Book Review of Media Studies: The Essential Resource by Philip Rayner, Peter all and Stephen Kruger, London:

Routledge, 2004. Introduction The book Media Studies: The Essential Resource published by Routledge, London, in 2004, serves as a text-book, a truly educating and informative, for those studying the media and communication at various levels. The authors Philip Rayner, Peter Wall and Stephen Kruger hold high positions in the field of Media and Communication studies. The book, being written by the eminent personnel in the field of media education and as is introduced to the readers as containing a wide range of media activities and phenomena, creates interest and arouses certain level of expectations for quality information. As a novice to the field of media and communication education, in a formal sense, the book presented a prime choice for academic activity and personal learning. A comparative study of the book is done here for a comprehensive understanding in comparison with the following two books. 1. Media Studies, written by Stuart Price, published by Longman Group Limited, England, 1993 and 2. Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: The Key Concepts, third edition, written by John Hartly, Published by Routledge, 2002. Summary The book is divided into three main chapters namely 1. Reading the Media 2. Media Audiences and 3. Media Institutions The reader is introduced to these expositive chapters by an article of Gauntlett, with an introductive question Why Media Studies? A comprehensive answer to this question reveals the vitality of the media studies, the vastness of the understanding of the term media with its various forms and the importance of these media in the present context. Though stated as being one among the young disciplines, the Media Studies, interestingly is connected to the culture and values of a society. In fact, media is the carrier of this culture and values of any society through the ages. A contrasting picture of importance of media in
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the past and the present scenarios is unveiled where the media studies was nearly dead if the internet had not been invented. 1. Reading the Media: This chapter deals with the required tools to for textual analysis to uncover the underlying meanings depending on the individuals perspective. These tools can be used in combination as it is required for a meaningful interpretation. The following are the various tools that help reading the media. a. Image Analysis: An image is the alienation of personal attributes for semiotic purpose that includes visual attributes, intentionally communicative acts and behavioural characteristics.1 Image Analysis particularly deals with developing the awareness about semiotic analysis and functional vocabulary of semiotic terms. It is required because media often combine language and visual signs which entwine complex meanings. The text itself many a time a poly-semiotic and its interpretation largely depends on an individuals cultural experience. A concept can be analysed by the help of denotation and connotation that are perspective based being influenced by the myths, symbols and iconic indexical and symbolic signs. b. Narrative as an Analytical Tool: A narrative is an organized flow of information. A narrative in Media Studies is important to construct both fiction and non-fiction texts and analysing such means to explore how the information is revealed within a text. A narrator is expected to present the information according to the perspective of ones targeted recipients of the information. The enigmas of a narrative can be understood by a comparative study of texts which reveals the similarities and differences. The narratives need not necessarily depend on cause and effect in a literal sense. c. The Role of Genre: Genre is a concept for categorization of a media text. Genre can be understood as the categorization of media texts according to shared characteristics. 2 The media outputs and activities are categorised based on certain norms like the popularity, recipients, public interests, public demand, profitability etc. One such popular genre is the soap opera. d. Representation and Ageism: Representation is how the media mediates between the real world and its recipients. ...representations are words, pictures, sounds, sequences, stories, etc., that stand for ideas, emotions, facts, etc.3 There is a chance of misinterpretation of the reality using such representations and the analysis of these representation helps find out
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John Hartley, Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: The Key Concepts. 3rd ed. (London: Routledge, 2004), 107. 2 Ibid., 96. 3 Ibid., 202.

this misinterpretation. Ageism, alike gender race and class, has been a neglected and thus potential entity for a critical study. e. Realism and Documentary: An important branch for media study that helps to realize the extent of reality that the media actually presents to its recipients. Though it is never been easy to produce a fake article or a documentary, there is always a possibility for such. f. Intertextuality: This deals with analysing the text not in isolation but a comparatively studying the text with its relation to the various links. There is sometimes by the media a way of presenting its concept with a disguised theme that engages the audience to relate to other popular themes. According to post modern theorists intertextuality is representative of the contemporary period of humanity where meaning-making is possible only in relation to other texts.4 g. Ideology and Advertising: Ideology can be defined as a belief system and is one of the important concepts of the Media Studies. Advertisements are powerful media ingredients that carry ideologies entwined with them. Thus study of Ideology and advertising helps in acquiring the required skills to utilize the media to covey a thought more powerfully. 2. Media Audiences: This is a very important branch of Media Studies. The term audience is used to describe a large number of unidentifiable people, usually united by their participation in media use.5 The audience a particular medium acquires determines its popularity and its place among its competitors which in turn determines its commercial viability. Therefore the industrial and academic sources are keen to work in this field and hence a need for methodologies arouse for qualitative and quantitative research which can be done by following approaches. Quantitative research is the collection of facts and figures through social surveys where qualitative research aims for an in depth view based on interviews, participant observation and detailed study of documents such as autobiographies and diaries.6 a. Encoding and Decoding: The message that a producer intends to convey to the audience may carry an entirely different message to the audience as there are different social, economical, gender, age and other factors that influence the understanding. Thus the encoding and decoding of messages is key factor in understanding the Media Audiences. b. Research Audiences: This mainly deals with the commercial dimension of the media which helps to identify the most popular and successful media products. It is a quantitative research that determines the success and future directions of a medium.
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Ibid., 126. Ibid., 11. 6 Stuart Price, Media Studies (England: Longman Group Limited, 1993), 117.

c. Ethnographic research: This method focuses on a qualitative research where the ethnographic factors influence the consumers acceptance of media products are examined. This helps to have a focused study. d. Audience Segmentation: The increase in competition among the media and advanced technology has greatly influenced the success. In this context identifying the segment of audience for a particular programme or a tabloid has become a challenging task. So dividing the audiences into segments based on certain common factors like lifestyle, geography etc helps to focus on a particular segment, the target audience. e. Questioning Effects: Here is another research mainly carried out by the academic researchers that focus mainly on the effects of media over their audience. The effects debate is to argue to what extent is the media responsible for the societal problems. f. Audience Participation and Reality TV: The most popular TV programmes of present day are the reality and game-shows in which audience are the participants. It is important to determine the genuineness of such shows because of their high viewership there is a possibility of manipulation of facts involved to catch viewer attention. g. Gender Consumption: The gender factor also influences the viewership of a programme may be because of its content related to contemporary gender issues and this controversial elements that catch public attention. h. Buffy and Her Fans: This is about the fans and their influence over the success of a media produce. Fandom enjoyed by certain media programmes and personnel determines their success and market value. This culture is now also prevalent in the internet culture. 3. Media Institutions: Institutions are bodies which have a settled structure and set ways of functioning. Hence the idea of institution as a relationship is stressed as being one between production, text and audience. 7 To understand the way the media operates and behaves globally and locally one must have to analyse and study the institutional aspects of media like the ownership, regulating factors etc. a. Regulation and the Press: government guides and shapes the conduct of institutions, individuals, the market and culture through regulation with an intention to provide a frame work that will bring about stability and prevent disorder. 8 The media is obviously regulated by the state and has to abide by the laws often imposed. This will present a challenging and more responsible task on the one hand and also restrict dimensions of the media.

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Stuart Price, Media Studies (England: Longman Group Limited, 1993), 347. Ibid., 200.

b. Self-Regulation and the Press: There are various independent bodies that constitute the eminent media professionals as their members to regulate the media activities. It cant yet be assumed that these bodies can have a reasonable and unbiased regulation over their own media. The press being a part of democratic system is expected to be responsible. c. News Selection and Presentation: It is important for the media of all kinds to focus on the factual news and events. However, entertainment plays a dominant role. The presentation of news includes Interruption, Liveness, Time-space, Comprehensiveness and Professionalism. Despite the media boasting about being unbiased, they have to satisfy one or more of the power elite, celebrity, entertainment, surprise, bad news, good news, magnitude, relevance follow-ups and newspaper agenda. d. Professional Practice: A professional media worker gains the attention and regard because of ones knowledge and skills. Nevertheless, there are certain values like feminine values, being market driven and professional autonomy that also contribute to professional success. e. Public Service Broadcasting (PSB): this deals with how not only the media production but also the media consumers are controlled by the government for the services they receive. As a result quality in transmission and programme making and the number of channels available for the consumer has increased drastically. f. New Technology: Because of the technical advancement the production and consumption of media products are greatly influenced. This resulted in high usage of media products in various forms and the further inventions are unpredictable. g. Ownership and Music Industry: The media institutions are unpredictably changing their strategies and venturing into global arena and of alliances with different media and business groups. One such profitable business is Music Industry. Piracy thus gained immense popularity as it directly and indirectly affects the media. h. Globalisation and Cultural Imperialism: In Media Studies the Globalization is imperialism in literary sense that is to dominate, own, influence and impose one media group over the other media groups in order to attain control over the economy, politics and culture by intruding or seizing the power over satellite, internet, news corporations, digital technology etc. With all such insights the book concludes with an article titled Conclusion: Media Studies and Postmodernism providing thoughtful information about the mutual influence of media and postmodern culture. An emphasis is made on understanding the present cultural and

technical aspects so as to redefine their influences that would negate the conventional thinking about the media. Reflection This book Media Studies: The Essential Resource gives a good reading experience to a beginner in Media Education while it introduces to the various concepts and terminologies of Media Education. The book does not disappoint as it caters to the expectations it arises at an initial glance. The language is moderate in its style and does not pose much difficulty in understanding. The elaborate illustrations give a vivid understanding of each of the contents of the book. However, there are certain aspects of the book that are to be considered as barriers in certain typical contexts. The book purely is western oriented depicting the typical western cultural aspects that limits the book to a particular confinement. Though the book discusses key elements of Media Education that help any context the illustrations in particular shuts the book within the West. This would certainly help a student intending global understanding, western in particular. But for a student limited to countries other than west it would be a difficult job to implicate with ones own context. Though the illustrations are meant to help understand the concepts they have occupied majority of the book. The practical learning could have been emphasised instead. Nevertheless, this comparative study along with two other books helped to have a wider understanding of the basic key concepts of Media Education. Bibliography
Hartley, John, Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: The Key Concepts . 3rd ed. London: Routledge, 2004. Price, Stuart. Media Studies. England: Longman Group Limited, 1993.