Suchergebnisse

Includes more than 250 essays on the varied experiences of social movement media throughout the world in the 20th and 21st centuries

I have written this book to put forward a new theory of reading­ the cognitive clarity theory. But the book is not all theory. I have tried to show how this theory can help students, teachers and parents to improve children's education in reading at home and at school. Although the cognitive clarity theory is new, it is derived from other theories and from a wide range of educational, linguistic and psychological research. The cognitive clarity theory is thus a bringing together of the insights of many col­ leagues in these disciplines. What the theory owes to these colleagues is clearly acknowledged as the evidence is presented. But I must also be thankful for the experiences that have led me in this direction. I worked as a school teacher for nearly ten years before I became an experimental psychologist. During my years as a teacher I was often baffled by children's difficulties in learning to read. Then, only two or three years after qualifying in psych­ ology, I had the good fortune to be chosen to plan and conduct the first large scale experiment on children's reading in Britain.

Inside the academy over the past ten-twelve years, attention to social movement media has begun in earnest, though commentators in mainstream media usually have given them short shrift. However, events in the Arab region beginning in January last year generated a rush of speculation about social movement media among the commentocracy, but with an extreme focus on the supposed magic of cell phone cameras and digital networking media, the so-called 'social media'. (Exactly which media are not social is something of a mystery to me, but let that pass.) In the years immediately preceding there had been significant uses of such media in upsurges in Iran, Greece and Thailand, but 2011 really put this aspect of social movements on the commentocracy's map.

The discussion begins with a comparative overview of violence against civilians in war, in terroristic actions, and in torture. The comparisons are between the USA since the 9/11 attacks, Britain during the civil war in Northern Ireland 1969-2000, and France during and since the Algerian armed liberation struggle of 1954-62. The discussion covers the general issues involved, and then summarizes existing research on British and French media representations of political violence. The article then proceeds to a critical-discourse analysis of the US Fox Television channel's highly successful 24 dramatic series. The series has been far and away the most extended televisual reflection to date on the implications of 9/11. Political violence, counter-terrorism and torture are central themes. An argument is made that the series constructs a strangely binary imaginary of extremist and moderate "Middle Easterners" while simultaneously projecting a weirdly post-racist USA. 1n particular, the series articulates very forcefully an ongoing scenario of instantaneous decision-making, under dire impending menace to public safety, which serves to insulate US counter-terrorist philosophy and practice from an urgently-needed rigorous public critique.

A review of Remaking Media: The Struggle to Democratize Public Communication by Robert A. Hackett & William K. Carroll.