Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics Between the Modern and the Postmodern (Paperback)

~ (Author) "We live in a time of dramatic change and upheaval..." (more)
Key Phrases: Gulf War, United States, Frankfurt School (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

An excellent book by any standards . . . Kellner has a particular talent for making difficult ideas easy to grasp. For this reason it is likely to be a popular teaching text, facilitating accessibility whilst simultaneously offering a significant theoretical and analytical development in the field.
–Jim McGuigan, Coventry University

There is really nothing quite like this book on the market. It can be sold as both a book on theory and on method . . . Timely, important and refreshing.
–Gail Dines, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies, Wheelock College, Boston

There is really nothing quite like this book on the market. It can be sold as both a book on theory and on method . . . Timely, important and refreshing.
–Gail Dines, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Womens Studies, Wheelock College, Boston

[A] book that masterfully integrates the most important theoretical insights of the field with a brilliant series of textual readings that demonstrate what it means to actually do cultural studies . . . an indispensable book.
–Henry Giroux, Waterbury Chair Professor, Penn State University

Product Description

Media Culture develops methods and analyses of contemporary film, television, music and other artifacts to discern their nature and effects, argueing that media culture is the dominant form of culture which socializes us and provides materials for identity, social reproduction and change. Through studies of Reagan and Rambo, horror films and youth films, rap music and African American culture, Madonna, fashion, television news and entertainment, MTV, Beavis and Butt-Head, the Gulf-War as cultural text, cyberpunk fiction and postmodern theory, Kellner provides a series of lively studies that both illuminate contemporary culture and provide methods of analysis and critique.

Many people today talk about cultural studies, but Kellner actually does it, carrying through a unique mixture of theoretical analyses and concrete discussions of some of the most popular and influential forms of contemporary media culture. Criticizing social context, political struggle, and the system of cultural production, Kellner develops a multi-dimensional approach to cultural studies that broadens the field and opens it to a variety of disiplines. He also provides approaches to the vexed question of the effects of culture and provides perspectives for cultural studies.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 357 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (January 24, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415105706
• ISBN-13: 978-0415105705
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #597,053 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A highly relevant, prescient and insightful book, October 27, 1999

By	Dennis J. Dunleavy "djdunleavy" - See all my reviews

Kellner's research examines the construction of social reality by exploring and analyzing contemporary media culture. His work on understanding how cultural identity is shaped by media is an extremely useful and fascinating critique on modern society. In addition, Kellner offers a well-written overview of some of the theory behind the big ideas and concepts used to interpret our media-based world.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Introduction into Cultural Studies, February 6, 2005

By	Lost Lacanian (Lost-in, CA) - See all my reviews

For some time now, Douglas Kellner has been arguing for the importance of media and culture in today's politics. This book is a great introduction for students into why he has placed such an emphasis on this issue. Kellner pulls together Marxism, postmodern theory, and British Cultural Studies in conrete analyses of media culture. The downside to this book is that the objects it analyzes are a bit dated now, but nonetheless theoretically relevant.