Dear colleagues,
I've been asked by Mike Pickering to forward details of a new book on humour - please see below. This book seems highly topical given recent events. 
Incidentally, in case you're getting a little tired of receiving messages from me on this list, could I just say something? I don't quite know how I came to be identified as the person that people write to when they want information circulating. I've been quite happy to do this, but my fear is that the more I do this, the more my reputation as chief information forwarder becomes entrenched. If you're subscribed to the MeCCSA list, and you want to send a message abuot anything, all you need to do is enter the address [log in to unmask] in the 'to' line.
And there's no problem about subscribing and unsubscribing simply in order to do this, within reasonable limits. You just go the jiscmail website (easily found via a search engine), find the page about the MECCSA email list, and this will give you clear instructions about how to subscribe and unsubscribe.
Using the list to raise awareness of new publications, conferences etc relevant to the MeCCSA fields is fine. But debate relevant to these fields is also welcome too, within the usual bounds of etiquette and responsibility. There's a marked contrast between the silence on this list as regards the repercussions of the recent publication of those cartoons, and the considerable traffic on other lists I subscribe to (not that all the contributions to those other lists add greatly to understanding of the issues...) 
Let me stress again that none of this is in any way a complaint about previous requests to circulate information. 

Dave Hesmondhalgh


Beyond a Joke: The Limits of Humour (1-4039-3942-X) NOW AVAILABLE FROM
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD - www.palgrave.com



Edited by Sharon Lockyer and Michael Pickering



Humour is generally celebrated as an attractive human attribute.   It is
part of what makes us human.  It is a quality that makes us attractive to
other people and is central to our self-identity.  As a vital component of
social life, humour is regarded as helping people get on with each other and
facilitating good relations between different groups and communities.  It is
found everywhere.  It can occur in any situation, and is formally produced
in a wide range of media formats and genres.  But are humour and comedy
always positive features in social and cultural life?  That can hardly be
said to be the case when humour involves misrepresentation and stereotyping,
or intolerance and hatred. This book focuses on the negative side of humour
and comedy.  It brings together, for the first time, wide-ranging
contributions exploring the ethics as well as the aesthetics of humour, both
in everyday life and media comedy.



As well as covering live stage comedy and humour in everyday life, the book
deals with the broad spectrum of media genres, including sitcoms, Internet
humour, reality TV, talk shows, and film comedy, and includes interviews
with the well-known comedians, Omid Djalili and Shazia Mirza.  It discusses
many famous comedians, including Tony Hancock, Dawn French, Ali G, Mrs
Merton, Bill Maher, Jim Davidson and Bernard Manning, and analyses major
television series like Sex and the City, Absolutely Fabulous and The Office.



The contributors are experts in their field and internationally renowned.
They all appreciate the value of humour and celebrate its pleasures, but do
not regard these as unlimited.  They focus on the uses and abuses of humour,
some of which excite considerable social tension and controversy, as for
example with the English Conservative M.P. Ann Winterton's joke about
Chinese cocklepickers, following their tragic deaths by drowning in February
2004.  Such examples raise serious questions about the ethics of humour and
comedy. Beyond a Joke is an exciting intervention, full of challenging
questions and contentious issues.  The book is very timely in negotiating
the boundaries of humour and where these may be located.  It will move
public debate beyond facile objections to political correctness and force us
to attend to what is harmful as well as beneficial about humour.



Sharon Lockyer is Lecturer in Media Studies, De Montfort University, UK.

She has written on the ethics of humour and was the recipient of the

International Society for Humor Studies Emerging Scholar Award 2004.



Michael Pickering is Reader in Culture and Communications at

Loughborough University, UK. His most recent publications include

History, Experience and Cultural Studies (1997), Stereotyping: The Politics

of Representation (2001) and Creativity, Communication and Cultural

Value (2004), the latter with Keith Negus.



Contributors:  Michael Billig, Deborah Chambers, Frances Gray, Dennis
Howitt, Sharon Lockyer, John Morreall, Kwame Owusu-Bempah, Jerry Palmer,
Michael Pickering, Ken Willis.

A JOKE