Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0123876702 ISBN 13: 9780123876706

Publisher: Academic Press, 2003

Synopsis

Everyone agrees that we're living in the Information Age. How have we shaped the Information Age, and how has it shaped us? The Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications exhaustively explores the ways that editorial content--from journalism and scholarship to films and infomercials is developed, presented, stored, analyzed, and regulated around the world. For readers and researchers of all levels, the Encyclopedia provides perspective and context about content, delivery systems, and their myriad relationships, as well as clearly drawn avenues for further research.

• Articles begin with easily understandable concepts and become increasingly sophisticated, satisfying the needs of all readers
• Articles by leading authors from major institutions, organizations, and corporations around the world
• Contains approximately 220 separate articles, all original contributions commissioned for this work
• Extensive cross-referencing system links related articles; "further reading" lists appear at the end of each entry

About this title

Review:

"Edited by Donald H. Johnston, the Encyclopedia offers a comprehensive, scholarly review of both the historic background and current state of mass communication worldwide... The Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications measures up to the standards set by other Academic Press titles... academic libraries supporting communications majors will want it in their collections, as will larger public libraries where there is interest." --AGAINST THE GRAIN

"EIMC's [Encyclopedia of International Media and Communication] international authorship consists mainly of academics, a quarter of whom are from 26 countries outside the US―a globally diverse pool... EIMC's international scope... sets it apart from mass media or journalism encyclopedias... Recommended." --CHOICE

"This encyclopedia comes at a time when a good synthesizing reference source is needed to provide a history and a recent snapshot of the world's media... The index is quite detailed, sometimes even referring users to information in illustration captions... This set provides students and the interested public with important facts and insights into the changing roles and functions of old and new media. Expensive but a good value, it is recommended for academic and large public libraries." --BOOKLIST

"As the first of its kind, this Encyclopedia reaches into different aspects of media and brings about a detailed and comprehensive picture of international communications. It certainly helps us to understand the nature of media better in spite of the complexity they appear to present." --Yang Lan, Sun Media Group Holdings Ltd.

"This is a grand contribution to understanding media, media industries and related topics produced by some of the world's most fertile minds and presided over by an eminent leader in international communication. It is the most comprehensive and even exhaustive work of its kind ever." --Everette E. Dennis, Ph.D. author, institution-builder and Larkin Distinguished Professor at Fordham Graduate School of Business, New York City

"This new 4-volume encyclopaedia has high aspirations and in my view succeeds in reaching them. It has chosen to organise the material into ten large fields of contemporary knowledge - technological, historical, corporate, economic and cultural - in 230 peer-reviewed articles, many of them written by major figures in the world of communications studies. The editor has found novel ways of guiding the reader through this vast terrain, providing valuable glossaries of terms and phrases that have become key elements within the contemporary discussion of communications. Thus, you can find quick explanations of everything from block booking and film noir, to convergence and infotainment, or check your understanding of what a kinetoscope did or what the Russians meant by montage. But this cleverly selected mass of terminology is linked to the major topic articles through which you can move to amass really considerable amounts of information. The articles are scholarly and packed with knowledge and accompanied by not-too-long reading lists. The positions taken by the article are not controversial but leave the formation of opinion to the interested reader.

There can be few fields in which the prevailing tools and concepts are changing more rapidly and more thoroughly, but one can say that the Encyclopaedia of Media and Communications has certainly seized and stabilised for the benefit of the reader much more than one would have guessed was possible. These two and a half thousand pages give you much to dip into and much to read through consecutively. For a student trying to master the whole field of modern communications in a metter of weeks or months, this work will prove invaluable. But of course, it can perform the same service to the general interested citizen." --Anthony Smith, The President, Magdalen College, Oxford, England

"The "new information revolution" is upon us, but few of us know how it got here. This remarkable new encyclopedia provides detailed and comprehensive treatments of media channels from medieval Muslim block printing to personal web sites of the Internet, offering as good a road map as there is to the myriad ways we communicate and the equally complex impact those media have on our societies. This reference work will be an invaluable resource for students, journalists--to anyone who has wondered about the ever-changing ways we find out about the world." --Lisa Anderson, Dean, School of International and Public Affairs and Professor of Political Science, Columbia University, New York, New York, U.S.A.

"... incredible articles on media and communications that inform one of the stories behind the headlines. The articles are well researched and give historical perspectives that provide clearer and deeper understanding of the present state of the media internationally. The work is accessible and a 'must read' for media practitioners, scholars and the general public. The encyclopedia was well worth waiting for." --Sebiletso Mokone-Matabane, Chief Executive Officer, Sentech, Ltd., South Africa

"This mammouth project assembles a staggering amount of material on the media from a host of authoritative sources. It's ambition is awesome." --Alex S. Jones, Director, Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

About the Author:

With degrees from Cornell and Columbia, Donald H. "Pete" Johnston worked as a reporter and editor in the foreign department at United Press International before becoming an editor and writer for the "Week in Review" section at "The New York Times." He then became a professor in the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where he also served as its Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.In 1990 he moved to the School of International and Public Affairs to head the media and communications program. He is the author of The Bumpy Road to Disarmament, Journalism and the Media .

About this edition

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0123876702
• ISBN 13: 9780123876706
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 2733
• Editor: Johnston Donald H.