On par with the written word, photography is a potent tool of historical documentation. The advent of still picture devices, as they were crudely called during their initial days, coincided with the peak years of European colonialism. While the concept of photography is a valuable aid for a historical scholar in presenting “facts”, the prevailing…
Category: Media Studies
Writing the War on Terrorism by Richard Jackson
The book “Writing, The War on Terrorism” is a detailed scholarly analysis on the use of language in the media and political offices before and during the so called “counter-terrorism” operations led by the United States and its allies. The central thesis of this work is the claim that the mainstream rhetoric is a carefully…
City of God: Analysis
Thesis: Powerful and gripping it may be, but ultimately City of God is a film of despair, offering a one-dimensional view of urban culture in a Brazil where social divisions appear too wide to bridge, and where millions are too brutalized by violence and poverty to contribute to any process of change. City of God…
Video Production – The Importance of Documentaries
Electronic media has always been advertisers’ medium. Almost all popular electronic media of today – radio, television, the internet, movies, DVDs, etc are predominantly used as tools to leverage commerce and consumerism. In this scenario, what could be the role that documentary films play? Do they hold special significance in terms of their artistic and…
Defining Multimedia
Multimedia is an emerging knowledge-based industry which is creating a lot of sustainable job opportunities for workers and new market opportunities for their employers. Multimedia companies tend to be small businesses with less that a total of 10 employees. In a recent survey, it was estimated that nearly 51% of all companies in this industry…
Ideology and the Mass Media
How useful is the concept of ideology for media analysis? Discuss in relation to soap operas. Ideology as a sociological term has been interpreted in many different ways. But the following is an approximate definition of the term: Any system of beliefs, values and habits that are based on a particular political or religious school…
The competition between The Guardian and The Independent in British Print Media Space
It is increasingly becoming a common sight – the ‘tabloid wars’ between broadsheet titles that are redefining the newspaper market. It is believed in the media industry that by producing its tabloid versions The Independent had gained a significant advantage over its competitors including the Guardian. The Guardian on the other hand is accused of…
Amazing Grace (Movie)
Most of us have heard the famous hymn “Amazing Grace” by John Newton. The story behind the song is quite an extraordinary one. We are reminded that it takes time to change the world. The movie captures in a most marvelous way the triumph of human spirit over centuries old mindless mindsets. It is a…
The idea of dystopia in films Blade Runner And Brazil
Within dystopic fiction, there is often a kind of way out to the dilemmas the society creates or enforces. What do you see as the principal “way out” suggested in each movie, and how does one differ from another? How, as well, do these visions of “wrongness” suggest what is wrong with our own culture,…
Product Placement in Television
What are the television business and regulatory factors that have encouraged product placement and why do some broadcasters and national advertisers resent it? Product placement is the combined effort from entertainment program producers and sponsors in which branded commodities are embedded in the content with the intent of influencing consumer behavior in favor of the…