent in current literature.
*It offers original analysis of the contemporary television sector.
" "
This book speaks" "to a broad range of academics, postgraduate, and undergraduate students, and can serve as a key resource for courses ranging from media studies, to development studies, international relations, and law.

Into the Newsroom provides a rigorous investigation into the everyday rituals that are performed in the television newsroom, and offers a unique suggestion that news is both a highly haphazard and yet technologically complicated process of deliberate construction involving the interweaving of reflexive professional journalists as well as developing, unpredictable technologies. Arguing specifically for a recognition and an exploration of technological agency, this book takes the reader on an exciting journey into the digital newsroom, using exclusive observation and interviews from those journalists working on the BBC's recent pilot project of local television news as part of its empirical evidence. This is an essential introduction for both those seeking to understand news processes at the level of every day routines and practices, and for those students and scholars who are eager to adopt new and challenging ways to theorise news as practice.

As radio developed in the early 1920s, the focus for most people was the AM band and stations such as KDKA, the first broadcast station. There was, however, another broadcast method that was popular among many early enthusiasts - shortwave radio. As is true today, the transmission of news and entertainment programs over shortwave frequencies permitted reception over great distances. For many in America and beyond, shortwave was an exciting aspect of the new medium. Some still tune the shortwave bands to enjoy the programming. Others pursue broadcasts for the thrill of the hunt. This book fully covers shortwave broadcasting from its beginning through World War II. A technical history examining the medium's development and use tells the story of a listener community that spanned the globe. Included are overviews of the primary shortwave stations operating worldwide in the 1930s, along with clubs and competitions, publications and prizes. A rich collection of illustrations includes many QSLs, the cards that stations sent to acknowledge receipt of their transmissions and that are much prized by long-distance collectors.

HDTV and the Transition to Digital Broadcasting bridges the gap between non-technical personnel (management and creative) and technical by giving you a working knowledge of digital television technology, a clear understanding of the challenges of HDTV and digital broadcasting, and a scope of the ramifications of HDTV in the consumer space.

Topics include methodologies and issues in HD production and distribution, as well as HDTV's impact on the future of the media business. This book contains sidebars and system diagrams that illustrate examples of broadcaster implementation of HD and HD equipment. Additionally, future trends including the integration of broadcast engineering and IT, control and descriptive metadata, DTV interactivity and personalization are explored.

This Book Gives You:

• Clear explanations of the technologies you need to understand to talk with engineers and other broadcast technology professionals
• A great starting place for those desiring a career in broadcasting in any discipline management, creative or technical
• A historical and technical overview of DTV, HDTV, standards, and organizations

This book offers a history of Japanese television audiences and the popular media culture that television helped to spawn. In a comparatively short period, the television industry helped to reconstruct not only postwar Japanese popular culture, but also the Japanese social and political landscape. During the early years of television, Japanese of all backgrounds, from politicians to mothers, debated the effects on society. The public discourse surrounding the growth of television revealed its role in forming the identity of postwar Japanese during the era of high-speed growth (1955 - 1973) that saw Japan transformed into an economic power and one of the world's top exporters of television programming.

The Children's Television Community presents a cutting-edge analysis of the children's television community-the organizations, major players, and approaches to programming-and gives an overview of the history, current state, and future of children's programming. Leading children's television professionals and distinguished academicians come together in this volume to take a distinctive behind-the-scenes look at how children's television is created, programmed, and sold. This thought-provoking work emphasizes the various actors whose creative, financial, political, and critical input go into children's television, and addresses advocacy for children's television from multiple approaches. By blending these diverse perspectives, editor J. Alison Bryant offers readers a comprehensive picture of children's television. Highlights include: * a community level approach to understanding children's television; * perspectives from colleagues in various aspects of the media industry; and * an eye-opening analysis of how decision-making affects what children are exposed to through television. The Children's Television Community is highly informative for educators, industry professionals, and practitioners in media, developmental psychology, and education.

This book is the first to offer a global perspective on the unique contemporary media phenomenon of transnational television channels. It is also the first to compare their impact in different regions of the globe. Revealing great richness and diversity across some of the world's main geocultural regions (Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Greater China and Latin America), international contributors with in-depth industry knowledge examine the place of these channels in the process of globalization, their impact on the nation-state and on regional culture and politics. The book also considers audiences and geocultural TV markets, providing new ways of thinking about the emerging transnational media order.

Radio Modernism marries the fields of radio studies and modernist cultural historiography to the recent 'ethical turn' in literary and cultural studies to examine how representative British writers negotiated the moral imperative for public service broadcasting that was crafted, embraced, and implemented by the BBC's founders and early administrators. Weaving together the institutional history of the BBC and developments in ethical philosophy as mediated and forged by writers such as T. S. Eliot, H. G. Wells, E. M. Forster, and Virginia Woolf, Todd Avery shows how these and other prominent authors' involvement with radio helped to shape the ethical contours of literary modernism. In so doing, Avery demonstrates the central role radio played in the early dissemination of modernist art and literature, and also challenges the conventional assertion that modernists were generally elitist and anti-democratic. Intended for readers interested in the fields of media and cultural studies and modernist historiography, this book is remarkable in recapturing for a twenty-first-century audience the interest, fascination, excitement, and often consternation that British radio induced in its literary listeners following its inception in 1922.

Religious programming has been on the airwaves since broadcasting began, but today it is one of the fastest growing categories in radio. This book examines the progression of Christian radio from its beginnings on tiny local stations (like WCAL from St. Olaf's College in Minnesota) to its presence on network and satellite radio of today. The author notes the factors that brought Christian music into the mainstream and discusses how network policies and regulations affected the development of Christian radio. Also considered are the changing demographics that have contributed to the success of Christian broadcasting. Major Christian networks and their evangelical missions are discussed, along with such programs A Money Minute, Life on the Edge and Focus on the Family, which offer practical topical advice for today's Christian. The final chapter considers the future of Christian radio.

As the dominant form of electronic mass communication in the United States from the 1930s into the 1950s, radio helped to forge a modern continental nation. It fused myriad subcultures?heavily rural, ethnic, and immigrant?into a national identity, unifying the nation in the face of the Depression and war. Later, federal deregulation allowed the radio of the ?Golden Age, ? 1926?1952, to devolve into a chain-dominated, satellite-fed plaything of Wall Street. Today, radio has the highest profit ratio of all the media outlets?and Golden Age traditions of programming taste, diversity, balance, and localism are a legacy squandered. This anecdote-rich sweep of radio history, from its birth as Marconi's ?wireless telegraph? through its current status under deregulation, analyzes the changing medium's social, political, and cultural impact. It casts new light on many topics, including the roles of women and African Americans, programming sources outside the Hollywood-Broadway nexus, and arguments about Amos ?n? Andy?once the hit that jump-started radio's young networks, now a controversial remnant of a bygone era. The book is augmented with more than sixty photos, extensive source notes, and a bibliography.

Television Policy offers a unique and authoritative account of the major developments in television programming and policy since 1976 by collecting in a single volume the MacTaggart lectures delivered at the Edinburgh International Television Festival across the last quarter of a century. The MacTaggart lecturers include the most celebrated and distinguished programme makers, producers, performers, playwrights, policymakers and senior media executives across all sectors of broadcasting. They include Greg Dyke, John Humphrys, John McGrath, Marcel Orphuls, Norman Lear, Jeremy Isaacs, John Mortimer, Peter Jay, Ted Turner, Jonathan Miller, Denis Foreman, John Schlesinger, Troy Kennedy-Martin, Philip Whitehead, Christine Ockrent, Rupert Murdoch, Verity Lambert, David Elstein, Michael Grade, Dennis Potter, Janet Street Porter, John Birt, Laurence Marks, Maurice Gran, Peter Bazalgette, Richard Eyre, David Liddiment and Mark Thompson. With a Foreword by John Willis and an introductory essay exploring the history of the MacTaggart lectures and a review of the shifting themes and concerns of the lectures, the book provides a forum for the significant debates which have helped to shape both television content and policy across twenty five years of considerable and unprecedented change in broadcasting. Topics covered include the future of public service programming; the relationship of government to broadcasters; the impact of ownership on the freedom of broadcasters; and debates about whether and how television should be regulated. Television Policy is essential reading for all students of media and communication studies as well as those interested in reading accounts of television programming and policy written by some of the most eloquent, eminent but contentious figures in television broadcasting. Features * The first collection of the prestigious MacTaggart Lectures * A unique insight into the development of television programming across 25 years * Authoritative and eloquent analyses of television policy * Critical assessment of the contribution of the MacTaggart Lectures to current policy debates * Insider accounts of the development and future of Public Service Broadcasting.

"Television in the Antenna Age" is a brief, accessible, and engaging overview of the medium's history and development in the US. Integrating three major concerns--television as an industry, a technology, and an art--the book is a basic primer on the complex, fascinating, and often overlooked story of television and its impact on American life.
Covers the entire history of American television, from its urban, middle-class beginnings in the late 40s, to the contemporary impact of new technologies and consolidated corporate.

Includes interview segments with industry insiders, pictures, and sidebars to illustrate important figures, trends, and events

In an effort to halt increasing media competition and decreasing audience shares, Branding has become the new mantra among television station and network executives. Branding TV: Principles and Practices second edition goes beyond the jargon of branding to explain the essential principles underlying successful branding and offers many practical strategies to measure, build and manage television brand equity. For instructional purposes, the book pays particular attention to the local commercial TV station and its news franchise.
Written by broadcast professionals with years of experience, this book shows how the notions of branding are no more prevalent than in the battle for dominance in local news. The practical suggestions in the book will help the savvy manager understand and take advantage of branding in their efforts to move their property to the forefront in the marketplace.
* Includes definitions of branding concepts, ways to measure brand equity, and a discussion of legal considerations
*Published with the National Association of Broadcasters-one of the leading broadcast organizations
* Author team has more than 50 years combined experience!
* Second edition is fully revised to include transition to digital, ownership consolidation, and the marketing relationship between stations and networks

British Radio Drama, 1945-1963 reveals the quality and range of the avant-garde radio broadcasts from the 'golden age' of British radio drama. Turning away from the cautious and conservative programming that emerged in the UK immediately after World War II, young generations of radio producers looked to French theatre, introducing writers such as Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco to British radio audiences. This 'theatre of the absurd' triggered a renaissance of writing and production featuring the work of Giles Cooper, Rhys Adrian and Harold Pinter, as well as the launch of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Based on primary archival research and interviews with former BBC staff, Hugh Chignell places this high-point in the BBC's history in the broader context of British post-war culture, as norms of morality and behavior were re-negotiated in the shadow of the Cold War, while at once establishing the internationalism of post-war radio and theatre.

Taking a comparative approach, this text examines the processes of globalization by analyzing television case histories in Japan, China and Hong Kong. The text illustrates how television is becoming increasingly global. The conditions of the television industry, of the production of the news, and in particular of the public service broadcaster appear in a symbolic role, metaphors for the reconfiguration of relationships between the global and the local. the three case histories on interviews with key participants in exemplar events: Japanese attempts to set up a rival to CNN and to internationalize NHK; CCTV's defence of its dominant position, under pressure from upheavals in both Chinese society and the government bureaucracy; and the establishment, sale and erratic progress of Rupert Murdoch's STAR TV. gap in the media studies literature as well as making a major contribution to comparative research in Asia.

Gain a thorough understanding of the nuanced and multidimensional role producers play in television and emerging media today to harness the creative, technical, interpersonal, and financial skills essential for success in this vibrant and challenging field. Producing for TV and New Media, Fourth edition is your guide to avoiding the obstacles and pitfalls commonly encountered by new and aspiring producers. This fourth edition has been updated to include: "Focus on Emerging Media" sections that highlight emerging media, web video, mobile format media and streaming media Sample production forms and contracts Review questions accompanying each interview and chapter Interviews with industry professionals that offer practical insight into cutting-edge developments in television and emerging media production Fresh analysis of emerging media technologies and streaming media markets Written especially for new and aspiring producers with an insight that simply cannot be found in any other book, this new edition of a text used by professors and professionals alike is an indispensable resource for anyone looking to find success as a television or emerging media producer.