Media, State and Nation: Political Violence and Collective Identities (Media Culture & Society series) - Softcover

Schlesinger, Philip

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803985045 ISBN 13: 9780803985049

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd, 1991

Synopsis

In this incisive text on media and collective identity, Philip Schlesinger develops our understanding of the contemporary struggles over political discourse. Three key themes are presented. Firstly the concepts of `violence' and `terrorism' are shown to be fundamentally rooted in the competing communicative strategies of the state and of its opponents. The second part considers the external enemies of both nation-state and ideological bloc, and the final part addresses the involvement of media and state with collective identities, including those which transcend the boundaries of the state. By combining analyses of particular political issues and case studies of media-state relations, the book demonstrates the complexity of political communication and its part in the way in which states construct their enemies, both internal and external.

About this title

Review:

`the chapter on Eurocommunism and the rewrite of his important `On National Identity' paper from `Social Science Information' are most impressive indeed....the book is full of tentative findings, possible directions and avenues for future research....The chapters are full of worthy commentary...' - Media Information Australia

`reminds us with wry intelligence and in a consistently lucid fashion that collective identities depend only in part on state decree or the workings of the media.' - Times Higher Education Supplement

`There is no doubt that Schlesinger's work does help to clarify one's thinking about questions such as these. It testifies both to the achievements of contemporary media sociology and to its limits. Aware of both, we are as well prepared to move on as we could hope to be. There are no comforting nostrums here, readers should be grateful for that, we will learn more and make better progress without them. But there are many provocations to further research and study.' - Critique of Anthropology

`There is not one dud essay in the book.... this book is essential reading for anyone concerned with media-state relations and the structure of political communications in the modern world. Schlesinger's work should be required reading by students and specialists alike, and deserves the widest possible audience.' - Media Law and Practice

`Philip Schlesinger has advanced our understanding of how knowledge is produced, distributed, transformed and put to different uses as it moves through different institutional contexts.... This book is a valuable record of Philip Schlesinger's thought over the past decade, and includes several important conceptual refinements as well as fine case studies.' - British Journal of Sociology

`In this scholarly and lucid set of essays, stretching back to the late 1970s, Schlesinger sets a challenging agenda for anyone interested in coming to terms with some of the fundamental issues involved in assessing the power of the media in shaping modern, public, especially national conciousness. The essays also convey a sense of deliberate and sustained development of the intellectual project which has encompassed three major - but linked - problematics. This triad is reflected in the organisation of the book and the progression of chapters, all of which have been published before, but which appear with postscript commentary and in some cases, in English for the first time' - Sociology

`In this incisive text on media and collective identity, Philip Schlesinger develops our understanding of the contemporary struggles over political discourse. By combining analysis of particular political issues and case studies of media-state relations, the book demonstrates the complexity of political communication and its part in the way in which states construct their enemies, both internal and external' - Canadian Journal of Communication

About the Author:

Philip Schlesinger was appointed to the University of Glasgow’s new Chair in Cultural Policy and became Academic Director of CCPR in January 2007. He was previously Professor of Film & Media Studies at the University of Stirling and founding Director of Stirling Media Research Institute. He has been Professor of Sociology at the University of Greenwich, a Nuffield Social Science Research Fellow, a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute of Florence, and has held the Queen Victoria Eugenia Chair of Doctoral Studies at the Complutense University of Madrid. He was a longstanding Visiting Professor of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the University of Lugano, and at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Toulouse, CELSA in Paris, LUISS University in Rome, the University of Salamanca, and a Visiting Scholar at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris. He is the author of Putting 'Reality' Together (2nd ed. 1987) and Media, State and Nation (1991) and is co-author of Televising ‘Terrorism' (1983), Women Viewing Violence (1992), Reporting Crime (1994) Open Scotland? (2001) and Mediated Access (2003).

About this edition

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0803985045
• ISBN 13: 9780803985049
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 202