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Communicating Unreality

Modern Media and the Reconstruction of Reality

Gabriel Weimann author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:SAGE Publications Inc

Published:23rd Nov '99

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

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Communicating Unreality cover

From interactive, real-time Internet broadcasts to video game-like images of smart bombs on television, our perception of reality is shaped by the mass media. Willing or not, we are a mass mediated society, and the electronic media, especially television and computer-mediated-communication, plays a vital role in our daily lives.

Communicating Unreality reviews the images and meanings of our mass-mediated world. With careful attention to the integration of news and entertainment, fact and fiction, and event and story, author Gabriel Weimann examines our symbolic environment, where reality and fiction are almost inseparable. Through discussion of mass-mediated images of people, cultures, war, love, sex, death, community, and identity, we learn that there often exists a large gap between reality and reconstruction of "realities" as communicated by the mass media. This comprehensive and entertaining textbook can breathe life into the standard mass communication course. Students, professors, and everyone interested in the influence of the media will enjoy this book.

"Clearly written and interesting to read, this book makes good use of the history of famous studies and scholars, covers the waterfront of mass communication topics, and is backed up by a large number of references. . . I would use this text in my Sociology of Mass Communication course." 

-- Everett M. Rod

ISBN: 9780761919865

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 620g

456 pages