Several of the most important and influential political economists of communication working today explore a rich mix of topics and issues that link work, policy studies, and research and theory about the public sphere to the heritage of political economy. Familiar but still exceedingly important topics in critical political economy studies are well represented here: market structures and media concentration, regulation and policy, technological impacts on particular media sectors, information poverty, and media access. The book also features new topics for political economy study, including racism in audience research, the value and need for feminist approaches to political economy studies, and the relationship between the discourse of media finance and the behavior of markets.

The year 2004 marks three hundred years since Britain took possession of Gibraltar, a rocky promontory at the foot of the Iberian Peninsula sometimes referred to as 'The Rock'. Gibraltar: British or Spanish? provides a detailed study of the attempts that have been made by Spain, especially since 1984 when Britain and Spain signed an agreement to discuss the future of Gibraltar, to regain the sovereignty of 'The Rock', despite the wishes of the Gibraltarians.

Coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky saga followed in a long trail of media exposures of the more personal details of the lives of public figures. Many commentators have seen stories like this, and TV shows like Jerry Springer's, as evidence of a decline in the standards of the mass media. This increasing interest in private lives and the falling off of coverage of serious news is often described as Otabloidization.O The essays in this book are the first serious scholarly studies of what is going on and what its implications are. Reality, it turns out, is much more complex than some of the laments suggest. As the contributors show, this is not just a U.S. problem but is repeated in country after country, and it is not certain that the media anywhere are getting more tabloid. What is more, there is no consensus about whether tabloidization is just Odumbing downO or whether it is a necessary tactic for the mass media to engage with new audiences who do not have the news habit. Tabloid Tales will be of interest to students and scholars in journalism, mass communication, political science, and cultural and media studies.

The year 2004 marks three hundred years since Britain took possession of Gibraltar, a rocky promontory at the foot of the Iberian Peninsula sometimes referred to as 'The Rock'. Gibraltar: British or Spanish? provides a detailed study of the attempts that have been made by Spain, especially since 1984 when Britain and Spain signed an agreement to discuss the future of Gibraltar, to regain the sovereignty of 'The Rock', despite the wishes of the Gibraltarians.

This book charts the developments in the discipline of geography from the 1950s to the 1980s, examining how geography now connects with urban, regional and national planning, and impacts on areas such as medicine, transport, agricultural development and electoral reform. The book also discusses how technical and theoretical advancements have generated a renewed sense of philosophic reflection - a concern closely linked with the critical examination and development of social theory.

Published in the year 2004, Mental Maps is a valuable contribution to the field of Geography.

Published in the year 2004, Mental Maps is a valuable contribution to the field of Geography.

This book charts the developments in the discipline of geography from the 1950s to the 1980s, examining how geography now connects with urban, regional and national planning, and impacts on areas such as medicine, transport, agricultural development and electoral reform. The book also discusses how technical and theoretical advancements have generated a renewed sense of philosophic reflection - a concern closely linked with the critical examination and development of social theory.

Moving beyond notions of cultural imperialism, this book furthers our understanding of the implications of global media culture and politics in the 1990s. Leading scholars from a range of fields bring different perspectives to bear on the role of the state, the range of culture beyond the media, the contribution of international organizations, and the potential for resistance and alternatives. They reflect on the `New World International Communications Order' as delineated since the 1970s, and examine its changing nature. Throughout, they connect analysis of the flows and forces which form the world media and communications with the fundamental themes of social science, and illuminate the ways in which underlying questions of inequality, power and control reappear within new media environments.

Total Loss Farm in Guilford, Vermont, was and is a wordy place. Its hilly acres and flimsy buildings provided a refuge from a riven country, a place to grow paragraphs and stanzas, among the tilled rows of the market garden. Peter Gould's first novel Burnt Toast was a youthful exploration of this mythic turf. Peter left the farm to pursue love and work. In Horse-Drawn Yogurt, Peter returns to offer his take on how we lived in times that seem exotic, yet oddly familiar, in this second edition, with three new stories and an introduction by Vermont author Bill Schubart. Gould is eloquent, whimsical, critical, musical, magical, and tender. The new stories in this second edtion are gems with additional line drawings by the author.

The new edition of the highly respected Researching Communications is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to researching media and communication. Researching Communications, Third Edition is an invaluable guide to performing and analysing research tasks, introducing the major research methods, giving detailed examples of research analysis and practical step-by-step guidance in clear language. Written by highly regarded experts in the field, the third edition includes new sections on social media analysis, digital research methods and comparative research, as well as updated case studies, international examples and details of recent developments in media and communication studies. Undergraduate and postgraduate media and communication students will find Researching Communications an invaluable resource at all stages of their course.

We are witnessing a dynamic reshaping of the European 'mediascape'. This has been underway for more than a decade since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the growing impact of globalisation, and the birth of new technologies and new media, or the convergence between old and new media. A new and more intense 'mediatisation' of society and everyday life is emerging. This is happening alongside the rapid reconstruction of the cultural and economic landscape of Europe itself. In this transformation the communicative and ideological dimensions, the digitalisation of technology, and changes in culture - 'the imaginary', the discursive universe of politics and communication, are all crucial areas for research. The cultural industries, (film, television, books, magazines, entertainment and music), but also the world of news, actuality, 'infotainment' and the internet, are key areas for the study of what we may begin to understand as a changing European culture in all its complexity and with all its differences and conflicts. The media and the cultural industries are among the fastest growing sectors in the global economy.

These two volumes bring together key readings in the political economy of the mass media and analyse and explain the role of the media in modern society. Covering a wide spectrum of articles on media and communications over a broad period of time, the collection includes discussion on the political economy approach to communications, the capitalist enterprise and creation of communications, ideology, and protecting the common good in the management and regulation of communications and the media.The Political Economy of the Media includes official documents, otherwise accessible articles as well as carefully selected extracts from key commentators and seminal thinkers in the field, including among others, Nicholas Garnham, Herbert I. Schiller, Dallas W. Smythe, Francis Williams, Harold Evans, Ben H. Bagdikian, Upton Sinclair, Jurgen Habermas, Edward S. Herman and Peter Jay.

This exciting collection of papers represents some of the finest communications research published during the last decade. To mark the 20th anniversary of the European Journal of Communication, a leading international journal, the editors have selected 21 papers, all of which make significant and valuable interventions in the field of media and communications. The volume is prefaced with an introduction by the editors and will be a central research text for scholars in this field.

We are witnessing a dynamic reshaping of the European 'mediascape'. This has been underway for more than a decade since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the growing impact of globalisation, and the birth of new technologies and new media, or the convergence between old and new media. A new and more intense 'mediatisation' of society and everyday life is emerging. This is happening alongside the rapid reconstruction of the cultural and economic landscape of Europe itself. In this transformation the communicative and ideological dimensions, the digitalisation of technology, and changes in culture - 'the imaginary', the discursive universe of politics and communication, are all crucial areas for research. The cultural industries, (film, television, books, magazines, entertainment and music), but also the world of news, actuality, 'infotainment' and the internet, are key areas for the study of what we may begin to understand as a changing European culture in all its complexity and with all its differences and conflicts. The media and the cultural industries are among the fastest growing sectors in the global economy.

The new edition of the highly respected Researching Communications is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to researching media and communication. Researching Communications, Third Edition is an invaluable guide to performing and analysing research tasks, introducing the major research methods, giving detailed examples of research analysis and practical step-by-step guidance in clear language. Written by highly regarded experts in the field, the third edition includes new sections on social media analysis, digital research methods and comparative research, as well as updated case studies, international examples and details of recent developments in media and communication studies. Undergraduate and postgraduate media and communication students will find Researching Communications an invaluable resource at all stages of their course.

A look at the season of Christmas and winter through the medium of light verse, 'The Arse End of the Year' chronicles the build up to the festive season, the solstice, the day itself and the post-Christmas slothfulness, together with aspects of the cold and dreary winter season so beloved by, well, not many people actually. From the reindeer shaped blips on the air traffic controllers' screen, to the disappearing cheese portions; from forgetting auld acquaintance to the difficulty of burying dead bodies in frosty weather, Peter Goulding gives us a uniquely personal insight into the season in his inimitable style, not that many people would want to imitate it.

Peter Goulding's fourth, or maybe fifth, (who's counting?) book of comic verse again delves the murky depths of the poet's imagination. There are still plenty of poems about murdering his wife and disposing of her body but there are darker poems too - the proliferation of tomatoes on Jupiter, the birth of Princess Charlotte and his critiques of the counties of Tipperary and Offaly, to name but four. His mind, which, to be frank, would be put to much better use, learning a trade or simply vegetating, is again employed solving many of the world's problems in rhyming couplets, villanelles and other fiendish weapons of mass destruction. Comes with a cultural health warning.

In the Waterways Department of the Irish Government, an employee discovers that his last four Hobnobs have been stolen. At approximately the same time, twenty miles away, twenty three packets of Rich Tea biscuits have been lifted from a supermarket in Ashbourne. This is unprecedented in Irish and, indeed, world history. Chief Inspector Jacobs, who had helped to solve the infamous Chocolate Digestive theft of 1994, is summoned to solve the crime before the social order crumbles. Can Jacobs wrap up the case and drag Ireland back from the brink of anarchy? How do they get the figs into the fig rolls? And what is the lighthouse thing about? The Island of Broken Biscuits is a comic novel set over five days. It holds the World Record for mentions of Custard Creams (55) and has been rejected by many, many publishers.

It is a very rare publication that features an author who has absolutely no knowledge of the subject about which he is writing. From his safe suburban armchair in Dublin, Ireland, Peter Goulding has watched countless westerns featuring square-jawed heroes who have battled impossible odds to defeat injuns, outlaws and stampeding cattle. Based on these films and to the abject horror of the literary community, he has written numerous poems of questionable merit about life in the wild west (and indeed in the wild, wild west) and has decided to publish them in this slim volume. From botched gunfights to piles, from eating horses to losing children, this book of vaguely comic vignettes describes a side to the wild west (and indeed the wild, wild west) that probably never existed outside of the author's head.

Based on the hit movie that inspired the television series, the Outsourced High School Curriculum Teacher's Guide is designed for use with the Outsourced Educational Edition DVD and the Outsourced High School Curriculum Student Handouts. Outsourced is a story of discovery. An American businessman, Todd, travels to India and unexpectedly finds himself. He trains his replacement, Puro, who finds his future not in India as he anticipated, but in China. And a young woman, Asha, who works for both of them, finds herself as her future. Each of these people cross cultural barriers, changing their assumptions about others, the world and themselves. Todd learns to let go of his corporate role as a middle manager; Puro learns that Indian women are as capable as men; Asha learns to believe in herself. How do adolescents learn about other people, places, and cultures? How do they perceive and make sense of others, their cultures and relationships to them? What impact does the current flood of business globalization practices have on what they eat, wear, view, and play? Why isn't the work that is outsourced being done in America? How does globalization help us empathize or care about those who are doing most of the work? These and other essential questions ground this high school curriculum for Outsourced.

94 political poems of the period 2005 to 2013 written by a bemused non-political bystander. Mostly concerning Irish national politics, there are some local and international issues dealt with, usually through humour or biting sarcasm. This is not a diary of Ireland PLC from the days of the Celtic tiger through the crash to the new Land of Recession; rather these are issues that caught the poet's eye, fired his imagination or got beneath his skin. Warning, many of the poems rhyme and scan perfectly.