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

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





----------------
ECREA-Mailing list
----------------
This mailing list is a free service from ECREA.
---
To unsubscribe, please visit http://www.ecrea.eu/mailinglist
---
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
Postal address:
ECREA
Université Libre de Bruxelles
c/o Dept. of Information and Communication Sciences
CP123, avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50, b-1050 Bruxelles, Belgium
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
----------------