This biography examines the life of a person raised in poverty and a single mother at 14, who is now one of the richest and most influential people in the world-Oprah Winfrey. Oprah's life is a bonafide rags-to-riches story that is much more compelling because of her empathy, sense of humor, and ability to communicate and connect with people. Beyond the estimated 30 million American viewers who tune into her television show each week, there are devoted fans in 140 countries where Oprah's show is broadcast. Her life and businesses continue to expand, now encompassing a radio channel, two magazines, and the forthcoming OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network television channel. This book documents the different aspects of Oprah's life, incorporating the details of her public, private, and philanthropic personas. The seven chapters of Oprah Winfrey: A Biography, Second Edition span the time period from her childhood in rural Mississippi to her present-day status as a global superstar and philanthropist. Provides a chronological list of important dates in Oprah's life Contains new information about Oprah's efforts to reach out to poor and poorly educated girls in America and Africa This revised edition includes current information about Oprah's ongoing career and life

Television was one of the forces shaping the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, when a blockbuster TV series could reach up to a third of a country's population. This book explores television's impact on social change by comparing three sitcoms and their audiences. The shows in focus - Till Death Us Do Part in Britain, All in the Family in the United States, and One Heart and One Soul in West Germany - centered on a bigoted anti-hero and his family. Between 1966 and 1979 they saturated popular culture, and managed to accelerate as well as deradicalize value changes and collective attitudes regarding gender roles, sexuality, religion, and race.

When the BBC launched the world's first regular, high-definition television service on 2 November, 1936 it was the culmination of decades of technological innovations. More than this, however, the service meant that the principle of television had finally found its place. The Birth of British Television - A History traces the early history and development of television, from the experiments of amateurs to the institutionalised developments that led to the world's first regular, high definition television service. Author Mark Aldridge provides a clear, in-depth and accessible introduction for those either exploring the period for the first time or seeking new insights into the beginnings of the industry. In tracing the origins and development of television, Aldridge focuses on a number of important factors including the attitude of the press towards early television and examines the way that expectations of television changed over time prior to its official launch. Utilising new research, this illuminating study examines how the aims for a new television service developed, and the extent to which content and technology were linked. The Birth of British Television approaches this formative period from several perspectives, from private individuals to the BBC and government, while also examining the broader opinions at the time towards the new medium through press reports and feedback from the general public. Also included is an assessment of early programming, which helps to offer a new and profound evaluation of the development of early television. Mark Aldridge is a Lecturer in Film and TV Studies at Southampton Solent University, UK. He specialises in British television and both film and television history. His previous publications include T is for Television (2008), an analysis of the work of Russell T. Davies, co-written with Andy Murray.

Every baby boomer in America knows who that masked man was. He was mysterious and mythic at the same time, the epitome of the American hero: compassionate, honest, patriotic, inventive, an unswerving champion of justice and fair play.

'Beautifully written, meticulously researched and stuffed with rich sporting and social history ... Unputdownable' Mail on Sunday

After the Second World War, as the BBC tightened its grip on the national consciousness, two of the most famous English voices were commentators on games of cricket. John Arlott and E.W. ('Jim') Swanton transformed the broadcasting of the nation's summer game into a national institution.

Arlott and Swanton typified the contrasting aspects of post-war Britain. Because of their strong personalities and distinctive voices - Swanton's crisp and upper-class, Arlott's with its Hampshire burr - each had a loyal following. As England moved from a class-based to a more egalitarian society, nothing stayed the same - including professional cricket. Wise, lively and filled with rich social and sporting history, Arlott, Swanton and the Soul of English Cricket shows how, as the game entered a new era, these two very different men battled to save the soul of the game.

Praise for the First Edition:

aOffers the most insightful and significant scholarly analysis to date of the changes taking place in the economic aglobalizationa of television production. A delight to read, laced with wit and humor.a
--"Choice"

Praise for the Second Edition:

aProvides both the record of a strange moment in history and a contribution to contemporary cultural politics. This second, revised edition brings the story right up to the present with a compelling blend of the ancient and the modern.a
--Toby Miller, editor of "Television & New Media"

"The Apprentice," "Project Runway," "The Bachelor," "My Life on the D-list," "Extreme Makeover," "American Idol," It is virtually impossible to turn on a television without coming across some sort of reality programming. Yet, while this genre has rapidly moved from the fringes of television culture to its lucrative core, critical attention has not kept pace.

Beginning by unearthing its historical roots in early reality shows like "Candid Camera" and wending its way through "An American Family" and "The Real World" to the most recent crop of reality programs, Reality TV, now updated with eight new essays, is one of the first books to address the economic, visual, cultural, audience, and new media dimensions of reality television and has become the standard in the field. The essays provide a complex and comprehensive picture of how and why this genre emerged, what it means, how it differs from earlier television programming, and how it engages societies, industries, and individuals. Topics range from the blending of fact and fiction, to the uses of viewer labor and ainteractivity, a to issues of surveillance, gender performativity, hyper-commercialism, and generic parody.

By spanning reality televisionas origins in the late 1940s to its current overwhelming popularity, Reality TV demonstrates both the tenacity of the format and its enduring ability to speak to our changing political and social desires and anxieties.

How religion, gender, and urban sociality are expressed in and mediated via television drama in Kinshasa is the focus of this ethnographic study. Influenced by Nigerian films and intimately related to the emergence of a charismatic Christian scene, these teleserials integrate melodrama, conversion narratives, Christian songs, sermons, testimonies, and deliverance rituals to produce commentaries on what it means to be an inhabitant of Kinshasa.

During his 40-year career, the author became one of the industrys most respected television editors, receiving seven Emmy nominations and winning four of the coveted awards. But it was as a master of the jump cut--an editing style in which a sudden cut from one shot to another is made without a fadeout--that he is most remembered, and the term became his nickname. Mr. Schneider worked on many of Bob Hopes shows over the years, but it was for Laugh-In that he fully developed his editing style. This is a behind-the-scenes look at the development of television, from the days when some editing was done with a razor blade and tape to the electronic editing of today. Along the way, Mr. Schneider remembers the stars he worked with, from Gene Kelly to Redd Foxx.

Mass media portrayals of women have been identified as influential in shaping their self-image and self-esteem, as well as men's and societies' views of women. Comparatively few studies have examined mass media portrayals of men and male identity, and gender studies have often assumed these to be unproblematic. But, in a post-industrial era of economic, technological and social change, research shows mass media are projecting and propagating new images of male identity from Atlas Syndrome workaholics and 'deadbeat dads' to 'metrosexuals' and men with 'a feminine side', with potentially significant social implications. This book presents a landmark in-depth study of how mass media contribute to the making and remaking of male identity.

Why is talk about television forbidden at certain schools? Why does a mother feel guilty about watching Star Trek in front of her four-year-old child? Why would retired men turn to daytime soap operas for entertainment? Cliches about television mask the complexity of our relationship to media technologies. Through case studies, the author explains what audience research tells us about the uses of technologies in the domestic sphere and the classroom, the relationship between gender and genre, and the varied interpretation of media technologies and media forms. Television and New Media Audiences reviews the most important research on television audiences and recommends the use of ethnographic, longitudinal methods for the study of media consumption and computer use at home as well as in the workplace.

Alison Oddey takes us on a spectator's journey engaging with art forms that cross boundaries of categorization. She questions the role of the spectator and director, including interviews with Deborah Warner; the nature of art works and performance with artists Heather Ackroyd, Dan Harvey and Graeme Miller. She provocatively demonstrates the spectator as centre of the artistic experience, a new kind of making theatre-art, revealing its spirit and nature; searching for space and contemplation in a hectic Twenty-First century landscape.

"A raw glimpse" (Entertainment Weekly) into her lifelong battle with personal demons and near-fatal addictions--and reveals the shattering truth behind her complex, secretive, and damaging history with her father, the legendary John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas.
Not long before her fiftieth birthday, Mackenzie Phillips made headlines with her arrest for drug possession at Los Angeles International Airport; the actor-musician-mother had been on her way to a reunion of "One Day at a Time, "the hugely popular '70s sitcom on which she once starred as the lovable rebel Julie Cooper.
Born into rock-and-roll royalty, flying in Learjets to the Virgin Islands at five, making pot brownies with Donovan at eleven, Mackenzie grew up in an all-access kingdom of hippie freedom and heroin cool. As a rising Hollywood star herself, she joined the nonstop party in the hedonistic pleasure dome of her father's making, and a rapt TV audience watched as Julie Cooper wasted away before their eyes. By the time Mackenzie discovered how deep and dark her father's trip was going, it was too late.
As an adult, she has paid dearly for a lifetime of excess, working tirelessly to reconcile her wonderful, terrible past and the pull of her magnetic father. By sharing her journey toward redemption and peace, the star who turned up "High on Arrival "has finally come back down to earth--to stay.

The definitive visual history of the thrilling make-up artistry of the legendary Rick Baker, a must-have for collectors and special effects afficionados. From the gory zombies of Michael Jackson's Thriller to the staggeringly lifelike results of Bigfoot in Harry and the Hendersons to the groundbreaking effects in An American Werewolf in London, Baker's special effects, makeup, and prosthetics are some of Hollywood's most enduring legacies. This deluxe, two-volume set is replete with more than 1000 four-colour images and original sketches. It covers the makeup artist's 40-plus-year journey, from his early days as a young "monster maker", creating body parts in his parents' kitchen, to his more than 70 film and television credits--that earned seven Academy Awards, one Emmy, and three BAFTAs, among numerous other awards.

Success out of near disaster, finances taken to the edge of bankruptcy, resignations - this volume tells the dramatic stories of the major new commercial television developments in Britain between 1981-92. This is an authoritative account, from the people involved and from official documents, of the launches and first ten years of Channel 4 and TV-am, the expansion of cable television and early difficulties of satellite broadcasting.

During the iQSo's, in a frontier atmosphere of enterprise and sharp struggle, an American television system took shape. But even as it did so, itspioneers pushed beyond American borders and became programmers to scores of other nations. In its first decade United States television was already a world phenomenon. Since American radio had for some time had international ramifications, American images and sounds were radiatingfrom transmitter towers throughout the globe. They were called entertainment or news or education but were always more. They were a reflection of a growing United States involvement in the lives of other nationsan involvement of imperial scope. The role of broadcasters in this American expansion and in the era that produced it is the subject matter of The Image Empire, the last of three volumes comprising this study.

People are on the move across the Arab world, organizing politically in new ways. The Arab media have also undergone a transformation and are still in a state of flux. It is therefore crucial to be able to discuss political initiatives in the region in the light of media developments. This authoritative book answers key questions about the connections between media and political change in the Arab world. Using research into, for example, practices of Internet users, journalists, demonstrators and producers of reality TV, it explores the interface between public interaction over the airwaves, at the polls and on the streets. A lively group of contributors explores such issues as whether young people are served well by new media, whether blogging is an influential political tool, whether satellite news helps or hinders diasporic communities politically, and much more. Engaging with debates at the heart of public affairs and popular culture in Arab countries, this book addresses everyone who seeks to grasp the media politics of this central, often misunderstood region.