Inspired by Walter Benjamin's classical Arcades Project , this book is a pioneering exploration of the interface between communication, shopping and everyday life. Based on a six-year study by over a dozen scholars on a specific site, it analyzes the links between power, media and consumption in contemporary urban culture. Illustrated with rich ethnographic detail, Consuming Media scrutinizes four main media circuits--print media, media images, sound and motion, and hardware machines--to assess how media texts and technologies are selected, purchased and used. Exploring the relations between different media, the nature of cultural citizenship and the power relations of public space, it presents an ethnography of globalization and develops a new approach to understanding media consumption.
Author(s): Johan Fornas, Karin Becker, Erling Bjurstrom, Hillevi Ganetz
Publisher: Berg Publishers
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 241
CONTENTS......Page 8
Acknowledgements......Page 9
The Authors......Page 10
List of Tables and Figures......Page 12
1. Locating Media Practices......Page 14
2. Consumption and Communication......Page 55
3. Print Media......Page 79
4. Media Images......Page 95
5. Sound and Motion......Page 109
6. Hardware Machines......Page 121
7. Intermedial Crossings......Page 132
8. Layers of Time......Page 143
9. Translocal Spaces......Page 158
10. Communicative Power......Page 182
Notes......Page 209
References......Page 224
C......Page 238
L......Page 239
S......Page 240
Z......Page 241
