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The Heartbreaker Effect
'HeartBreakers' by Josephine Hendin is a fantastic resource for the study of violent women within fictional media. The book explores the image of the violent woman - as wife, mother, daughter, or lover - and explores the fascination audiences and readers have with this still heavily criticised character. The book asks some important questions about the representation of women within our society; are women only ever victims? Is a woman who is violent without provocation therefore 'un-natural'? Or is a violent woman acting as a 'man-in-drag', not feminine at all in their actions? How accurate is this in comparison with reality?
'Heartbreakers' compares real life case studies (including the famous case of Lorena Bobbitt), film analysis and theoretical study to explore the way in which audiences react to the 'violent woman'. Hendin writes "Violence by women is communication sent like a letter bomb to repudiate ideologies of the left or right." She argues that images of women are changing in ways feminist, postmodern, or conservative theory haven't addressed. Violent women not only attack old notions of femininity but also reveal new self-concepts, patterns of intimacy, and behaviour.
'Heartbreakers' reveals complex portraits of female power emerging from the dark side of the news, popular culture and important literature, and is a key text in the study of women's standing point within Fictional Violence.
Moral panics: the threat to societal values
Stanley Cohen is an expert on moral panics.
Don't let the title fool you, Cohen uses the subculture of Mods and Rockers as a case study to define moral panics, exploring and exposing the inherent ingredients for them to generate. Also, his emphasis is placed upon Britain, and reveals patterns and processes that are common to fuel moral panics.
Firstly, Cohen defines moral panics, elaborating from a sociology perspective. Despite this, it is an easy read - clear, informative, and comprehensive without being irrelevant.
By exploring the creation of Mods and Rockers, Cohen identifies the roles of the Mass Media, and political factors as well as the essential role of the medium of communication: "that must be present for spreading the hostile belief and mobilising potential participants."
This book is relevant to anyone studying moral panics. It is concise and readily quotable - making it a friendly book to read for a late night.
Tags: communication mass media moral panics politics sociology sub-culture
"Censorship...is the product of fear and the prelude to control in a society"
Martin Barker is a reoccuring figure in the discussion of violence and the effects debate. In this book, Barker responds to the Obscene Publication Act deeming all "video nasties" illegal to distribute and and consume within the U.K.
Taking us back to the 80's moral panic of currupting 'nasties', this book offers an insightful break down of the censorship process by providing a collection of essays.
Firstly, Barker explains the legislations that are still in affect today. Although somewhat dated due to the recent amendments of the VRA Act, this book is a great starting point for context when writing about the BBFC.
Barker argues that the BBFC's censorship, and the Obscene Publication's Act is a form of "state censorship" derived from unfounded, societal fears around 'video nasties'.
In 'Nasties': a problem of identification': Barker examines illegal nasties' such as Cannibal Holocaust and I Spit on Your Grave, using textual analysis, highlighting the sensitivity of context.
A great starting point for anyone interested in moral panics, violence and the effects model, or horror films and censorship.
Review of 'Violence and American cinema'
I stumbled upon this book while doing research for my 'Media & Fictional Violence' course, as it contained an essay recommended from my tutor: "The violence of a perfect moment" by Leo Charney.
'Violence and American cinema' is a collection of essays, written by authors and scholars. It is put together by David Slocum, assistant dean of New York University, who starts the book with an interesting introduction, which offers us some historical factors, and points out the different interpretations and responses to media violence. The following collection of essays focus on the topic of Violence in movies, its history, characteristics, and the effects it has on society, as the authors offers some great thoughts on this form of art.
I found it very useful for my course work, and at the same time interesting, as it pointed out examples of movies I had seen and enjoyed in the past.
Tags: censorship
Screening Violence - Review
Stephen Prince's "Screening Violence" is an anthology that focuses on the increase of fictional violence in media since the 1960's, beginning with such films as Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and The Wild Bunch (1969) that featured groundbreaking violent scenes.
It is divided in three sections - "The Historical Context of Ultraviolence", "The Aesthetics of Ultraviolence" and "The Effects of Ultraviolence", which explore topics like the origins and history of media violence, the attempts of Hollywood to regulate it and the evolution of the rating system, as well as the aesthetics of graphic screen violence. It contains over thirty essays, written by movie reviewers, cinematographers, sociologists, psychologists and film scholars. They offer a wide range of viewpoints on the problem of violence in media and the controversy that surrounds it.
I would recommend this book as a good read for anyone who is interested in the area of Media & Fictional Violence and Censorship.
Tags: censorship
GCA
Quote for GCA Essay
Tags: journalism media
Review by Georgia Fearn
This book, which I had studied previously, and felt it was in great relevance to the current unit.
The book itself explains how people, have to have a certain self-regulation, when they are in ‘cyberspace’.
The internet, may have its firewalls, and so on, but there is no real regulation on what, we look at when we are browsing.
So therefore our ‘private’ regulations that we use when we are online are key, as internet providers, have no viable way of censoring every persons internet.
Children and there browsing make them the biggest target. With regard to safety, the parents as well as other adults are most apprehensive about the predatory behaviors of children online.
The theorist ‘Jeane Pia Mifsud Bonnici’ looks at these ‘regulation’ types, but claimes that there is no other way of internet relgulation, unless it is our own self regulation.
Review Of Competing for the future
Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad’s Competing for the future is a very interesting read, forcing the reader to think at the beginning with a series of questions which it is suggested that the reader should ‘get pen and paper’ and try and answer about the business he or she is at work in. The slightly casual style of his writing makes the book far enjoyable, and makes understanding the information and opinions being given far easier to understand. The book is clearly aimed at people who already have a direct experience of the business world, but is still useful for people trying to gain an broad understanding of business, for instance students. The use of real business examples is apparent throughout the book, giving a large amount of detail on how industries and companies have already been affected by not preparing properly for upcoming technologies and competitors, and helping to back up, and give weight to the points he is making.
It starts off by outlining the problems that have been plaguing the businesses and corporations of today, and the impact they could have in five to ten years. Although the chapters are oddly numbered they follow in a logical order, and flow almost seamlessly into one another. From chapter two: How Competition for the Future is Different, it is apparent that the book is slightly out of date, as some of the advances it talks about have already happened such as ‘digital highways into the home that will offer instant access to the world's store of knowledge and entertainment’ which is presumably referring to the internet, which is fully functional and a dominating source of income in modern societies.
The book offers strategies and ideas on how they can become more future ready, and competitively mobile, for an ever fast changing world. It also tries to stress the importance of how business leaders think, which is a point I had not yet come across, but is of great importance. The information given is also well backed up through the writing, making it clearler, and perhaps more importantly more valid.
Hamel draws comparisons and metaphors between some interesting topics, such as business and dinosaurs and the need to evolutionise quickly. Showing the use of imagination in this book, adding to the interest it creates in the reader’s mind, and helping to reiterate what the points he was trying to make are. However the common use of very long extended sentences, and listing, can become boring for the reader, and give the text a repetitive and tedious feel at times. The chapters are oddly titled, making it difficult to find particular information, without reading the whole book. The use of subtitles breaks up the text into small manageable sections, and gives the reader a way of referring back to it in their mind.
Overall I recommend the book to anyone wishing to learn about how businesses can prepare for the future, the reasons why they should, and the implications of doing nothing. The book gives the reader a clear understanding of the importance for companies to be competitive, understand new technological advances, and able to change quickly. I also thought the style of the book made it a manageable and relatively easy read, which is not often the case with textbooks.
Surprisingly easy to read
This review is on the textbook marketing concept and strategies (5th ed), written by Sally Dibb et al. It provides an understanding of the concepts that underpin marketing from a modern point of view. The 5th edition is the latest edition to be published to date and updates the reader in developing latest marketing strategies.
The textbook is not something I would have pick up out of choice, with twenty-six chapters and 896 pages I didn’t think it would be a light read. However, it proved to be quite simple to read compared to similar texts. I am not an expert in Marketing but I found it very useful as it explained basic concept and strategies well. The chapters are set out so that the topics run smoothly from one to another making the text exceptionably readable. I found myself getting through the material quickly and efficiently and understanding almost everything. This is mainly because the text book uses a variety of case studies and internet exercises at the end of each chapter to illustrate points and improve knowledge which proves very helpful to the reader. Each chapter has an introduction, main body and then a summary. Personally I found the introductions and summaries of each chapter most helpful as they eased you in to the subject and then broke down what you had just read into an easier format. The main body of each chapter went into finer detail on the specific point it was making. Dibb et al also incorporate graphics into the text which break it up and make it visually stimulating. This is important because it enables the reader to process the information more easily than if it was just continuous prose.
Marketing Concepts and Strategies features practitioners’ views on the role of marketing and how important it is in business today. Examples include Google, Tesco and Coco Cola to name only but a few. The chapter I found most helpful and interesting was in Part 3: Product, Branding, Packaging and Service Decisions – Chapter 11 on Branding and Packaging. They used examples such as polo, ASDA and Unilever to illustrate points. The chapter I found least helpful was Chapter 24: Implementing strategies, internal marketing relationships and measuring performance. It was the least ‘exciting’ out of all the chapters and told me what I already knew.
Over all I would say Marketing Concepts and Strategies is a very useful resource for students, like myself needing to know the basics on marketing strategies and concepts. Personally I will use it as a revision tool when revising for exams. It is very useful to have on your shelf.
Tags: global-business-context
Interesting take on business management
Competing for the Future – Gary Hamel and C.K.Prahalad
This book has an interesting view on how to keep a business on its toe’s in today’s competitive world. The authors look at the difficult questions that they feel businesses should be asking themselves. In particular it focuses on how businesses should be trying to create their own futures by being ahead of everyone else and constantly changing their ideas.
The strategy becomes more logical throughout the book, and you find yourself trying to think of your own examples. This then helps to achieve more of an understanding on what the authors are trying to put across. It is also very helpful in gaining an insight in to where businesses might go wrong. Their explanations of the simple mistakes a business can make which could lead to its downfall, all suddenly seem very obvious.
In a little more detail their idea tries to create a business reality where there are no limitations on what they can achieve. They believe that old rules and regulations keep employees tied down and they therefore can’t move new ideas on into future industries. There is too much focus on getting things done in the present that there isn’t any hope for them succeeding in the future. In order to keep a continually successful business, corporate managers need to spend more time on moulding what they think they can do in the future.
There is good use of examples to help bring out the authors point of view. Talking about how Sony had always had the same goal but had kept changing what the limit of that goal is to keep itself ahead. How the minds of children are how we should get our ideas today, asking the questions that we don’t have answers to. Unlearning everything that we have already learnt to help us clear the limits we have. The use of blending existing ideas, to create new ones.
Although the book was interesting to read and a lot of it made sense, these ideas may not work as easily as intended. Also a lot of their ideas are repeated unnecessarily, just put in a different way. What could’ve have been broken down into a much smaller book has been bulked out far too much.
Overall, it is an interesting point of view on how a business should be run. Would recommend for people trying to find a niche market or an unorthodox way of running their business. It would be great if their ideal business, “companies that lead customers where they want to go, but don’t know yet”, could really happen. Our industry World would move at a much faster pace.
Tags: global-business-context