Deborah Chambers draws on the metaphor of friendship as a strategy for exploring contemporary changes in informal social ties. She traces the shift from fixed and permanent ties of family, neighbourhood and community to fluid and transient ties typified by computer mediated communication. Focusing on relations of gender, she argues that friendship is a resource that maintains relations of power and reshapes identities through patterns of association ranging from gendered work and leisure networks, virtual communities, Internet dating and mobile phone use. These changes raise critical questions about care and responsibility for the Other.

Spanning the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries, this book investigates how home is imagined, staged and experienced in western culture. Questions about meanings of 'home' and domestic culture are triggered by dramatic changes in values and ideals about the dwellings we live in and the dwellings we desire or dread. Deborah Chambers explores how home is idealised as a middle-class haven, managed as an investment, and signified as a status symbol and expression of personal identity. She addresses a range of public, state, commercial, popular and expert discourses about 'home': the heritage industry, design, exhibitions, television, social media, home mobilities and migration, smart technologies and ecological sustainability. Drawing on cross-disciplinary research including cultural history and cultural geography, the book offers a distinctive media and cultural studies approach supported by original, historically informed case studies on interior and domestic design; exhibitions of model homes; TV home interiors; 'media home' imaginaries; multiscreen homes; corporate visions of 'homes of tomorrow' and digital smart homes. A comprehensive and engaging study, this book is ideal for students and researchers of cultural studies, cultural history, media and communication studies, as well as sociology, gender studies, cultural geography and design studies.

Media technologies have played a central role in shaping ideas about home life over the last two centuries. Changing Media, Homes and Households explores the complex relationship between home, householders, families and media technologies by charting the evolution of the media-rich home, from the early twentieth century to the present. Moving beyond a narrow focus on media texts, production and audiences, Deborah Chambers investigates the physical presence of media objects in the home and their symbolic importance for home life. The book identifies the role of home-based media in altering relationships between home, leisure, work and the outside world in the context of entertainment, communication and work. It assesses whether domestic media are transforming or reinforcing traditional identities and relations of gender, generation, class and migrancy. Mediatisation theory is employed to assess the domestication of media and media saturation of home life in the context of wider global changes. The author also develops the concept of media imaginaries to explain the role of public discourses in shaping changing meanings, values and uses of domestic media. Framed within these approaches, four chapters also provide in-depth case studies of the processes involved in media's home adoption: early television design, family-centred video gaming, the domestication of tablet computers, and the shift from "smart homes" to today's "connected" homes. This is an ideal text for students and researchers interested in media and cultural studies, communication, and sociology.

"Women and Journalism" offers a comprehensive analysis of the roles, status and experiences of women journalists in the United States and Britain. Drawing on a variety of sources, the authors investigate the challenges women have faced in their struggles to become established in the profession from the mid-19th century onward. With a particular focus on news journalism, the book provides an account of the gendered structuring of journalism in print, radio and television and speculates about women's role in the new sector of online journalism.
L Comparing and women's advancement in journalism in United States and Britain, the book identifies a number of key differences and the shared constraints that operate against women's progression in journalism in both countries. The authors argue that a gendered organization of newsroom cultures means that women are marginal in fields of "serious news" reporting. The authors argue that compared to male colleagues, women journalists are often considered open to criticism on their sex lives, parental status and appearance from audiences and management alike.
The book is unique in examining women's contribution to both mainstream and alternative news media. It examines the strategies women have adopted to gain power in a male-dominated media environment, charting women's independent press, radio, television and Internet initiatives in the United States and Britain: from the suffrage press to "Spare Rib" in the UK, from the abolitionist campaigners to" Off Our Backs" and "Ms Magazine" in the US; and from women's community radio, television news programs to women's Internet newsgroups in both countries. In stark contrast to the accent onwomen's rights in alternative news media, however, mainstream women journalists are central to the recent rise of a style of journalism distinguished by an emphasis on confessional, therapy "news" and market-led postfeminism. The authors conclude by addressing women's contribution to public discourse and their potential future role in the age of interactive news media and ask whether the concept of the "public sphere" is relevant to women in journalism.

Media technologies have played a central role in shaping ideas about home life over the last two centuries. Changing Media, Homes and Households explores the complex relationship between home, householders, families and media technologies by charting the evolution of the media-rich home, from the early twentieth century to the present. Moving beyond a narrow focus on media texts, production and audiences, Deborah Chambers investigates the physical presence of media objects in the home and their symbolic importance for home life. The book identifies the role of home-based media in altering relationships between home, leisure, work and the outside world in the context of entertainment, communication and work. It assesses whether domestic media are transforming or reinforcing traditional identities and relations of gender, generation, class and migrancy. Mediatisation theory is employed to assess the domestication of media and media saturation of home life in the context of wider global changes. The author also develops the concept of media imaginaries to explain the role of public discourses in shaping changing meanings, values and uses of domestic media. Framed within these approaches, four chapters also provide in-depth case studies of the processes involved in media's home adoption: early television design, family-centred video gaming, the domestication of tablet computers, and the shift from "smart homes" to today's "connected" homes. This is an ideal text for students and researchers interested in media and cultural studies, communication, and sociology.

Spanning the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries, this book investigates how home is imagined, staged and experienced in western culture. Questions about meanings of 'home' and domestic culture are triggered by dramatic changes in values and ideals about the dwellings we live in and the dwellings we desire or dread. Deborah Chambers explores how home is idealised as a middle-class haven, managed as an investment, and signified as a status symbol and expression of personal identity. She addresses a range of public, state, commercial, popular and expert discourses about 'home': the heritage industry, design, exhibitions, television, social media, home mobilities and migration, smart technologies and ecological sustainability. Drawing on cross-disciplinary research including cultural history and cultural geography, the book offers a distinctive media and cultural studies approach supported by original, historically informed case studies on interior and domestic design; exhibitions of model homes; TV home interiors; 'media home' imaginaries; multiscreen homes; corporate visions of 'homes of tomorrow' and digital smart homes. A comprehensive and engaging study, this book is ideal for students and researchers of cultural studies, cultural history, media and communication studies, as well as sociology, gender studies, cultural geography and design studies.

Women and Journalism offers a rich and comprehensive analysis of the roles, status and experiences of women journalists in the United States and Britain.

Drawing on a variety of sources and dealing with a host of women journalists ranging from nineteenth century pioneers to Martha Gellhorn, Kate Adie and Veronica Guerin, the authors investigate the challenges women have faced in their struggle to establish reputations as professionals.

This book provides an account of the gendered structuring of journalism in print, radio and television and speculates about women's still-emerging role in online journalism. Their accomplishments as war correspondents are tracked to the present, including a study of the role they played post-September 11th.

New kinds of intimate relationships such as post-divorce families, co-habiting couples, 'friends as family' and same-sex unions are now commonplace. This book explores the growing diversity of family life by presenting a comprehensive assessment of recent research and theory, and foregrounds new thinking about 'family', parenting, childhood and personal life.

"A Sociology of Family Life" queries notions of moral decline by revealing a remarkable persistence of commitment and reciprocity across cultures in traditional and new family relations. This insightful and innovative work examines factors such as gender, race, ethnic identity and new sexual lifestyles in relation to cultural customs, government policies and social inequalities.

Global dimensions of intimate life are explored, including the impact of population policies on fertility in several nations; ethical dilemmas associated with reproductive technologies among different cultures; interdependencies between rich and poor nations through the globalization of domestic care; and transnational marriage strategies. This book will be indispensable for students across the social sciences interested in change in intimate relations.Selected by Choice as a 2013 Outstanding Academic Title

This special edition of Ethical Space addresses the lack of ethnic diversity in the British media. With a focus on newspapers, the book identifies the reasons for a shortage of minority ethnic groups in mainstream journalism and newsroom management. It also considers the effects of this shortage on media representations of minority groups. The project arose from an Economic and Social Research Council-funded seminar series on Widening Ethnic Diversity in Journalism. The seminars were unique in assembling diverse perspectives and fostering interactions across the social, industrial, academic and educational landscape. The contributors to this special double edition reflect this diversity by representing key dimensions of the subject: the mainstream and minority ethnic media industry, journalism education and academic research. While focusing mainly on the British context, the volume also contains a major section on international perspectives and outcomes which echo several issues about workforce diversity identified in the UK news industry. The aims of this book are to: assess industry-led strategies to address under-recruitment of Black and ethnic minority (BEM) journalists; to facilitate dialogue between educators, employers and BEM representatives about increasing BEM recruitment; advance scholarship about under-representation of BEM groups; identify policies and schemes to attract BEM recruitment into key roles in the media; and inform the development of policy and practice in government, media industries and journalism education and training to increase the representation of Black and ethnic minority communities in mainstream newsrooms and raise their participation and profile in civil society. Guest editors: David Baines leads the Journalism section of the Media and Cultural Studies group at Newcastle University while Deborah Chambers is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at Newcastle University

This is a "tour de force,.". It combines luminous discussion of the core conceptual issues of cultural studies, with a hard-headed, practical sense of how research in the field gets done. The result is a seriously smart, comprehensive survey of the whole terrain of cultural studies itself. This is a book on methods which readers will be able to make their own; and which -- uniquely in the genre -- will keep them buzzing' -

"Bill Schwarz," "Queen Mary University of London

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'The Practice of Cultural Studies is an original introduction to the field. It offers a sophisticated "how-to" guide to doing research in cultural studies. From the difficulties of formulating a problem to the unique articulations of specific methodologies in cultural studies, students will find this book both useful and challenging' - Professor Lawrence Grossberg, "University of North Carolina

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What is distinctive about cultural research? How does one do Cultural Studies? Unlike many other disciplines, cultural studies has not been explict about the nature of its practice. This book aims to redress the balance in favour of those who are studying culture by providing a comprehensive guide to researching and writing. Based on the methods course at Nottingham Trent and addressed to advanced undergraduates, Masters Level students and those just commencing a PhD, this book aims to provide an overview of specific research traditions in cultural studies, whilst also situating those traditions in their historical context.

The Practice of Cultural Studies:

- Identifies the main methods of researching culture

- Demonstrates how theory can inform and enable the practice of research

- Exploresthe ways in which research practices and methods both produce and are produced by knowledge

- Looks at the implications of the 'cultural turn' for disciplines other than cultural studies

The Practice of Cultural Studies will be an essential text for students of cultural studies and a useful guide to others studying culture in a range of disciplinary contexts across the humanities and social sciences.

Looking at how the family is represented by the media, and by scrutinizing the manner in which it is regulated, this book uncovers the ways in which academic research and welfare policy have colluded with political rhetoric and the popular media to re-invent a mythical ideal family. Representing the Family: combines perspectives from a range of theories including media and cultural studies, sociology, and social history to show how certain types of family life are pathologised; highlights the discrepancies between contemporary representations of the "ideal" family and lived experience; and compares the British experience with that of the United States and Australia. Representing the Family provides a rich and an engaging illustration of the ways in which the media produce meaning. It also demonstrates the ways in which critical social issues are played out across a range of discursive sites - academia, politics, and public policy.