Media Studies in general

I did Media Studies at A-Level and Film Studies (the two are closely linked) and I think it was one of the best courses ever. Contrary to popular belief, Media Studies is not a slackers's course, designed to be an easy ride. Far from it - anyone who is studying or studied it (and actually did well) will tell you that the Media course is one of the hardest courses because there is so much to look at, so much to do. Also the media is always changing and happening - not like history or maths where divide will always be divide. This is the beauty of Media Studies, it requires constant updating and is very interesting (well, you watch the TV all the time don't ...

The Sociology of Journalism by Brian McNair will be of most use to you if you do the 'Sociology of Journalism' unit at the University of Stirling, the unit of course being run by one Brian McNair, as this book strangely enough is a perfect overview of the complete course. However, if you are not one of the aformentioned students then you will still find this book interesting and useful. The book provides a good introduction and reasonable disscussion into most areas concerning the sociology of journalism, ranging from different ideological approaches to journalism and disscusions on topics involving news values and effects, to the more modern concepts of ...

This is perhaps quite a sociological view of the media and not a book which would be useful for every media studies course. For those combining communications with media studies or sociology with media studies however it would be useful. It is not a particularly enjoyable read in my opinion, being somewhat heavy going. The theory's put forward are interesting but you have to read through quite a lot of boring stuff to find this. The chapters on television and consumption and 'the audience' are quite good, discussing the tastes and identities of the audience and patterns of consumption and how this fits into everyday life. The ...