Screened Out: How the Media Control Us and What We Can Do About It (Media, Communications, and Culture in America) [Hardcover]

Carla B. Johnston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2000 | ISBN-10: 0765604884 | ISBN-13: 978-0765604880 | Edition: First Edition

Today's mass media is increasingly accused of stealing our future, killing our culture, and scaring us to death. SCREENED OUT examines why this is happening, who is the culprit, and what we can do about it.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"SCREENED OUT tweaks a nerve. Johnston performs a special service ... in refusing to play consumer victim" -- American Journalism Review, November 2000

From the Publisher

"I have noticed a definite decline in the coverage of alternative thinking. ... Thank you for tackling this important subject."
- Jane Alexander, actress and former chair, National Endowment for the Arts

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: M E Sharpe Inc; First Edition edition (June 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765604884
• ISBN-13: 978-0765604880
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Good concepts - bad writing & sloppy proofreading, February 7, 2001

By 

MLS "kramserohs" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Screened Out: How the Media Control Us and What We Can Do About It (Media, Communications, and Culture in America) (Hardcover)

Johnston makes some excellent points about how mass media disenfranchises the poor, handicapped and minorities. However, the book reads more like a rambling rant. I'd give the book two stars if I didn't agree with much of what Johnston says.

For all her credentials - Johnston has had several reseach fellowships at prestigious universities and has written 7 books on mass media - I was suprised at how poorly written this book is. Criticizing mass media is something that, I feel, requires a more balanced calm tone in order to have any affect on people. Mass media is such a built-in factor in our lives that any attempt to make us analyze it needs to appeal to our common sense, not attack us with a polemical attitude. Surely there are better books out there.

Here are some of the problems I found:

About the sources cited in Johnston's book: Are Ed Asner & Michael Dukakis really bona fide commentators on this topic? How about Johnston's liberal use of "unpublished research papers" - my quotes - by media studies students? I counted 25 different student papers cited in the first 2 chapters. It's not clear whether these are undergraduates or graduate students. Many of the quotes taken from those papers are little more than the student's opinion. And then, in her "acknowledgement" section, Johnston merely thanks the student researchers for their "insights." How about thanking all of them by NAME since they contributed so much to writing of this book? I find it really peculiar that she used student papers in this way.

For a quote about how 73 percent of violent acts go un-punished, Johnston quotes an article in Harper's. Wouldn't data from the Bureau for Criminal Justice Statistics or some other official source be more appropriate? I doubt Harper's did their own data gathering to get that factoid.

How about proofreading? I don't know much about M.E. Sharp (the publisher) but obviously they didn't proofread this book very well. The CBS cop show "Martial Law" was referred to as "Marshall Law." A search engine named "Havista" was mentioned in the notes. I think they meant AltaVista, but I can't be sure.

The book is worth reading through, if only to get an idea on how to begin thinking about criticizing mass media. Take it with a grain of salt, though. I can't suggest another book on this topic since it's pretty new to me.