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Media scholarship has long argued that public discourse is a function of the architecture of the media by which it is carried. Media architecture is, as political economists have argued, in turn shaped by the capitalist regime of accumulation within which the media operate. This paper draws together these two strands of literature to ask: as the accumulation of data is coming to define contemporary capitalism, what cultural logic does this produce? The paper argues that, as media are shaped around the extracting user data, they become organized around personhood and the extension of commodification deeper into our sense of self. The lifestyle fragmentation and segmentation engendered by new media technologies carry over into public discourse, shaping a public, and political life defined by identity and difference. If, as Neil Postman suggested, a society's way of knowing reflects its media technology, the emerging epistemology of the social media society is truth as identity, as our very ways of knowing are reduced to expressions of who we are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article attempts to unveil various issues on intellectuals, the mass media and the economic developments and their influence to culture. It contends the paper of Philip Schlesinger and asserts that shift in the location of power from the nation state to the international economic state has been graphically exemplified by its improvements. The considerable impact of broadcasting on the structure of political system is also emphasized.

The relationship between media practices and social inequality has been studied within a range of sub-disciplines in media and communication studies and cultural sociology. In various, more or less direct, ways these studies point to the fact that habitus – the socially formed class specific relations to the social world – generates certain tastes, lifestyles, practices and preferences. When social groups form relatively distinct media practices, and distance themselves from the practices of other groups, they reproduce their social position, and 'make' their class. By analysing in-depth interviews with members of an emerging cultural middle-class, this study shows how class-making also manifests in the ways in which people expect that others would 'look down' on their media practices. By anticipating stigma from imagined others, the cultural middle-class stays in line with class-specific lifestyles and media practices, thus cementing their distinct character in the social space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the relationship between journalism and politics in Great Britain. The author argues the impact of the increasing interconnectedness of media and politics on the public and on the functioning of the wider political culture. The author also discusses the problem of traditional forms of journalism in attracting the Internet generation. This paper is also an attempt to develop a formal approach to comparative research on media and politics. It also offers information about the action taken by the government to address the media-political crisis.

This study focuses on the role of ICT in transnational communication between family members, mainly between elderly parents and adult children living abroad. A semi-structured interview study (N = 32) was conducted during Fall 2015 in three neighborhoods in the city of Sousse, Tunisia. In the study, Skype played a central role in the respondents' transnational communication and a driving factor of technology adoption. Families used Skype to communicate with their migrant family members and virtually engage in family activities such as cooking and attending wedding events through the screens of their laptops, tablets, and mobile phones. In other words, Skype evolved from a simple online communication medium to a platform for a transnational family space; it assumes a Tunisian identity and essence stemming from the social practices and experiences of the Tunisian users and becomes shaped by their values and traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pixel is a fundamental element of contemporary visual culture, with pictorial and perceptual properties that affect the interpretation of the digital composition as a whole. Despite its importance, however, the pixel remains a neglected object of analysis in cultural sociology and critical media studies. To advance a framework of pixel studies I present a hermeneutical approach. Empirically, I focus on the pixel's political and socio-technical dimensions through satellite images of violence in the Syrian conflict zone (2011–2017). Through interviews and observations, I study the satellite programmers, technicians, archeologists, and anthropologists who comprised an interdisciplinary effort to interpret satellite pictures of archeological damage and other forms of cultural violence during the war. Their interpretations, some of which were the basis for consequential decisions by US policymakers, involved isolating as few as two pixels on the screen. To explain what this entailed, I draw on theories from Alberto Romele and Don Ihde to situate the pixel within a hermeneutic circle through which satellite images were 'read' at different levels. My findings have implications for broader sociological and media studies critiques of the epistemic status of digital media in light of their deep interrelations of politics, technology, and people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disconnection studies tend to put agency at the center. The possibility of opting out tends to be framed as a strategic form of individual agency, associated with self-regulatory practices and acts of self-choice. This essay aims to question this well-established perspective in disconnection literature while contributing to the debate about disconnection fostered by Crosscurrents. The essay explores the role others play in the experience of individual media non-use. Even if indirectly, individual pursuits are not achieved alone or without the involvement of others. Still, the cultural narrative of the West tends to put the self at the center of his narrative, reinforcing the individualized dimension of the self in detriment of the social aspect of it. Framed as such, this led to another level of elaboration by linking the topic of disconnection to the field of disconnection studies itself. As in any scientific discipline, disconnection research is mediated by culture, and thus it tells something about the current moment. Problematizing the limits of connection involves accessing social imaginaries that shape the scope of the field that will offer another layer of arguments to our debate about the place of the other in disconnection studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay I draw on observations about how the pandemic impacted sales of vinyl records, in order to describe a (further) dis-embedding of brick-and-mortar second-hand stores from their local economies and communities. Before the pandemic, the majority of vinyl was already being purchased online; while buyers and sellers were sheltering in place, the vinyl marketplace's reliance on the internet became total, and vinyl traffic skewed more than ever toward used records. Nearly all record stores had an online presence before the pandemic, and shops that already had an online sales system in place and a customer base accustomed to buying online had an enormous head start toward staying solvent while sheltering in place. During the pandemic, Instagram joined sites like Discogs and eBay as a platform for vinyl sales, and social media graduated from primarily functioning as a means of promotion for record stores and became a requisite component of sales infrastructure. I ask how local merchants of vintage goods like records can maintain a local orientation despite shifting away from local customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This treatise conflates cultural sociology, media theory, and Japanese philology in order to better understand the way media scandals are produced in contemporary Japan. In cultural sociology, scandal is understood as a social performance between ritual and strategy. In my previous research I focused on the ritual aspect, analyzing Japanese scandals as dramatic public performances of confession, exclusion, and reintegration. In this treatise, I focus on the strategy aspect, approaching scandals as symbolic products of media routines and journalistic practices. The former part of this treatise examines how the actor-network of power circles co-defines the way scandals emerge and unfold in Japan. The latter part focuses on the role of Japanese media organizations in the process of transforming leaks into scandals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glasgow's year as European City of Culture in 1990 is perceived as an event marking a renaissance in perceptions of the city. This article examines how the contemporary press coverage can be used as a resource to trace the narratives and mythologies surrounding the event. To facilitate this research, a pre-existing archive of press cuttings, totalling over 5000 clippings, was employed. This article describes how the interests of the project, and the nature of the large press archive being examined, led to the uti- lization of a distinct methodology of media analysis. The article describes the attempt to unite both quantitative, statistical analysis with qualitative, pre-informed examina- tion. By tracing aspects of the practical examination of the Glasgow 1990 press cov- erage, the article explores the successes and failures of the approach taken and assesses its potential for development and employment in other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including present research on the culture and the media in Latin America, national communication policy in Mexico and the role of telenovelas in the lives of Latin Americans.

The academic discourse on the West and the East is not new, and it has been commonly believed that non-Western countries must learn from the West in order to develop their own societies. Here, comprehending the notion of the West is considered significant, as it offers a model of comparison. While it is not necessary for the perspectives and process to be radical, it should be convincing to grasp Asia as a formation of a changeable force to the West. Of course, media scholars have to avoid limited perspectives emphasizing only intra-Asian dialogues; instead they must analyze Asian perspectives in the globalization context. What non-Western scholars must contemplate are not only paradigms that are unique to Asian society but also general trends and norms that apply to the globe so that they can identify new trends and directions, which provide fundamentals to advance new theories and norms in global media studies. This certainly contributes to a broadening of media theory and comprehension in a way that takes account of the practices of non-Western countries outside the Anglo-American sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the 'computer game' as a pragmatic concept. A dual nature of the computer game as both a pragmatic idea and a pragmatic meaning is introduced. Practical meanings of the computer game correspond with the concrete effects that engaging with computer games produces in an individual. Practical ideas of the computer game correspond with the subjectively constituted conceptual families concerning the computer game's assumed practical meaning. Individual computer games can be considered flat or round depending on the range of their practical meanings. Thus, the article contributes to the study of cultural objects by offering a framework for examining the evolution and existence of such objects as cross-cultural practical entities – less in terms of communication, media, and materiality, and more in terms of concrete actions and events that individuals across societies commence and conceptualize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Looking at web analytics in newsrooms, journalism studies scholarship has explored the notion of success in using web analytics and metrics in measuring journalist-audience engagement. Scholars have looked at the role of organizational structures, cognition, and emotion in defining success with analytics. This article analyzes how journalists interpret journalist-audience engagement success using web analytics and what this reliance on web analytics might mean for contemporary news production. Using direct observation of newsrooms and interviews with news media workers, this article argues that media workers interpret success in audience engagement using web analytics as a process of cultural matching between web analytics companies, media workers, and audiences. This article shows that analytics in journalism have highlighted some of the shared values and practices across the matchers and revealed the challenges of measuring success in audience-journalist engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The task of this work is to apply thoughts from Georg Lukács’ final book, the Ontology of Social Being, for the theoretical analysis of cultural and digital labour. It discusses Lukács’ concepts of work and communication and relates them to the analysis of cultural and digital work. It also analyses his conception of the relation of labour and ideology and points out how we can make use of it for critically understanding social media ideologies. Lukács opposes the dualist separation of the realms of work and ideas. He introduces in this context the notion of teleological positing that allows us to better understand cultural and digital labour as well as associated ideologies, such as the engaging/connecting/sharing-ideology, today. The analysis shows that Lukács’ Ontology is in the age of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, still a very relevant book, although it has thus far not received the attention that it deserves. This article also introduces the Ontology’s main ideas on work and culture, which is important because large parts of the book have not been translated from the German original into English. Lukács’ notion of teleological positing is crucial for understanding the common features of the economy and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broadcast television faces new challenges in the rapidly changing media environment. This article proposes 'para-interactivity' as a concept that identifies the ways television addresses its audiences in the digital age. Para-interactivity is a term that brings together several salient elements in contemporary television texts as well as positing a contemporary context for established and familiar television strategies. It identifies elements embraced by television, which echo interactive communication processes and are characteristic of digital media and participatory culture, but when employed by and adapted to television, they do not usually construct communication that is actually interactive. This article focuses on one of these para-interactive strategies: unvelling television's apparatus on screen. This strategy implies an inclusive viewing experience and a seemingly more equal and reciprocal relationship between television and its viewers. However, I argue that what is presented to the viewers is nothing but a 'staged backstage', while television industry surrounds itself in real and legal fences. Drawing on Israeli commercial television texts, this article contributes to the understanding of contemporary transformations in television as a medium and as a cultural industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including academic media research, the response of teenage girls to the journal "Jackie," and the patterns of cultural consumption.

The article discusses the tensions of material practices and their impact on addressing issues related to cultural identity. It states that information and communication technologies are important to the contemporary surveillance practices of state actors and corporations. According to the author, material practices affect government projects that are developed to oversee entire populations.

Irish women are caught in contradictory sexual discourses which create a cultural double bind. The legacy of Catholic Church teaching, in which the sexual honour of women revolves around their innocence and subservience, still lingers. This is gradually being replaced by media messages and images which portray women as sexually equal and independent. However, the media also portray sexually independent women as a threat to sexual moral order. The double bind reproduces double standards. The cultural contradictions in the way women are portrayed are revealed in an analysis of the reporting of events surrounding a court case involving the sexual assault of a woman. This analysis is put within the context of media reporting of other cases of sexually transgressive women. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The authors discuss the importance of television audience measurement (TAM) in human culture. TAM uses various approaches to solicit information from a focus group of television viewers. Results of the examinations, evaluations, observations and interviews television viewers are known as ratings. According to the authors, how these ratings are accepted depend on their accuracy and effects on human culture.

The author reflects on the acceptance of media content by audiences with diverse cultural background. To address the need for a categorization of phenomena that affects the receptiveness of audience to media content which was produced outside their cultural environment, the author proposes the Lacuna and Universal Model. It is an analytical framework which works by taking into account the immediate audience-text relationship as well as the contextual factors that affect this demand.

The article addresses the cultural expansion of Japan and Korea into Taiwan. The author explains the processes in which nation-branding has been appropriated by a receiving nation as a pattern of consumption. One of the arguments which explain why cultural products sell across national borders is the fact that cultural exports targeting the international market are rarely culturally specific so that they enable worldwide audiences to project indigenous values, beliefs, rites and rituals.

This article addresses the topic of personal 'media capital' accumulation in relation to both small, specialist and large, public audiences. In so doing it adapts Bourdieu's sociological research tools to the investigation of mediated relationships between public figures, their professional peers and the wider citizenry. It suggests that there are four means of classifying media capital: that which is internal and that external to a professional 'field', and that linked to individuals and that to their institutional position. Such a classification of media capital forms, and their varied means of accrual, helps explain the cultural mechanisms by which public actors rise and fall. This framework is then applied to a case study charting the rapid rise of David Cameron within the UK political field in 2005. Cameron, a recently elected politician, emerged from almost complete obscurity to win the leadership of the Conservative Party. For many, he was simply an instant media creation, a demonstration of the modern media's ability to bestow symbolic power. As argued here, his unexpected success is explained by his long-term accumulation of alternative, internal field-based forms of media and other capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'Web 2.0' describes a new approach of web developers to existing technologies and user-generated material. Following the resulting impact of this label on web culture we will ask if, in the use of the 2.0 suffix in an ever increasing number of areas (Design 2.0, Media Studies 2.0, Education 2.0), we are currently witnessing a phenomenon of 'cultural anxiety'. Specifically, has this cultural anxiety within the Humanities led to what could be perceived as ill-conceived attempts to apply the key concepts of Web 2.0 to subjects in which they may not be a good fit? This cultural anxiety may be seen to drive the invocation of the 'magic' of a high-status, but poorly understood, discipline in an attempt to borrow validation from it. Could this be interpreted as a panic response to technological influence in the Humanities? We propose an interdisciplinary approach, involving not only an investigation of the use of the relevant technology, but its historical development. Our analysis encourages an understanding of Web 2.0 as a process of transition from technological development into cultural presence and power. This analysis also throws into relief the tension between a utopian strain in technological development and neoliberal capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s, working-class writers'workshops and community publishers have provided an important example of creative expression in social movements and alternative media. Groups fostered direct relations with their audiences and nurtured new reading publics in working-class areas. A broader radical network also proved to be an important source of book buyers and offered external validation. As the wider context changed in the 1980s, some groups moved to more professional forms of marketing, in part to appeal to mainstream audiences as well as 'new' constituencies, for example, black or gay and lesbian writers and readers. These shifts led to a partial divergence from the original vision, although not all groups developed in this way and some workshops chose a path which veered across both of these dimensions. Clear-cut distinctions between alternative/oppositional and mainstream tendencies often broke down as groups utilized all available means to stay afloat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have witnessed the rapid growth of video games in China. This study traces their development and then investigates them using some perspectives drawn from cultural studies and political economy. It is argued that globalization and cultural proximity play different roles in two distinct markets: single PC games and online games. This study suggests China has a fast-moving home-grown game industry dominated by non-state players, and that the state assumes various roles to cope with this new social phenomenon, which is also a billion dollar business. The state monitors and regulates the market, facilitating a domestic game industry, and incorporating video games into its own nation-building agenda. The study concludes by noting two trends: (1) China potentially shifts from simply being a market for foreign games to become a center of online game exports in the regional geo-cultural market; (2) Chinese online game giants attempt to expand into domestic traditional media sectors, but may collide with the authoritarian state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Senegal is said to be a democratic model for Africa. This reputation was promoted by the former presidents Senghor and Diouf (both Socialist Party), and confirmed through the democratic change of government to the Senegalese Democratic Party under its leader Wade in 2000. Ostensibly, the successful democratization is reflected in the mass media sector, which has gone through a dynamic change since the end of the 1970s. In the course of the process of liberalization, pluralization and popularization, the market was segmented and media usage increased. The public sphere is established by political, religious, economic, media and regulation actors who compete for influence, control and ownership. One of the main characteristics of Senegalese media culture consists of multiple conflicts between these actors. In fact, the media played an important part in the democratization process and the development of civic responsibility, but at the same time these transformations paradoxically contributed to the undermining of foundations of democracy in the last 15 years. After a historic retrospect, the article describes the conflicting practices of the competing actors in the public sphere, and explains why these practices are responsible for the lack of credibility of mass media among the Senegalese population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of building national identity and discusses on a country's nation-branding strategies. Simon Anholt, a British branding expert, helps countries develop themselves as global brands with a carefully managed international identity, as recognizable as any consumer product. Anholt notes that marketing is at the heart of what makes rich countries rich. He said that building national identity means ensuring that its brand-image is the way it promotes and represents and shares its culture.

This article studies the growth of the consumer-oriented genre in Chinese television and examines the role of television in the construction of new class identities. The author discusses three kinds of programmes of this genre market trend guides, 'scam warning' reports, and skill-focused lifestyle programmes, providing case studies for each type. These developments indicate that television is playing an important role in the dynamics of class stratification in China through the creation of new cultural capital and the segmentation of audiences along socioeconomic lines. Although television has always been a part of the effort in building a homogenized national culture in China's modernization process, it is now contributing to the formation of class subjectivities and reinforcing the increasingly visible class divisions in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American greeting card industry, in particular industry leader Hallmark Cards, makes substantial efforts to deflect cultural critiques in its communications with the public, demonstrating how culture industries actively manage their negative associations with mass culture as well as the public's fears of an advancing 'commodity frontier'. Hallmark frames its cultural production as creative while de-emphasizing its industrial nature, and, whenever possible, aligns itself with the legitimating cultural categories of art and the folk to counter the idea that greeting cards are false, manufactured sentiment. Hallmark also argues that the consumer is sovereign in order to contradict critics' claims that it imposes its mass-produced cards on the public. The way the greeting card industry seeks to manage cultural anxiety about industrialized culture is discussed, as well as the limits of their response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores current trends in the representation of the Holocaust in Israeli popular culture through the analysis of the successful satirical television program: The Chamber Quintet. The article argues that the show's subversive and challenging interpretations of traditional Holocaust commemorations, indicates a major change in the collective memory of the Holocaust. The article explores the cultural role of the show's sketches relating to Holocaust memory by using three perspectives of analysis. The first is a historical-sociological perspective that deals with the development of Holocaust commemoration in Israel. The second perspective deals with the conflict between popular cultural practices and the conventions of Holocaust remembrance. The third perspective deals with the problematic relationship between the content (Holocaust memory) and the form (the genre of humor). Combining these perspectives reveals a dialectical discourse that connects prior voices with new modes of Holocaust representation in popular culture. The article suggests that the use of the popular medium and the genre of humor undermine the program's content. This process indicates a situation of deadlock in collective memory in which new voices criticize the traditional commemoration but can offer no alternative and subvert their own criticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents views and insights of the author concerning the work of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu on cultural production. The author indicated some of the ways in which Bourdieu's theory of cultural production is superior to two main alternatives when it comes to the analysis of media production. Bourdieu's theory shows the value of historicizing media production as part of a consideration of cultural production more generally. It also offers a better analysis of the relations between production and consumption than does field theory.

The article comments on the influence of popular culture on children's social identities. The first influence is sport, including the activity itself, the associated brands and logos, and the styling of popular sports stars, and the second is pop music, its stars, their videos, their outfits, overall image and lifestyles, and their own clothing lines. These influences are further related to cultural intermediaries such as television and print media, all providing key sources of information for children about the role of fashion and the consumption image. The author also concludes that the concept of fashion and its portrayal within certain aspects of popular culture, play a key role in defining children's social identities.

Analysis of a random sample of New York Times' advertising business news articles reveals change in the perception and pursuit of sexual minorities - gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans-persons (GLBTs) - as consumers of mainstream products between 1980 and 2000. Critical analysis identified three trends: corporate shunning; corporate curiosity and fear; corporate pursuit. Social representation, cultural norms, stereotypes and visibility were explored for each trend, revealing qualitative and quantitative inequality among social groups. Although all GLBTs experienced increased news coverage, gay men received twice the coverage of lesbians. Advertisers and the Times changed from stigmatizing and avoiding homosexuals to promoting stereotypes of gay affluence, creating 'controversial' ad campaigns with 'shock value', commodifying social identity and establishing a gay market niche. Representations reflect homogenized understandings of sexuality, with bisexuals and trans-persons invisible. Case studies demonstrate the Times' contribution to norms, values and beliefs characterizing GLBTs, supporting research characterizing the media an active agent shaping cultural production of sexuality. Visibility is argued not to have granted social legitimation but to evidence social change in the status of homosexuality from deviant/stigmatized to selectively commodified and spectacularized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Textual analysis of Flemish television drama produced by the monopolistic public service broadcaster discloses strong representational patterns constructing a homogeneous discourse about the nation, focusing on rural Flanders in the early 20th century. Using document analysis and expert interviews, the production context of this discourse is reconstructed. The drama on offer turns out to be the product of a cultural-educational and Flemish-minded broadcasting policy, deliberately aiming to stimulate Flemish culture and the viewers' national identity. However, there are also other factors at play, such as viewer preferences, financial restrictions and creative constraints. The drama produced, and the portrayal of Flanders, is the result of processes of negotiation between these considerations and restrictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes Benetton Co.'s 2000 advertising campaign 'We on Death Row' as a site of cultural production where ideological differences on capital punishment between the U.S. and Europe are played out. Mass-mediated public discourse framing the campaign in the prestige press; Textual analysis of stories and editorials about the campaign; Focus on how national hegemonic media frames domesticate foreign social ideals.

Comments on the significance of media and cultural studies on social welfare. Disappearance of the concept of ideology; Existence of the same social relations of production; Importance of capital in economic relationships.

Focuses on cultural industries policy in regional trade agreements, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the European Union (EU) and the Mercado Comun del Sur (MERCOSUR). Reconciliation of the tension between economics and culture intrinsic to cross-border trade in audiovisual products; Regulatory framework for communication industries; `Cultural distance'.

Presents a sociological investigation of how both culture and social structures are implicated in processes of status differentiation and stratification through a historical examination of emerging photographic practices in the United States between 1840-1860. Field structuration, roles and status differentiation in art worlds; Making photographers.

Opinion. Discusses South Africa in the global neighbourhood with the method of a cultural analysis. What the culture of South Africa has reflected; Dangers associated with the applications of the postcolonial method; Analysis of South Africa's involvement with the West; Reference to the book `The Pilgrim's Progress.'

An essay is presented which explores the ways in which cultural field experts in the U.S. have attempted to unite at least some of the insights of postmodernism with an explicit commitment to social change and human liberation. It provides a ground analysis when Marxist cultural studies declared war against postmodernism. The author notes that the differences between the two discourses is that postmodernism has started to locate the courses of historical configurations.

An essay is presented which explores the ways in which cultural field experts in the U.S. have attempted to unite at least some of the insights of postmodernism with an explicit commitment to social change and human liberation. It cites the impact of the continued dominance of capitalism and the attendant perpetuation of economic and spiritual injustices on the country's political condition. It asserts that capitalism is not liable for every aspect of domination in capitalist societies.

The article discusses the components of the stardom status in the film industry in the U.S. It outlines some of the interesting patterns concerning the varying physical attributes of the actors including their gender-based career patterns that influence the distinctive genres of films. It also unveils the dominance of the male actors in offering the public some cultural stability and continuity despite the ideological and structural changes.

An essay is presented on the rare contribution from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) that brought out the impact of western media in shaping political and cultural priorities and responses. It offers a phenomenology of ordinary life in GDR wherein work and home became the key components. It characterizes GDR as an open and rich-information society while neglecting the media pluralism. The importance of the media in providing a sense of national identity to the country is also emphasized.

The article examines the reasons for the dominance of the U.S. of the international trade in television programmes. It mentions the U.S. share of exports in terms of hours of programming including 77% for Latin America, 44% for Western Europe and nearly 90% for the Philippines. It notes that culture has been the major concern with the dominance. It cites that societal ills in countries airing American television programmes are attributed to such dominance.

The article examines the problems of communication in Latin America's culture. It notes that what needs brought into existence by the mass media and what they did to consumers would be distinguished by analyzing the economic and ideological goals of the industry. It articulates that there will be one solution for social problems if those are transformed into technical ones.

The article explores the typical properties of Quebec as a place for cultural production and reproduction. He looks into the connection between the production and consumption of cultural commodities in the region. He also examines the perception that culture is something real but is immaterial, as well as the notion of culture-as-products.

The article presents a case study of German broadcasting, involving cultural, political and financial aspects. It states that the case of German broadcasting provides ample evidence of the intrinsic connections among the political significance and the political handling and imagination. The development of German broadcasting whether in the German Democratic Republic or the Federal Republic was molded in a somewhat negative determination by the contradictory and various history.

An essay is presented that explores the issue of cultural power and intellectuals in the U.S. It mentions the capabilities of intellectuals to earn a living through academic positions that allow them to assume both the intellectual and scholarly roles. An overview of how books and journals are financed is also discussed.

Editorial. Comments on the articles about the key practices of promotional culture, published in the May 2002 issue of the periodical 'Media, Culture and Society.' Importance of promotional professionals in the fields of media and communication studies; Ethnography of professional training; Use of public relations at the tense intersection between corporate and public interests.