George Gerbner

According to the contributors to this volume, the communications media deliberately blank out critical conditions and developments whose imagery would pose unacceptable challenges to the dominant structures of culture-power. Such "invisible crises" include the suppression of information about the dehumanization and stigmatization of groups of people; the drift toward ecological suicide; the neglect of vital institutions such as public education and the arts; the way in which television corrupts the electoral process; and the promotion of practices which drug, poison and kill. The book asks why the media are, in the view of contributors, withholding vital information from the public, and focuses on the increasing concentration of culture-power that, it is argued, keeps these truths from public view.

What Conglomerate Control Of Media Means For America And The World

Invisible Crises

Nancy Signorielli

Originally a Unesco project, this annotate bibliography results from more than 4,600 requests to media scholars and researchers for research reports, publications, and other information relating to violence and terrorism. Although there is an international cast to the materials, most are from the U.S. Even though violence and terrorism permeate our myths and legends, there is increasing concern with their effect on viewers. This bibliography is particularly timely, with entries through spring 1987. The sections of the work (mass media content, mass media effects, pornography and the media, terrorism and the media) give a better idea of the work's scope than does the title. Choice [T]he annotations are clearly written, succinctly descriptive of the original work's research with test groups, and evaluative of research results. Reference Books Bulletin This bibliography focuses on research and scholarly works relating to violence and terror. Consisting primarily of articles published in scholarly journals and books, this comprehensive work examines major topics such as violence and mass media content, violence and mass media effects, terrorism and the mass media, and pornography. Also included are articles from popular journals, reports published by the United States and other governments, conference papers, and dissertations. Each entry consists of the bibliographic citation and a short abstract; many of the sources include studies from other countries where relevant research has been conducted. The compilers' introduction provides a clear definition of violence and terrorism as they are dealt with in this volume and offers an interesting overview of various aspects of the subject.

George Gerbner

Books

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