The news is everywhere. We can't stop constantly checking it. But what is this doing to our minds? We are never really taught how to make sense of the torrent of news we face every day, writes Alain de Botton, but this has a huge impact on our sense of what matters and of how we should lead our lives. Here, de Botton takes twenty-five archetypal news stories--including an airplane crash, a murder, a celebrity interview and a political scandal--and...

"In You Are What You Watch, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and data expert Walt Hickey explains the power of entertainment to change our biology, our beliefs, how we see ourselves, and how nations gain power through entertainment. Virtually anyone who has ever watched a profound movie, a powerful TV show, or read a moving novel understands that entertainment can and does affect us in surprising and significant ways. But did you know that our most popular...

Gerbner urges us to think about the psychological, political, social, and developmental consequences of growing up and living within a cultural environment of pervasive, ritualized violent images.

With refreshing candor, Spin the Bottle examines how cultural messages about alcohol affect the lives of young people. Media critics Jackson Katz and Jean Kilbourne decode the glamorized stories media tell about drinking, while college students speak with poignant honesty about their own experiences with alcohol and its alluring public image. Sure to spark important conversation about the complex relationship between alcohol use, media influence,...

Turning to issues of media policy, George Gerbner delivers a stinging indictment of the way the so called "information superhighway" is being constructed. By examining the logic of globalization he shows the ineffectual nature of our present responses - such as the V-Chip - to deal with the urgent crisis of the media. Showing the real uses to which the "information superhighway" will be put by its corporate masters, he urges the citizens of the world...

Based on the forthcoming book by Pepi Leistyna, Class Dismissed navigates the steady stream of narrow working class representation from American television's beginnings to today's sitcoms, reality shows, police dramas, and daytime talk shows. This documentary breaks important new ground in exploring wasy in which race, gender, and sexuality intersect with class, offering a complex reading of television's often one-dimensional representations. Featuring...

This compelling new documentary focuses on the sexual dilemmas and difficult life choices young girls face as they come of age in contemporary American culture. Challenging long-held myths about girlhood, the film draws on the insights of girls themselves to explore and shed light on their actual lived experience as they navigate our increasingly hyper-sexualized society. The voices of a diverse range of girls are supplemented with accessible analysis...

From its origins in academic discourse in the 1970s to our collective imagination today, the concept of "rape culture" has resonated in a variety of spheres, including television, gaming, comic book culture, and college campuses. Beyond Blurred Lines traces ways that sexual violence is collectively processed, mediated, negotiated, and contested by exploring public reactions to high-profile incidents and rape narratives in popular culture. The concept...