The concept of the art world confronts and undermines the romantic ideology of art and artists that is still dominant in Western societies. By treating the production of art as work and artists as workers and examining the conditions under which these activities take place, this sociological perspective illuminates much that remains obscured by rom

During the late 1980s, the near-worship of artistic genius produced auction sales of works by Vmcent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso for tens of millions of dollars, over $15 million for a painting by Jasper Johns, and record prices for works by many other deceased and even living masters. At the same time, it was no longer controversial in academic and intellectual circles to maintain that art works are the products of what Howard Becker has termed collective activity carried out within loosely defined art worlds: Works of art, from this point of view, are not the products of individual makers, "artists" who possess a rare and special gift. They are, rather, joint products of all the people who cooperate via an art world's characteristic conventions to bring works like that into existence. Artists are some sub-group of the world's participants who, by common agreement, possess a specialgift, therefore make a unique and indispensable contribution to the work, and thereby make it art. (1982: 35) The concept of the art world-with its central focus on the collective, social, and conventional nature of artistic production, distribution, and appreciation--confronts and potentially undermines the romantic ideology of art and artists still dominant in Western societies.

"Worth had courage and originality enough not to take pictures for granted, but thought and struggled with some of the most difficult problems that cinematographers (and researchers in visual media) are faced with."-Edward T. Hall One of the central figures in the development of the study of visual communication, Sol Worth (1922-1977) was a filmmaker and painter before he turned to academic pursuits. He began with the question of how film could be understood and studied as a medium of communication and from there he moved on to the larger and more profound questions about the nature of visual media in general and the role that visual images play in shaping and constructing reality. Worth's pioneering work with Navajo filmmakers broadened our understanding of visual perception and communication even as it presented anthropologists with a means to achieve one of their most cherished goals: somehow to see the world through the eyes of their informants. The papers in this volume trace the development of Worth's thinking and research as he outlined the problems and issues that must be faced in the study of visual communication. He went further than anyone else in setting the intellectual agenda for the field, drawing upon such diverse disciplines as anthropology, sociology, psychology, linguistics, and semiotics. His broader interests are reflected in several papers that apply to problems and concerns of a more practical nature. Among them is Worth's innovative paper on the use of film in education. Worth's contributions to the serious task of understanding the role and potential of visual media and visual communication extend far beyond the intellectual realms of theory and speculation. Indeed, they speak clearly to issues facing all of us in a world that is so much shaped by visual communication.

A half century ago gay men and lesbians were all but invisible in the media and, in turn, popular culture. With the lesbian and gay liberation movement came a profoundly new sense of homosexual community and empowerment and the emergence of gay people onto the media's stage. And yet even as the mass media have been shifting the terms of our public conversation toward a greater acknowledgment of diversity, does the emerging "visibility" of gay men and women do justice to the complexity and variety of their experience? Or is gay identity manipulated and contrived by media that are unwilling -- and perhaps unable -- to fully comprehend and honor it?

While positive representations of gays and lesbians are a cautious step in the right direction, media expert Larry Gross argues that the entertainment and news media betray a lingering inability to break free from proscribed limitations in order to embrace the complex reality of gay identity. While noting major advances, like the opening of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore -- the first gay bookstore in the country -- or the rise of The Advocate from small newsletter to influential national paper, Gross takes the measure of somewhat more ambiguous milestones, like the first lesbian kiss on television or the first gay character in a newspaper comic strip.

Over the past quarter century, dramatic technological advances in the production, manipulation, and dissemination of images have transformed the practices of journalism, entertainment, and advertising as well as the visual environment itself. From digital retouching to wholesale deception, the media world is now beset by an unprecedented range of moral, ethical, legal, and professional challenges. Image Ethics in the Digital Age brings together leading experts in the fields of journalism, media studies, and law to address these challenges and assess their implications for personal and societal values and behavior. Among the issues raised are the threat to journalistic integrity posed by visual editing software; the monopolization of image archives by a handful of corporations and its impact on copyright and fair use laws; the instantaneous electronic distribution of images of dubious provenance around the world; the erosion of privacy and civility under the onslaught of sensationalistic twenty-four-hour television news coverage and entertainment programming; and the increasingly widespread use of surveillance cameras in public spaces. This volume of original essays is vital reading for anyone concerned with the influence of the mass media in the digital age. Contributors: Howard S. Becker; Derek Bouse, Eastern Mediterranean U, Cyprus; Hart Cohen, U of Western Sydney; Jessica M. Fishman; Paul Frosh, Hebrew U of Jerusalem; Faye Ginsburg, New York U; Laura Grindstaff, U of California, Davis; Dianne Hagaman; Sheldon W. Halpern, Ohio State U; Darrell Y. Hamamoto, U of California, Davis; Marguerite Moritz, U of Colorado, Boulder; David D. Perlmutter, Louisiana State U; Dona Schwartz, U of Minnesota; Matthew Soar, Concordia University; Stephen E. Weil, Smithsonian Institution's Center for Education and Museum Studies.

This pathbreaking collection of thirteen original essays examines the moral rights of the subjects of documentary film, photography, and television. Image makers--photographers and filmmakers--are coming under increasing criticism for presenting images of people that are considered intrusive and embarrassing to the subject. Portraying subjects in a "false light," appropriating their images, and failing to secure "informed consent" are all practices that intensify the debate between advocates of the right to privacy and the public's right to know. Discussing these questions from a variety of perspectives, the authors here explore such issues as informed consent, the "right" of individuals and minority groups to be represented fairly and accurately, the right of individuals to profit from their own image, and the peculiar moral obligations of minorities who image themselves and the producers of autobiographical documentaries. The book includes a series of provocative case studies on: the documentaries of Frederick Wiseman, particularly Titicut Follies; British documentaries of the 1930s; the libel suit of General Westmoreland against CBS News; the film Witness and its portrayal of the Amish; the film The Gods Must be Crazy and its portrayal of the San people of southern Africa; and the treatment of Arabs and gays on television. The first book to explore the moral issues peculiar to the production of visual images, Image Ethics will interest a wide range of general readers and students and specialists in film and television production, photography, communications, media, and the social sciences.

A son reluctantly travels to Vevay, Indiana to attend the funeral of his father-a man he didn't love. While there, he encounters his aunt, a woman he had an attraction and fondness for when he was a small boy. After the funeral, they have lunch together at the Belmark Inn in Vevay. The son tells his aunt his true feelings about his father and she confesses to him an empty and lonely life. Their honest and riveting conversation leads to another encounter-one that will change both of their lives.

50-year-old Tommy James is a writer for an alternative newspaper in Cincinnati, Ohio. He's preparing for a return trip to Seattle, Washington. This will be his first trip back since his twin brother died there nearly five years ago. Tommy's feeling nothingness. With an ex-wife, an ex-girlfriend, another soon to be ex-girlfriend and with most of his other relationships, Tommy's struggling to find meaning in the choices he's making. He feels like he's going through the motions in his life but not experiencing any kind of real happiness. Jessica Burns is a pretty young woman in her early 20's. It's been eight years since she ran away from her parents' home in Portland, Maine after they forced her to have an abortion. She hasn't seen them since. Living on the streets in Portland, Oregon, a vicious sexual assault makes her run again, this time to Seattle, Washington where she finds a bartending and waitressing job at The Hurricane Cafe. Now, circumstances there are leading her to believe she may have to yet again find another city to run to. On Tommy's first night in Seattle, he has a chance encounter with Jessica at the bar located inside The Hurricane Cafe-an encounter that sheds light on the nothingness in his life and one that will enable Jessica to start facing her demons and to finally stop running.

From bus rides to bars, to encounters with friends and family and most importantly with strangers, Larry Gross lives his life out loud by drawing on the small slices of life, the little things most people don't notice.

"There is no artifice in Gross's art. What distinguishes his writing is his knack for seeing and hearing things worth remembering. His pastiche draws on the commonality of urban life, with many of his stories set in downtown bars or on the buses that take him there. The main character is No One Special, a person who appears in various guises, capable of both unfettered generosity and burdensome peevishness."

Gregory Flannery,
Managing Editor,
"Streetvibes"

'"Signed, Sealed and Delivered" reads like a sly, late-night conspiracy between Hemingway and O. Henry."-"Artspike Magazine"

In "Signed, Sealed and Delivered," author Larry Gross explores the lives of everyday people, but as each story unfolds, we find there's nothing ordinary about them at all. Intriguing and interesting, each story delves into interpersonal relationships: A traveling salesman meets a young girl in a bar and deception encompasses the beginning and end of their encounter An unhappily married man fantasizes about a woman he's watching while they both wait for the doors to open at a popular discount store An alcoholic father finds the perfect gift for his son A cheating husband becomes concerned about a photograph repeatedly sent to his wife An AIDS volunteer visits his client on a Christmas afternoon for the last time Candles on a cake alter a young boy's life forever A businessman comes to realize an old friend is really just an opportunist and has a long-delayed confrontation.

Throughout the fifteen stories in his collection, Gross delivers the absorbing tales of these seemingly-common people in his straightforward style and with absolute clarity.

Contesting Media Power is the most ambitious international collection to date on the worldwide growth of alternative media that are challenging the power concentration in large media corporations. Media scholars and political scientists develop a broad comparative framework for analyzing alternative media in Australia, Chile, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Sweden, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Topics include independent media centers, gay online networks and alternative web discussion forums, feminist film, political journalism and social networks, indigenous communication, and church-sponsored media. This important book will help shape debates on the media's role in current global struggles, such as the anti-globalization movement.

A half century ago gay men and lesbians were all but invisible in the media and, in turn, popular culture. With the lesbian and gay liberation movement came a profoundly new sense of homosexual community and empowerment and the emergence of gay people onto the media's stage. And yet even as the mass media have been shifting the terms of our public conversation toward a greater acknowledgment of diversity, does the emerging "visibility" of gay men and women do justice to the complexity and variety of their experience? Or is gay identity manipulated and contrived by media that are unwilling -- and perhaps unable -- to fully comprehend and honor it?

While positive representations of gays and lesbians are a cautious step in the right direction, media expert Larry Gross argues that the entertainment and news media betray a lingering inability to break free from proscribed limitations in order to embrace the complex reality of gay identity. While noting major advances, like the opening of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore -- the first gay bookstore in the country -- or the rise of The Advocate from small newsletter to influential national paper, Gross takes the measure of somewhat more ambiguous milestones, like the first lesbian kiss on television or the first gay character in a newspaper comic strip.

Here at last is a comprehensive and highly approachable introduction to lesbian and gay studies for students and general readers. More than one hundred articles, essays, and primary documents cover the formation of gay identity, religious, scientific, medical, and legal perspectives, the mainstream media, lesbian and gay media, and community prospects and tactics. From Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's essay, "How to Bring Your Kids Up Gay," to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons," to a 1947 "Newsweek" article, "Homosexuals in Uniform," "The Columbia Reader" explores experiences and representations of lesbian and gay people in an engaging and accessible format.

The "Columbia Reader" features:

- concise introductions to each section, as well as a substantial general introduction

- viewpoints -- ranging from radical to conservative -- of lesbian and gay scholars and community writers, as well as nongay intellectuals and public figures

- essays, articles, and primary documents from both mainstream and lesbian/gay sources

- detailed exploration of mainstream media representations of gays and lesbians in films, television, and print as well as the rise of lesbian/gay media outlets

- broad coverage of history and identity, social, cultural, legal, medical, and religious regulation, AIDS, and lesbian and gay political agendas and strategies

- current topics, such as the recent development of a cybercommunity, as well as questions of censorship and pornography, same-sex marriage, the ethics of "outing," gay and lesbian activism, and the conservative backlash

Grounded in key social and political topics rather than wholly theoretical approaches, "The Columbia Reader on Lesbians and Gay Men in Media, Society, and Politics" will be a valuable resource for years to come.