Understanding the Media

Understanding the Media is an invaluable guide for teachers of media studies. Focusing on the familiar media of television, the press, radio, comics and pop music, the book also examines a range of forms which cross boundaries between different media – news, chat-shows, drama, fiction, public relations and advertising. Andrew Hart stresses the relations between various forms of the media, and addresses issues of value, control, quality and ideology. These major areas are examined in the context of rapidly changing technologies, patterns of ownership, production processes and audience responses. Hart tackles problems which teachers often encounter – how to begin teaching about the media, and how to organise practical work. The book has been developed from a series of programmes broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It includes practical examples of classroom activities and evaluations of their effectiveness, as well as detailed lesson plans.
Interviews from the radio programmes are included to enliven and authenticate difficult ideas, and major issues are examined through extensive use of new documentary material – audience data, accounts of production processes and insider’ views from writers, editors and producers.