RECENT BOOKS BY ANNENBERG FACULTY
Kids Rule!: Nickelodeon and Consumer Citizenship
Sarah Banet-Weiser
Duke University Press, 2007
In Kids Rule!, Banet-Weiser examines the Nickelodeon cable network in order to rethink the relationship between children, media, citizenship and consumerism. "Kids Rule! is an immensely important and exciting book," said Angela McRobbie, author of The Uses of Cultural Studies, in a quote from the publisher. "Based on meticulous research, with a strong cultural production approach, it is a book that will be widely read by scholars and students alike. It fills a large gap in this terrain of work and it is lively, thorough and brimming with insight and argument."
Cable Visions: Television Beyond Broadcasting
Edited by Sarah Banet-Weiser, Cynthia Chris and Anthony Freitas
NYU Press, 2007
Banet-Weiser is a co-editor of this volume, which looks beyond broadcasting’s mainstream and toward cable’s alternatives to critically consider the capacity of commercial media to serve the public interest. "Through a series of highly original and carefully researched essays, Cable Visions offers a lively and comprehensive survey of the contemporary multichannel television landscape in the United States," writes William Boddy, author of New Media and Popular Imagination: Launching Radio, Television and Digital Media in the United States, in a publisher’s quote.
Mobile Communication & Society: A Global Perspective
Manuel Castells, Mireia Fernandez-Ardevol, Jack Linchuan Qiu and Araba Sey
MIT Press, 2006
(From the publisher) Wireless networks are the fastest growing communications technology in history. Are mobile phones expressions of identity, fashionable gadgets, tools for life – or all of the above? Mobile Communication and Society looks at how the possibility of multimodal communication from anywhere to anywhere at any time affects everyday life at home, at work, and at school, and raises broader concerns about politics and culture both global and local.
Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination
Neal Gabler
Knopf, 2006
Hailed as "the definitive Disney bio" by Newsweek, the latest book from Neal Gabler, a senior fellow at the Norman Lear Center, explores Disney’s life in detail, especially his years when his studio was in its infancy and Mickey Mouse had yet to appear on screen. As readers follow Gabler’s protagonist through the highs and lows of his career, they learn, among other things, rejected names for the Seven Dwarfs—Nifty? Flabby? Biggo Ego?—and the fact that Disney won more Academy Awards than any other individual, with 32. Washington Post book reviewer Michael Dirda wrote: "About this superb biography, one can hardly be temperate."
Union 1812: The AmericansWho Fought the Second War of Independence
By A.J. Langguth
Simon & Schuster, 2006
Journalism professor emeritus A.J. Langguth’s 10th book picks up where his earlier book Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution left off: at the first rumblings of the War of 1812. Richly rendered battle scenes are interspersed with historical portraits of James and Dolley Madison, Davy Crockett, the Shawnee chieftain Tecumseh and Andrew Jackson, among others. "Besides being a good read, Union 1812 allows you to discover the second wave of our founders with a renewed sense of awe and surprise," historian Douglas Brinkley wrote in the Washington Post.
The Evolution of Media
A. Michael Noll
Rowman & Littlefield, 2006
Communication professor emeritus A. Michael Noll’s 11th book tracks the development of mass media—radio, television and print—and interpersonal media, such as telecommunications and new media, concurrently. In the process, Noll develops a system to identify technological requirements and applications of media systems in both categories. With a final section detailing a methodology for predicting the future success of new media technologies, Noll’s book provides a thorough analysis of the ways in which humans communicate.
A Woman of Uncertain Character: The Amorous and Radical Adventures of My Mother Jennie (Who Always Wanted to be a Respectable Jewish Mom) by Her Bastard Son
Clancy Sigal
Caroll & Graf, 2006
Drawing on his skills as a reporter and screenwriter, emeritus journalism professor Clancy Sigal tells the story of his mother, Jennie Persily, and her life in the 1930s as a union organizer. Sigal follows his mother as she travels from Chicago to the South, learning from Emma Goldman and Bugsy Siegel in equal measure. “Sigal has a truly revelatory story to tell, and he writes with pizzazz and sensitivity.” wrote Booklist’s Donna Seaman in a starred review.
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