Consumer Culture And Tv Programming (Critical Studies in Communication and in the Cultural Indust) [Paperback]

Robin K Andersen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0813315425 | ISBN-13: 978-0813315423 | Publication Date: October 11, 1995

To what extent does the advertising industry control what we see on TV? What is the political and cultural environment that provides for the phenomenon of the corporate shaping of the mass media?Robin Andersen addresses these questions, which ultimately intertwine with the very concept of democracy: How can citizens participate in political culture when the information they receive through their mass media is molded by corporate and commercial demands? She discusses and analyzes the impact of the consumer imperative on popular news and TV programs and talk shows, the psychology of consumer culture, the differing narratives of the 1992 presidential election, how representations of the Gulf War resembled advertisements, and the overall escalating commercial imperative of the mass media. Andersen has done a splendid job of accessibly presenting to mass audiences and students a subject of enormous gravity—the steady penetration of marketing and advertising strategies into the very fabric of both news and entertainment television.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robin Andersen is associate professor of communication at Fordham University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press (October 11, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813315425
• ISBN-13: 978-0813315423
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,378,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I grew up and went to school in San Diego, California. While writing my Ph.D. at the University of California in Sociology of Media, I tracked journalists as they gathered news about the civil war in El Salvador in the 1980s. That experience led to a life-long interest in the ways that media shape our perceptions of war and human suffering. My third book, A Century of Media, A Century of War, won the Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award in 2007. I still write about war, recently exploring the impact of war-themed video games on our culture. As a media critic, I write about controversial issues like propaganda, censorship, corporate centralization, advertising and hypercommercialism. Those topics and more are included in the two-volume reference book: Battleground the Media. Growing up in Southern California, I spent many hours in the surf, watching birds and looking for as many marine mammals as I could find. That inspired my latest writing about travel to the globe's most stunning natural areas, and finding ways we can make it more environmentally sustainable. Look for a new book on Ecotourism soon!