Product Description
The contemporary Dutch broadcasting system is impossible to categorize according to standard models of broadcasting systems. It crosses the boundaries of public and private, non-profit and for-profit, neutral and value-laden, and secular and religious. This book explains the origins of this unequivocally unique pluralistic system. The Dutch broadcasting system is also one of many other pluralist social, economic, and political structures that were created in the Netherlands between 1917 and the 1970s. This book is the first in-depth analysis of the ways that ideological and religious worldviews influenced both the struggle to shape Dutch broadcasting between 1919 and 1930 and the structural pluralistic contours of the final system and policy. Co-published with Institute for Christian Studies (ISC). ... Read more

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"Salzman gives you the nitty-gritty, the nuts and bolts, to complete in the not-so-free marketplace of ideas."
--Mattew Rothschild, Editor, The Progressive

"Marvelous. A great handbook for activist."
--Jeff Cohen, Executive Director, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

"A truly essential guide to making the most of organizing through the media. Every organization should have this in its tool kit."
--Harvey Wasserman, Senior Advisor, Greenpeace

"A very useful how-to-guide that demystifies accessing the news media."
--David Barsmania, Founder, Alternative Radio, Boulder

"Instructive and inspiring...Scoop Nicker's injunction, 'If you don't like the news, go out and make your own,' has always been my mantra. Now it can be yours as well."
--Danny Schechter, Author, The more You Watch, the Less You Know

"Salzman has written the most comprehensive media guide that I've ever seen. We use it, and if you do, I guarantee you will get results."
--Mike Roselle, Director, Ruckus Society; Cofounder, Earth First! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Interesting reading
I was hoping this book covered more "not so activitist" ways to get attnetion from the press BUT it was still worth reading for anyone who does want to get the presses attention.Just remember to keep it within the law. Will read again for more insight.

don't hire a p.r. firm...buy this book!
This is the how-to book I wish I had written. It's perfect for activists, charities, government agencies, even PTAs! No one can sell an idea or cause better than the person who believes in it--this book gives you the basics and more on how to get your campaign or event in the news.

A must read
A must read for any activists. Easy to understand and yet effective.

So impressed I hired the guy
Gearing up a new issues education/activist organization, I read thisinvaluable tome. Then I called its author (Jason Salzman) to find protegesof his whom I might hire on the East Coast.After talking with him over acouple weeks, I hired him and have tremendously benefitted from hisexperience, wisdom and creativity. Not often we can hire the guy "whowrote the book." If you can't hire him yourself (try though), his booklays out the science and art of garnering media for you to tout your cause.

Everyone in non-profit should read this book
Outstanding on all fronts. No jargon - all facts. Salzman shares hissecrets and tells you how to figure out making your work into news. In thisimage-crazed age, this book is a must. ... Read more

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The use of acronyms and abbreviations in the film, television, and video industries is constantly increasing; the list seems endless and often baffling, which makes it virtually impossible for one to comprehend what each and every acronym means. This new and original book is a comprehensive international guide to some 3400 film, television, and video acronyms and abbreviations in current use. It not only provides their meaning, but also their corresponding organization's or corporation's aims and objectives, their founding date, their address, and their telephone/fax number. The second section of the book lists over 1400 technical terms and their meanings. Fully indexed, this book provides an essential and much needed reference source for libraries, educational institutions, archives, institutes, and all of those involved in the motion picture and audiovisual industries. ... Read more

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News media are more sophisticated today than ever before, while culture and politics have reached heights of chaos never before seen. How do media outlets choose what to report, and what are the impacts of their choices? Mediatized Conflict sheds much-needed light on the subject. An expert on the subject culls together the latest research and theories to examine how the media today have replaced socalled objective reporting with actively "enacting" and "performing" coverage of war and conflict.

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This now-classic text by an insider, a former writer-producer at CBS News, chronicles the history of broadcast journalism in the U.S. from its beginning in radio through its rise as the most pervasive and powerful news medium. ... Read more

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If you loved Howard and Harry, Chet and David, Uncle Walter, Dan or Peter or Tom, you'll love "Anchoring America" for bringing their broadcasting years to life on the page.

But if you thought you knew them, think again. In "Anchoring America," you'll see whole new sides to both the anchors you loved and the ones you hated. This book will show you the real people they were and the way they approached the job.

"Anchoring America" covers 17 anchors in 17 smart profiles that show the evolution of the job and reveal the characters of the men and women who have sat behind the desk.

"Anchoring America" will startle you as it explodes myths. You'll discover that "Uncle" Walter Cronkite, "the most trusted man in America," was in fact the most relentless, demanding, and ruthless competitor who ever sat at an anchor desk. That the real New York "insider" was Barbara Walters. That the toughest corporate politician of them all was wry, warm Harry Reasoner. You'll learn about Edward R. Murrow and the shadow he cast over all of them--as Chuck Yeager was to "The Right Stuff," so was Murrow to the anchors.

If you thought the evening news would go on forever as is, you may be surprised. This book traces the decline of the anchors' influence since the 1970s and examines how the evening news will change when Jennings, Rather, and Brokaw retire.

Above all, you'll see how the anchors have interpreted their role in bringing the news into our living rooms every night. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

THE HILL REVIEWS ANCHORING AMERICA
Anchors away? A look at how TV news is changing
By John Kornacki

You know it's going to happen, and it's infuriating. The president of the United States has just finished the State of the Union speech, and Tom Brokaw (or Peter Jennings or Dan Rather) will tell you what he just said and what was important. He will say something about the delivery of the speech, too. Though he is trying to be objective and analytical, the selection of key points from a speech is basically a matter of individual judgment; any impression about the delivery is strictly subjective.

Some viewers are fed up with what they see as a condescending and patronizing attitude expressed by today's news anchors. Others are miffed by perceived bias.

Either way, if you look at the ratings, more and more viewers are looking at alternatives to the network news offered by the cable channels or by new media like the Internet. Still others tune out to watch Paris Hilton, QVC or anything but the news.

To blame Brokaw et al. for the falloff is to fault their mentors, the men who pioneered the role of anchorman and set formulas that had worked for a generation or two.

When John Chancellor or Walter Cronkite summed up key news items and events, we accepted it: "That's the way it is," said Uncle Walter, the most trusted man in America.

So what happened to television news and the people delivering it over the past 20 years? Did something happen to us? Television journalist Jeff Alan and writer James M. Lane provide some answers to these questions in Anchoring America.

To understand the modern television anchorman or -woman, one must go back to its creation by a man who didn't think much of TV as a news medium and never really sat in the TV anchor chair: Edward R. Murrow of CBS News. Murrow was a renaissance radioman, as Alan says, "equal parts journalist, celebrity, arranger, composer and keeper of the public trust."

Murrow's deep voice was a model of finely tuned inflection and measured delivery. It was uniquely American - tough, skeptical and, somehow, soothing. He sounded (and looked) like Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. Murrow's great gift, however, was in identifying and organizing talent. He knew newsmen and could get the most out of them. He expanded news programming and enhanced the prestige of CBS.

From Murrow's team came Eric Sevareid and Charles Collingwood. The other two networks followed similar formats based on the Murrow mold of the trusted journalist-commentator as anchorman.

The two biggest factors in changing television news came from outside of news. According to Alan and Lane, these factors were entertainment and technology. The first big change began with the innovative Roone Arledge and the success of ABC's Monday Night Football in the early '70s. Arledge proved that new formats and new thinking worked in ways that attracted key audiences. The three-person booth, event programming and edgy commentary evolved into similar audience-attracting experiments with the then moribund ABC News. Young Peter Jennings accelerated his TV journey under Arledge with the initiation of the three-headed "World News Tonight."

The second change emerged a short time later, from the convergence of two irresistible forces: satellite communications and media mogul Ted Turner. His gamble with CNN changed the news from a daily half-hour summary to a 24-hour ubiquitous display. The news set moved into the newsroom. There were so many "anchors" no one really noticed them anymore. As Alan explains it, "the very premise of a national news audience which gave rise to the evening news in the first place was undermined almost completely."

We are left with a sobering conclusion: that the "news landscape reflects an increasing tribalism, something we see in the culture at large" with fewer original reports and more personality-driven programs: namely, more interviews with Larry King, more two-sided arguments with Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson and more "perspectives" on the news with Pat Robertson.

Alan thinks it would be undesirable to lose the traditional anchor, and cites the example of how the anchors comforted the nation in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.

Can we live without anchormen and -women in future? This book will make you ponder that question. Ratings suggest that some of you already have made up your mind.

John Kornacki is a contributing writer for The Hill.

Book reviewed:
Anchoring America: The Changing Face of Network News
By Jeff Alan with James M. Lane
426 pages
Bonus Books, 2003 ... Read more

Product Description
For more than 20 years, the clock has steadily ticked away each week for the vast audience of Americans who stop everything else to watch "60 Minutes." Author Richard Campbell has created an informative, thought-provoking book that details how he believes the long-popular program has won its place in the heart of middle America. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Climb To The Top
This book is mainly just about the climb from one of the lowest rated, to one of the highest rated TV shows in the US.Not a whole lot of content on the anchors or anything, but very interesting in the way of how the show rose up and became an American TV Icon. ... Read more

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Since the demise of Captain Kangaroo in the early eighties, the three major commercial networks have offered no regularly scheduled weekday programming for children, and American Public TV, with its chronic lack of funds, produces only about a sixth the volume of new children's programs each year as Britain's BBC or Japan's NHK.

Yet, as Edward Palmer reveals in this illuminating volume, America could easily have the finest children's television in the world, for less than one cent per day for each of the nation's forty-two million children. One of the founders of the Children's Television Workshop pioneered twenty years ago, Palmer explores the reasons behind the deplorable state of U.S. children's television and lays a large part of the blame on commercial TV, whose policy is not to serve the public, but to sell viewers to advertisers. Television and America's Children offers specific remedies for this American crisis. ... Read more

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From Our Own Correspondent, one of Britain's most popular radio programs, is available in the U.S. on public radio and through the BBC World Service. This book includes the program's best dispatches from around the world through July 1993, including the war in the former Yugoslavia, the continuing conflict in the Middle East and the turmoil in the former Soviet Union. ... Read more

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Rapid changes in the radio industry in recent years have brought new challenges to radio program directors. This book addresses these changes, and provides case studies from some of the most respected broadcasters in the industry. " Process and Practice of Radio Programming" examines all aspects of a radio programmer's job. Among the topics discussed are: creating a program clock, developing an ear for selecting tomorrow's hits, hiring, managing, and working (airchecking) with talent, image creation, marketing a station, ratings and research, working with sales, promotions, news, new technologies--including Virtual Radio Programming, surviving within a multiopoly situation, how to compete competitively with other stations in the market, understanding obligations to the FCC, developing relationships with record companies, clients, marketing and research firms, and others as well as learning how to program to a target audience. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

very useful introduction
As an academic who studies radio, I found this to be an extremely useful introduction to how radio stations work. Although intended as a textbook for radio staff, this book is useful for anyone who needs to understand the sophisticated techniques radio stations use to decide what songs to play and how to develop their brands.
My only reservations are that it gives relatively little coverage to payola and to the ways in which chains centralize control through regional programming and research.

Process and Practice of Radio Programming
I have read this book over and over, and I can't figure it out.I bought because I thought it would teach me how to cook.It wasn't helpful at all. 1 star it gets from me.

The latest info on radio programming and marketing
PROCESS AND PRACTICE OF RADIO PROGRAMMING is designed to provide beginning broadcasters with up-to-date information on the strategies used by top broadcasters in the areas of programming and marketing.This book features tips, case histories, and in-the-trenches stories from programmers, researchers, owners, radio personalities, marketers, and record company personnel.It also examines new technologies and future trends.It also provides the learner with practical programming exercises at the end of each chapter to facilitate learning.This book is the first of its kind to provide a heavy dose of practical exercises, in-the-trenches stories, and case histories along with radio programming theory.It is beneficial to students, broadcasters and anyone who is interested in learning about and understanding radio. ... Read more

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Designed to increase adults' understanding of television and to develop their critical viewing skills, this text explores persuasion and presentation techniques, the programming policy of television stations, and potential effects of violence, sex, and commercials on the viewer. Also presents critical awareness exercises. The book does not advocate turning off the set, but, rather, encourages self-control. ... Read more

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This second volume of "Competition Monologues" is, like the first volume, designed specifically for young actors 18-28 years old. The selections are again drawn from American plays produced by professional regional theatres across the nation during the past few years. Because of this the scripts, with few exceptions, cannot be readily found in published form, and the monologues are therefore infrequently performed and highly original. As a result of suggestions from numerous coaches and drama teachers across the nation who have used the first volume in their classes and workshops, the editor has included longer selections in this second volume. Hopefully this will help the general reader and theatre practitioner to gain an understanding of the range and quality of solid dramatic writing which characterizes the contemporary American theatre and enable acting instructors to use the selections as longer exercises in their general acting and theatre performance classes. The reference section has been completely updated to reflect the wealth of material which has recently appeared in the monologue and auditioning field. The combination of originality and vital dramatic writing makes this anthology unique in the field as a resource book for young actors. ... Read more

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Entertainment Weekly presents the 100 most trailblazing celebrities of the final half of the 20th century. ... Read more

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An essential primer for all grassroots activists, this book demystifies the media in such a way that the reader-activist gains a framework for understanding the propaganda industry of the United States. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best book there is on media for grassroots/social change orgs
I can't recommend this book highly enough. I do training for grassroots and social change organizations and groups and have found that this covers more of the essential, nitty-gritty practices and problems of getting mainstream media attention than any other book I've read--by far. Charlotte Ryan does a service to all organizations hoping to bring their message to a broad audience and see the world changed for the better. Understand how the media works, how it can work for you (and against you), how to frame your message, the pitfalls of seeking mainstream media attention. This is not "how to write a press release," because in the real world of public relations, that's almost the least important skill. She cuts to the essential opportunities and challenges of media coverage to advance social change. Even for anyone who simply wants to understand how the media covers alternative viewpoints, this is an essential read. Thank you Ms. Ryan! ... Read more

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The Offensive Art is an arch and sometimes caustic look at the art of political satire as practiced in democratic, monarchical, and authoritarian societies around the world over the past century-together with the efforts by governmental, religious, and corporate authorities to suppress it by censorship, intimidation, policy, and fatwa. Examples are drawn from the full spectrum of satiric genres, including novels, plays, verse, songs, essays, cartoons, cabarets and revues, movies, television, and the Internet. The multicultural and multimedia breadth and historical depth of Freedman's comparative approach frames his novel assessment of the role of political satire in today's post-9/11 world, and in particular the cross-cultural controversies it generates, such as the global protests against the Jyllands-Posten cartoons.

In a tongue-in-cheek style peppered with the world's best one-liners from the last century, The Offensive Art recounts the acrimonious and often perilous cat-and-mouse games between political satirists and their censors and inhibitors through the last century in America (especially FDR, LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush II and in wartime), Britain (especially Churchill, Thatcher, Blair and the Royals), Germany (Hitler to the present), Russia (Stalin to the present), China (Mao to the present), India (from the Raj on), and the Middle East (from 1920s Egypt to today). Freedman focuses on the role and transformation of satire during shifts from authoritarian to democratic systems in such places as South Africa, Argentina, and Eastern Europe. He surveys the state of satire throughout the world today, identifying the most dangerous countries for practitioners of the offensive art, and presents his findings as to the political efficacy of satire in provoking change.

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Making sense out of the unending debate over effects and therelationship between the media and society! This volume raises manyquestions based on the literature generated by communication scholars andothers: What are mass media effects? How do media effects differ fromcommunication effects? Are media effects specific to particular domains--thepolitical or economic arena, for example--or are there broader effects? Can weisolate the media's impact at the individual, group, institutional, societal, andcultural levels? How do we identify, study, verify, and judge media effects? ... Read more

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This is the first book-length study of Oscar Wilde's play Salome. Often drawing on little-known sources, the authors provide a detailed stage history of this controversial work, and its transformation into opera, dance and film with such major innovators as Max Reinhardt, Richard Strauss, Serge Diaghilev, Peter Brook, Salvador Dali, Lindsay Kemp and Steven Berkoff contributing to Salome's contemporary reputation. ... Read more