Hello,
There has been a growing interest here in what might broadly be called
Social Theory in relation to the Media. In the spirit of joining in I am now
a member of a reading group on this Subject. Its difficult stuff and I have
been helped out by a couple of good reference books ...
1) Cashmore, E. and Rojek, C. 1999. Dictionary of Cultural Theorists.
Arnold - entries are short but they interlink with other entries in the book
plus they list major works and further reading.
2) Encyclopedia's of Contemporary Culture Series from Routledge [Britain,
Germany, France, Spain] - also very good with major works and further
reading although they cover a great deal more than just Social Theorists.
3) Benewick, R. and Green, P. 1998. the Routledge Dictionary of Twentieth
Century Political Thinkers. Routledge 2nd ed. - quite substantial entries
again with major works and further reading.
For more substantial material ...
4) Blackwell's have also produced a series of Readers on Adorno, Jameson,
Zizek, Certeau, Bataille - presumably more to follow later.
5) Sage Publications are also producing a series of multi-volume works on
key social theorists expensive at c£490 but for us new universities a quick
route to acquiring material. Current sets available are Pierre Bourdieu;
Jean Baudrillard; Erving Goffman.
6) Key publishers in this area appear to be Sage and Routledge both have
websites that categorise books by subject ...
6.1) Sage http://www.sagepub.co.uk
6.2) Routledge http://www.routledge.com
7) Routledge also has two Resource Centres for Sociology at
http://www.sociologyarena.com/sociologyarena/homepage.htm
and Media and Cultural Studies
http://www.mediastudiesarena.com/mediastudiesarena/homepage.htm
Matt
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