Archive for September 2012

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[ecrea] BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: Consumer Culture and the Media (Palgrave MacMillan)

Fri Sep 28 18:50:31 GMT 2012




Apologies for the self-promotion, but some of you may be interested in my newly-released research monograph Consumer Culture and the Media: Magazines in the Public Eye (Palgrave MacMillan, 2012).



BLURB:

Consumer culture is synonymous with westernised societies. How did this particular ethic come to achieve so much success? This book argues that one reason is the seductive way in which it is promoted through the media. To demonstrate this, the book provides a detailed analysis of the case study of consumer magazine covers and argues that the ways magazines are displayed and sold in retail spaces, the literal glossiness of the texts, and the intertwined messages about sexiness, commodities and self-identity communicated by them combine to create a powerful and seductive advertisement for consumer culture. These strategies are not taken for granted, but questioned and put into the context of bigger scholarly debates about 'the public', 'power' and identity in neoliberal societies.



CONTENTS:

× Media in Consumer Culture: An Introduction

× The Public, Identity and Power in Mediated Consumer Culture

× A Research Approach for Mediated Consumer Culture

× Media Retail Spaces as Multimodal Spectacles: The Case of the Newsstand

× Glossiness in Hyperreal Celebrity Portraiture

× Commodity Choice and Commercial Heteroglossia in Consumer Media

× Sexiness and Selling: Consumerism's Pornographic Imagination

× Paper Mirrors: Images of Ideal Consumers

× Media Strategies for Selling Consumer Culture: a Conclusion



ENDORSEMENTS:

'This book represents a milestone in the study of magazines. By developing an understanding of the public spaces of consumer culture, Mehita Iqani shifts the lens through which we think

about magazines, showing the key role they play in 'selling' consumerism. A brilliant and original book, it is beautifully written and replete with vivid examples. It will be essential

reading for students and scholars of media and communication studies, sociology, cultural geography and gender studies – as well as anyone interested in the relationship between

media, communication technologies and consumer culture.' - Rosalind Gill, King's College, London, UK



'Mehita Iqani's Consumer Culture and the Media is a fresh, fascinating and eloquently-crafted account of the enchanting power of magazines in the most unglamorous of places, the

newsstand. It is a highly original contribution to the study of contemporary visuality that greatly enhances our understanding of concumer culture.' - Lilie Chouliaraki, London School of

Economics and Political Sciences, UK



Should you wish to order copies, you can do so here:

http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=513112



Best wishes,



Mehita







Mehita Iqani



Senior Lecturer and Postgraduate Coordinator

Department of Media Studies

University of the Witwatersrand

Johannesburg

South Africa



Room 3064, Senate House

Tel: +27 (0)11 717 4123

Email: (mehita.iqani /at/ wits.ac.za)



OUT NOW: “Consumer Culture and the Media: Magazines in the Public Eye”

Critical Research in Consumer Culture Network: http://consumerculturenetwork.wordpress.com/

The Newsstand Project: http://www.thenewsstandproject.org

ITCH Magazine: www.itch.co.za





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