Approaches To Understanding Visual Culture

Book Description

"What is it that happens when we understand something?" Malcolm Barnard relates the understanding of visual culture to the traditions of natural and social science and applies the theme of scientific understanding to the principal approaches to understanding art and design. Formalist, Marxist, gender-based, semiological, hermeneutic, and expressionist approaches to visual culture are clearly explained, through a wide variety of examples from fashion, architecture, film, fine art, and comics.

Book Description

Representations of fashionable femininity have multiplied through the 20th century. In fashion store advertising, magazines, photography, and museum collections, complex versions of feminine identity have been and are being formed. This book examines the relationship between women's fashion, female representation, and femininity in Britain from the end of the 19th to the end of the 20th century.

Fashioning the Feminine: Representation and Women's Fashion from the Fin de Siecle to the Present.(Reviews of Books)(Book Review): An article from: Albion

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Fashioning the Feminine: Representation and Women's Fashion from the Fin de Siecle to the Present.(Reviews of Books)(Book Review): An article from: Albion
Jordanna Bailkin
Manufacturer: North American Conference on British Studies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

History | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Albion, published by North American Conference on British Studies on September 22, 2003. The length of the article is 862 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Fashioning the Feminine: Representation and Women's Fashion from the Fin de Siecle to the Present.(Reviews of Books)(Book Review)
Author: Jordanna Bailkin
Publication: Albion (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2003
Publisher: North American Conference on British Studies
Volume: 35 Issue: 3 Page: 528(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Not what I expected

Babylon 5: The Galactic Guide (Babylon 5 RPG)
S. Kalvar
Manufacturer: Mongoose Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Role Playing & Fantasy | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Babylon 5 | Media | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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Babylon 5: Ships Of The Galaxy (Babylon 5 Rpg S.)

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Babylon 5: The Rangers (Babylon 5 (Mongoose Publishing))

Babylon 5: The PSI Corps (Babylon 5)

Babylon 5: The Narn Regime (Babylon 5 (Mongoose Publishing))

ASIN: 1904577997

Book Description

The Galactic Guide to Babylon 5 is a huge resource for any Games Master or Player wishing to know more of the galaxy they operate in. Containing studies on ancient planets and races as well as detailing the varying political influences on the galaxy, this book will prove invaluable to all fans of the Babylon 5 universe. In addition, the Galactic Guide has rules for a variety of situations, circumstances and occurrences, collated into a readily accessible source. In short, there's something for just about everyone in the Babylon 5 Galactic Guide.

Customer Reviews:

Not what I expected.......2006-07-02

I ordered this, thinking it was a guide to the series in the same vein as guides for Star Trek or Star Wars. I discovered that it is a guide to a Babylon 5 role-playing game in which I have no interest. It's still informative and entertaining, but not as much so as I was expecting.

Book Description

This new text/reader is the first major introduction to philosophy that incorporates movies as a key pedagogical element. Throughout the text, summaries of and references to current and classic films engage students, revealing what they already know and addressing issues that they find relevant. The book highlights the major topics within philosophy and includes the core readings that represent them; instructors with various pedagogical approaches will find Classic Questions and Contemporary Film inviting and accessible.

Customer Reviews:

Great Beginning Philosophy Book!.......2006-02-08

Classic Questions and Contemporary Film provides an easy way to examine the most common philosophical topics. It is the perfect way to introduce philosophy to those new to common questions found in philosophy. The correspondence to contemporary film allows us to relate the beginnings of philosophy to new age life. It is an easy way to give meaning to studying philosophy today. I would recommend it as a great start to not only understanding but working through common philosophical issues.

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I love mine

A Great handbook for the experienced player!

The Mongoose Pocket Players Handbook
August Hahn
Manufacturer: Mongoose Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Role Playing & Fantasy | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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Mongoose Pocket GMs Guide Bestiary

The Pocket Modern Players Handbook

Player's Handbook II (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying)

ASIN: 1904577660

Book Description

For the OGL System to be this wide reaching, it has to be codified and presented in a basic format stripped of all complications first. That is the purpose behind this book, the Mongoose Pocket Player's Handbook. In these pages, readers will find the system in its simplest form. Character creation and rules, the kernel for any role-playing system, dominate the first part of the text while the central theme for most games - combat - is given the middle of the book in great detail. The two most common exotic features of most games - magic and psychic phenomena - provide the last section and sum up this simple presentation of the OGL System.

Customer Reviews:

I love mine.......2005-01-23

While I have no desire to DM the latest incarnation of D&D, I happily play it. Everyone else in my group upgraded to 3.5, but I really couldn't justify doing so.

The SRD, while very handy when at my computer, isn't so handy at the table. Pulling out the parts I'd like to have at the table for reference, laying them out, & printing them would be a big job. I still don't think I'd come up with something I liked as well as the Pocket PHB.

Whenever we've looked up rules, the Pocket PHB has had the exact wording as the 3.5 PHB. I don't miss the "flavor text" at all.

It's everything I need to be a player in a D&D 3.5 game in a more compact & less expensive package than the 3.5 PHB.

A Great handbook for the experienced player!.......2004-02-10

While the organization of things takes a little getting used to, the PPH is a great tool for anyone who is an avid D&D player. I would NOT recommend this book for new players, as it lacks almost all descriptive texts which give players an understanding of the rules. It's size is nice, and looking things up is a snap. A lot of the useful tables were put in the front of the book for quick reference, and the index is much more extensive than the standard PH.

But I stress that this book is not for new players, it should only be used as a reference for players already comfortable with the rules of the game.

Average customer rating:

Must Read Book On Oil and gas Well Investing

Good Primer For Anyone Looking At Oil & Gas Opportunities

Great Book For Investors

Good book for the novice investor

Money in the Ground-Insider's Guide to Oil and Gas Deals (4th Ed.)
John Orban
Manufacturer: Meridian Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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Let's Talk an Oil Deal: Your Key to Oil Patch Lingo

Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum Geology, Exploration, Drilling and Production (2nd Edition)

Oil and Gas Law in a Nutshell

Understanding Today's Natural Gas Business

Fundamentals of Oil and Gas Accounting (4th Edition)

ASIN: 0961577665

Product Description

This is your highest-yielding oil and gas investment. Period. Do you have money ... or time ... in an upstream oil and gas deal? ... as investor?, landowner?, or professional? in (or associated with) the upstream oil business? If you do, get this book. MONEY IN THE GROUND has been coninuously in print for 19 years. It has become THE standard reference on the subject of oil and gas deals. The industry-standard reference on oil & gas investment by a world-class geologist. He starts at square one to give you the background. Then you get inside information on specific details...with examples. Vital down-to-earth tips on taxes & securities. Plus real-world practical know-how (not theory!) on how the money side of the oil game is played! Required reading for: Land Owners, Investors, Lawyers, Bankers, Accountants, Mineral & Royalty Owners! LET'S TALK AN OIL DEAL--Your Key To Oil Patch Lingo. 1991. 120 pp. $13.50. 4x7" paper. ISBN 0-9615776-2-2. You'll never again be at the mercy of the oil companies, with this key to their oil jargon! Every term you need to know is here: mineral rights & overriding royalties; farm-outs & turnkeys; back-ins & payout; blue-sky laws, behind-pipe, bottoms up, & more. Pocket-handy!

Customer Reviews:

Must Read Book On Oil and gas Well Investing.......2007-07-13

Oil and gas well investing is risky and very profitable. This book provides a great detailed over view of the industry, gas well geology, the risks associated with investing and the science behind successful investing.
Don't tread into the oil and gas patch before reading this book.

Good Primer For Anyone Looking At Oil & Gas Opportunities.......2006-07-05

Mr. Orban has penned a very useful guide to the oil business. He covers all the important aspects of the industry and packages it especially for the investor. After reading this book, you'll know most everything you'll need to know in order to enter an intelligent, informed discussion with most anyone on the subject of oil & gas. The book is particularly helpful in directing you to ask the right questions of the right people to evaluate any deal or project. If you're new to oil & gas investing, this book is a must.

Great Book For Investors.......2006-02-25

I bought this book to evaluate an oil investment opportunity. Prior to reading this book, I knew nothing about the oil business. After reading the book, I felt comfortable enough to invest. The book gave me the knowledge I needed to ask the right questions and to evaluate the fundamental assumptions upon which the investment was based. I'd recommend this book to anyone who knows little about the industry, but wants a good overview to evaluate a potential investment opportunity.

Good book for the novice investor.......2005-10-14

Being a newly acquired employee of the oil and gas industry this has really helped me out in a number of ways. It puts things in very basic terms on what goes on in an oil deal and how all the components of downstream and upstream work together. It has a great section in the book about the tax benefits related to the oil and gas industry. It really should be called "The oil business for dummies" book. I would suggest this book to any one that is a mineral owner or just some one that is interested in investing in an O&G Fund or O&G company.

Book Description

Every year around the globe, people cross paths with avalanches—some massive, some no deeper than a pizza box—with deadly results. Avalanche expert Jill Fredston stalks these so-called freaks of nature, forecasting where and when they will strike, deliberately triggering them with explosives, teaching potential victims how to stay alive, and leading rescue efforts when tragedy strikes.

In Snowstruck, Fredston draws on decades of personal experience to take “avalanches out of the statistical realm and into the human one” (Skiing Magazine): a skier making what may prove his final decision, a victim buried so tightly that he can’t move a finger, rescuers racing both time and weather, forecasters treading the line between reasonable risk and danger. Fredston brings to life the awesome forces of nature that can turn the mountains deadly—and the equally inexorable forces of human nature that lure us time and again into treacherous terrain.

Customer Reviews:

Science Made Exciting.......2007-08-30

I am a disaster afficionado--have been since I can remember. Books, movies, documentaries--if something on the planet erupted, shook, blew, flooded or flamed, I'm interested.
Maybe it's the awesome power of Mother Nature that attracts me. She is one tough chick you just don't mess with--and I want to be her.
Anyway, for a disaster buff like myself, a book sporting a title with the word "avalanche" in it has to get my attention. And Jill Fredston's "Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches" not only grabbed my attention, it held me by the throat to the very end.
Fredston has an impressive resume: She has spent the last 25 years studying avalanches and has worked in education, prevention, rescue and recovery. She is co-director of the Alaska Mountain Safety Center and co-author of "Snow Sense: A Guide to Evaluating Snow Avalanche Hazard." Her partner in both endeavors is Doug Fesler, who also happens to be her husband. But more important than her credentials is her awe of and respect for the forces she studies.
She tells the reader of her arrival in Alaska in 1982, proud possessor of a masters degree in polar studies and ice. Landing a job as a snow and ice specialist for the University of Alaska, she become known for her expertise in "anything frozen."
When the university inherited the Alaska Avalanche Forecast Center, Fredston was appointed director, even though she knew nothing about the subject. That's when she met Fesler, who at that time was Alaska's "reigning avalanche authority" and who had recommended against her hire.
But Fredston, "blithely unaware that he thought me as green as they come," eagerly learned from him, following him out into the field, studying snow whenever she had the chance--and face it, in Alaska, there's about six months out of the year, at least, to study snow--and learned "to read the history of a single winter's weather in a snow pit wall," as Fesler advised her.
Eventually, the two fell in love and started a domestic partnership, combining it with business when both lost their jobs with the state during the budget crisis of the late 1980s.
Fredston has an easy, charming style, a way of mixing science, anecdote, narrative and history into a coherent and inherently readable book. Vivid description and imagery, a thorough knowledge of her subject matter and a love of all that it encompasses add passion and depth to what could have been a dry treatise on why snow falls.
Listen to this: "Snow voices complain in a variety of ways," in describing the sounds an avalanche makes. It almost never sounds--or looks, as she points out in a later chapters--like movie avalanches do.
"My thoughts always seemed folded in among the layers of the snowpack."
"The thin line that tethers us to life is invisible, far from straight, and famously fickle. It is a line we are walking yet are only allowed to stray across once."
Powerful words. Powerful images. Powerful message.
In fact, I got so caught up in the story I kept forgetting I was supposed to be reviewing, not enjoying. I had to keep going back and re-reading to make sure I wasn't liking it for no reason. You know, being a disaster buff and all.
Tough job I have.
To be sure, the book's not perfect. The first chapter begins with the January 2000 avalanche in Cordova, getting into the head of one of the victims--and then she veers off onto Doug Fesler, who at the time is a stranger to the reader and not even close to Cordova. There's a lot of meandering and sidetracking through this chapter, giving the reader back story and some historic and scientific facts about avalanches. All very interesting, but ... she gets us caring about the people in Cordova, so breaking away and going on another trail is disconcerting.
And, with her citing of other sources, books on risk management and survival, as well as quotes from an incredible range of writers from Maya Angelou to Henry Thoreau, a list of works cited or read would have been fantastic. It would have saved me from having to rifle through pages trying to find identifying information.
Not that I'm complaining. Because she goes back to Cordova at the end, coming full circle back to where she started, leaving the reader with a sense of closure. And a wish that the book was longer.
If Fredston (and Fesler, for as she says, "without him, there would be no story," and he is on every page with her) has a mantra, it's "Educate people. Educate people. Educate." Because far from advising people to stay inside and avoid snow all together, Fredston knows that's not going to happen. And she knows, as statistics she quotes show, that 95 percent of avalanches that kill are triggered by the victims (page 126) and that experts are more likely to be killed than amateurs (page 151).
Complacency, overconfidence--these are factors in those stats, Fredston says, but most avalanches can be avoided by reading the snow pack, knowing the history and the science enough to judge when danger is imminent (a red light, she calls it).
Rather than blaming the victims, Fredston feels great sympathy and pain for every frozen, battered not-breathing body she and Fesler have dug out of the snow.
"... of course greater exposure increases the probability of becoming a statistic. The problem is that behind every statistic is an individual with a name and a circle of friends and relatives left with holes in their hearts."
This grief has gotten to both Fredston and Fesler; Fredston quotes Soren Kierkegaard: "How did I get into this and this and how do I get out of it again, how does it end?"
Bottom line: I loved this book. I could read it again and learn more, even though I took prodigious notes and underlined pages of words and facts. It is compelling because the author describes a world in which man is not the center of the universe nor is he at the top of the food chain. Far from being masters of our universe, we are subject to the rhythms and patterns of those around us, the animals and plants which share the world with us, and the forces of nature that shape it. It's a humbling thought, but a conclusion I reached long ago (about the time I realized that gravity always wins).
I found a quote years ago that sums up my philosophy of my place on this rock, and was quite surprised--but maybe I shouldn't have been--to find it near the end of Fredston's book: "Civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice," according to historian Will Durant.
This is not a land where we ever want to forget that.

Showing nature's power to destroy.......2007-05-01

Of all the natural disasters we've seen, like fire, flood, and earthquake, one important one is often left out: avalanche--those sudden-death slides in snowy mountain country.

Jill Fredston takes care of that in her latest book Snowstruck. Beginning with an avalanche in 2005 that wiped out half the town of Cordova, Alaska, she tells the story of her lifelong fascination with the cold country, her 20 years of research into the subject, and her own marriage to Alaskan avalanche expert Doug Fesler. Together, they travel across Alaska, trying to find out how these sudden killer slides begin, when and where they are most likely to strike. The couple teaches classes to skiers, snowmobilers and others venturing into high country, trying to train them to watch for warning signs of an avalanche.

And yet...and yet...

You will feel Jill's frustration and sorrow as they see these very same students and even close friends go out again and again under dangerous conditions--and pay for it with their lives. Even cities and towns in avalanche country resist a ban on building in likely avalanche paths, and turn a deaf ear to warnings as their citizens construct homes at the very foot of dangerous slopes. You too will want to grit your teeth in the face of such municipal greed.

This is an excellent book not only for skiers and snow sports enthusiasts, but also a harrowing story and a good resource guide for writers and researchers who want to know more about what makes avalanches tick...like time bombs on the slopes above our heads.

Jill Fredston is the author of Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic's Edge, which won the 2002 National Outdoor Book Award for Literature. She and her husband, Doug Fesler, co-direct the Alaska Mountain Safety Center and co-wrote the authoritative Snow Sense: A Guide to Evaluating Snow Avalanche Hazard. They live in the mountains above Anchorage.

Armchair Interviews says: Overall, this is an easy-to-read book about the causes and catastrophes of an unacknowledged natural killer.

Fredston's many encounters and stories all hold lessons for survival........2007-01-07

Author Jill Fredston has worked in avalanche prevention, education and rescue for several decades, trying to keep people and avalanche disasters separate: her account of her experiences in SNOWSTRUCK: IN THE GRIP OF AVALANCHES provides an excellent mix of science, adventure and autobiography as it surveys her experiences. From triggering them with explosives to teaching potential victims how to stay alive, Fredston's many encounters and stories all hold lessons for survival.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Poetry from a scientist.......2006-04-12

Snowstruck is a fascinating book from an actual scientific expert involved with avalanche rescue, prediction and study, but it reads more like the great adventure narratives from writers like Jon Krakauer or Sebastian Junger. Smart, exciting, and thought-provoking.

This book is a rush of adrenaline .......2006-04-05

This book is awesome. Expertly written, Jill can bring you from your living room to feeling like you are there, participating in the avalanche or the rescue. Having had a good friend perish in an avalanche, who in fact, was dug up by Jill and her husband, this book was so intense that while it is normally a book that you would read from start to finish, it was so superbly written that many chapters would make the memories come rushing back, prompting a break, if only for half an hour before being so compelled to read on. I would recommend this book to anyone, outdoor lover or not.

Average customer rating:

Snowstruck: In The Grip Of Avalanches
Jill Fredston
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJ7AJ6

Average customer rating:

Snowstruck: in the Grip of Avalanches
Jill Fredston
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0151012725

Book Description

David Glantz examines the Soviet study of war, the re-emergence of the operation level and its connection with deep battle, the evolution of the Soviet theory of operations in depth before 1941, and its refinement and application in the European theatre and the Far East between 1941 and 1945.

Book Description

"We the Media, has become something of a bible for those who believe the online medium will change journalism for the better." -Financial Times

Big Media has lost its monopoly on the news, thanks to the Internet. Now that it's possible to publish in real time to a worldwide audience, a new breed of grassroots journalists are taking the news into their own hands. Armed with laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras, these readers-turned-reporters are transforming the news from a lecture into a conversation. In We the Media, nationally acclaimed newspaper columnist and blogger Dan Gillmor tells the story of this emerging phenomenon and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make--and consume--the news.

Gillmor shows how anyone can produce the news, using personal blogs, Internet chat groups, email, and a host of other tools. He sends a wake-up call to newsmakers-politicians, business executives, celebrities-and the marketers and PR flacks who promote them. He explains how to successfully play by the rules of this new era and shift from "control" to "engagement." And he makes a strong case to his fell journalists that, in the face of a plethora of Internet-fueled news vehicles, they must change or become irrelevant.

Journalism in the 21st century will be fundamentally different from the Big Media oligarchy that prevails today. We the Media casts light on the future of journalism, and invites us all to be part of it.

Dan Gillmor is founder of Grassroots Media Inc., a project aimed at enabling grassroots journalism and expanding its reach. The company's first launch is Bayosphere.com, a site "of, by, and for the San Francisco Bay Area."

Dan Gillmor is the founder of the Center for Citizen Media, a project to enable and expand reach of grassroots media. From 1994-2004, Gillmor was a columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper, and wrote a weblog for SiliconValley.com. He joined the Mercury News after six years with the Detroit Free Press. Before that, he was with the Kansas City Times and several newspapers in Vermont. He has won or shared in several regional and national journalism awards. Before becoming a journalist he played music professionally for seven years.

Customer Reviews:

A neat topic.......2007-03-18

The book was a good guide to citizen media and gave some great examples of places where citizen media would work.

I enjoyed the examples thoroughly and found the book a useful guide. I can't wait for an updated version.

Very Sensible and Interesting.......2006-10-15

Dan Gilmor here presents the attitude toward technology & journalism that any journalist will need to have if he/she will survive long in this new era. They need to embrace, or at least reckon with, the new media.

Here Gilmor gives an enlightening look at the changing face of journalism and the negative and positive changes it makes.

I'm not a professional journalist, but I found this book to be fascinating and informative. I credit it with helping me to stick with blogging, and seeing it as something more significant than a passing fad. All journalists should read this, I believe!

Interesting read about the changes occurring in journalism..........2006-07-16

If you ever wondered what is changing in journalism, then this book is for you. It not only describes the logging phenomenon, but also describes why the big media might not last.

A Journalist Passionately Embraces the Internet.......2006-06-21

Many people blame the Internet for accelerating the long-term decline of newspaper circulation, and think that the Internet is crippling the future of American journalism.

Don Gillmor believes that the Internet has the potential to dramatically improve American journalism and widen its appeal.

Gillmor is no naive innocent. He demonstrates that he has an extraordinarily detailed command of the interrelationships and applications of the many internet and software technologies and journalism. I met Gillmor in April, 2004, at the BloggerconII conference organized by Dave Winer and held at Harvard Law School. He held the attention of his audience of bloggers through his mixture of detailed knowledge and passionate advocacy for the worth of blogging and the value of it becoming an income-generating activity.

No journalist should fail to read this book. Nor should any citizen consumer of journalism who participates online. Only a small part manifesto, this book is a detailed roadmap of the future of journalism for those informed enough and bold enough to take it. Those in business and government who are the subjects of journalism would also do well to read it.

The future of journalism, Gillmor says, will be much more participatory in the future than it has been in the past. The many to many communications style of the Internet will become the style of successful journalism. Journalism will less about lecturing and more about leading a discussion. The "eat your spinach" school of civic advocacy will be replaced by a greater connection between readers and journalists in which readers will influence both the definition of news and the content of individual news stories.

The proliferation of tens of millions of blogs means that the separation of news producers and news consumers is far less than it used to be. Everyone can produce news in the blogosphere. One duty of journalists is to sift the through the blogosphere and find out what is relevant. Another duty of journalists is to actively engage the public in the news gathering process. The definition of what professionalism in journalism is will be rapidly changing.

What is now at the edges, Gillmour says, will and should be moved to the center. Public concerns that once were marginal now will become mainstream.

As a Pennsylvania state legislator, I believe that this will have significant public policy effects--especially the areas of taxation and public welfare expenditures. For the first time, those with average and below average incomes are able to communicate their concerns to a mass audience. The more the digital divide in Internet access erodes, as the divide in telephone and television access has eroded, the greater the erosion will be of the upper middle class dominance of the political process. The stakes for putting the brakes on the trends Gillmor describes will get increasingly large in the years ahead.

This is not just a book for journalists and the subjects of journalism, or even just a book for currently active internet participants. The detailed accounts of the consumer applications of various technologies of what he calls the "the read-write web" or "technology that makes we the media possible" are alone worth the effort to get through this book.

Others may understand individual technologies better than Gillmor, but it is unlikely that anyone has a better understanding of how they all--HTML,mail lists and forums,weblogs, wikis, SMS, mobile connected cameras, internet "broadcasting," peer to peer, RSS,Technorati, API, and many others--come to together to create a radically different architecture of information, news, personal reach, and circle of potential friends and allies for many millions of Americans.

This is not a book to be read and put aside. Gillmor clearly struggled to get his text into 241 pages, plus 36 pages of acknowledgements, websites, and detailed notes. While there is occasional redundancy, on the whole a longer book would have been clearer in some respects.

This is a book to be carefully studied and used as a springboard to continued learning about new applications, new technologies, and new interrelationships as they emerge.

The idea of the public as part of the media is not totally new.
Going back at least to the 1940's, public opinion research focused on the stages of influence: the mass media first influenced the opinion leaders in a community, who then influenced others by word of mouth.

What is new is the dramatically improved publishing capacity for the individual citizen, regardless of whether he or she had the community stature and web of influence to have been a community leader--formal or informal--in the past.

The media had been steadily eroding the influence of opinion leaders, by influencing more and more people directly, but now the opinion leaders are back in record-high numbers and with greatly expanded spheres of influence.

"I hope I've helped you understand how this media shift--this explosion of conversations--is taking place and where it is headed," Gllmour says on the last page of his book. "Most of all, I hope I've persuaded you to take up the challenge yourself.

"Your voice matters. Now, if you have something to say, you can be heard.

"You can make your own news. We all can.

"Let's get started."

Journalism in the 21st century is changing .......2006-05-21

Any interested in the future of new media must have WE THE MEDIA: GRASSROOTS JOURNALISM BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE: a survey of how common folk are producing more meaningful news coverage using personal blogs, Internet chat groups, and email as their delivery tools. Journalism in the 21st century is changing - and will be quite different from the media-controlled presentations we know today. To find out just how different, you have to consult WE THE MEDIA: it comes from a journalist and founder of the very grassroots media making big changes.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

When everyone's a journalist: a seismic shift, thanks to the Internet.(BOOKS)(We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People)(Book Review) ... An article from: American Journalism Review

Average customer rating:

When everyone's a journalist: a seismic shift, thanks to the Internet.(BOOKS)(We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People)(Book Review) ... An article from: American Journalism Review
Carl Sessions Stepp
Manufacturer: University of Maryland
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from American Journalism Review, published by University of Maryland on December 1, 2004. The length of the article is 789 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: When everyone's a journalist: a seismic shift, thanks to the Internet.(BOOKS)(We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People)(Book Review)
Author: Carl Sessions Stepp
Publication: American Journalism Review (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2004
Publisher: University of Maryland
Volume: 26 Issue: 6 Page: 62(1)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

A beautiful and surprising exploration of a phenomenon that is at once familiar and baffling: the mystery of why birds sing

The astonishing richness of birdsong is both an aesthetic and a scientific mystery. Evolutionists have never been able to completely explain why birdsong is so inventive and why many species devote so many hours to singing. The standard explanations of defending territories and attracting mates don't begin to account for the variety and energy that the commonest birds exhibit. Is it possible that birds sing because they like to? This seemingly naive explanation is starting to look more and more like the truth.

Why Birds Sing is a lyric exploration of birdsong that blends the latest scientific research with a deep understanding of musical beauty and form. Drawing on conversations with neuroscientists, ecologists, and composers, it is the first book to investigate the elusive question of why birds sing and what their song means to both avian and human ears.

Whether playing his clarinet with the whitecrested laughing thrush in Pittsburgh, or jamming in the Australian winter breeding grounds of the Albert's lyrebird, Rothenberg immerses himself in the heart and soul of birdsong. He approaches the subject as a naturalist, philosopher, musician, and investigator. An intimate look at the most lovely of natural phenomena, and now with a CD with over one hour of music and birdsong, Why Birds Sing is a beautifully written exploration of a phenomenon that's at once familiar and profoundly alien.

"With a musician's ear and a poet's heart, [Rothenberg] seeks to describe, more than decode, the nearly boundless richness of birdsong's beauty." (Discover)

"Why Birds Sing is one of those ramblings that transforms one of those taken-for-granted things--birds' chirping--into let's-think-about-it-again stuff, and a worthwhile read on a summer day." (New York Times)

"Darwin said that beauty must be loved by nature to be found so often. Rothenberg, a philosophy teacher and jazz musician, embarks on a playful, exuberant, intellectual journey to unravel the baffling mystery of why and how birds sing, taking us from ancient Sanskrit texts to cutting-edge neuroscience.... Rothenberg stalks the mystery brilliantly." (Los Angeles Times)

"Rothenberg delves heartily into the lovely and strange structures of bird songs, and finds enough syllables, rhythms and syncopations to fill a jazz encyclopedia." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

"This book is exuberant! Exuberantly intellectual, exuberantly alive. And when you are finished with it the world will seem more alive as well, which is an awful lot for one book to accomplish." (Bill McKibben, author of Wandering Home)

Customer Reviews:

The solace of song.......2006-08-21

David Rothenberg's lovely book, WHY BIRDS SING: A Journey Through
The Mystery of Bird Song, is an impressive achievement. The subject is fully researched, totally accessible, often fascinating, and always moving. I have long found that the wonder of bird song can bring profound solace to a troubled
spirit. Mr. Rothenberg's study completely validates my belief.

Uninspiring.......2006-07-28

With such an inspiring subject this should have been great book, but it's not. Reading this book was like watching a lava lamp - moving (turning pages) but going nowhere. I only read 40 pages before I couldn't bring myself to pick it up again. Good writing grabs you and compels you to continue - this doesn't. Singing birds are inspiring - this book isn't. The CD that came with it closed the lid on the coffin for me. The birds aren't allowed to star here but the author himself. He fails to communicate with the birds who provide great motifs for improvisation - only recall one time on the CD where the author generated a musical idea based on the bird songs. The book and CD are pretentious.

Tuneful, if not an aria........2006-07-17

In this slightly meandering but sincere book, musician and philosopher Rothenberg shows us that there are qualities to birdsong that transcend what science can tell us. Part of that transcendence is their emotional involvement with their songs, and Rothenberg can be counted among earlier authorities--including Len Howard, Charles Hartshorne, and Alexander Skutch--who believe that birds enjoy singing. His enthusiasm is most apparent when the discussion turns to music, and as an amateur musician I also enjoyed perusing the musical scores and sonograms of various feathered songsters.

Rothenberg hits the mark with his observation that "bird songs are a genuine challenge to the conceit that humanity is needed to find beauty in the natural world." Another conceit is the disturbing laboratory experiments he describes, in which singing birds have their brains pierced by wire electrodes and are later killed for dissection.

Readers get a bonus CD of the author's music with birdsong and other nature sounds.

It's all about him.......2005-12-12

Steer clear of this pretentious unscientific book. It is an exercise in self-promotion for a mediocre musician who is using the subject of birdsong to effuse about the "wonders of nature" (and himself). There are much better books on this subject -- get "The Singing Life of Birds" by Donald Kroodsma instead.

Puts bird song stage center for musicians and all of us.......2005-06-23

I really enjoyed it. And it is so full of goodies. Best for me is that not since Schafer's Tuning of the World has the whole complex of natural sound and the composer been put back up where it belongs, stage almost center. Mulling over the whole business, I just thought an alternate title might be: "what should humans sing?" And next most useful advice, to paraphrase you: "Take a tip from the Mockingbird." There's enough chock full in both those snippets to keep me creatively scratching my head.

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