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How Fantasy Becomes Reality: Seeing Through Media Influence |  | Author: Karen E. Dill
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $12.30
as of 11/25/2009 00:42 CST details
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Seller: nelsonfranco
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 102376
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.4 x 1
ISBN: 0195372085
Dewey Decimal Number: 302.23
EAN: 9780195372083
ASIN: 0195372085
Publication Date: September 3, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
It's a common belief that the stories we encounter through mass media--whether in video games, action movies, or political comedy skits on Saturday Night Live--are just entertaining fantasies that have no tangible impact on our everyday lives, attitudes, and choices. Not so, says Karen Dill in this lively and provocative book. As much as we may want to deny it, the images, sounds, and narratives that bombard us daily have ample power to alter our realities.
Dill, the author of the single-most-cited study on the effects of video-game violence, draws on extensive research in social psychology to show not only the myriad ways--for good and ill--that media influence us, but also why we resist believing they do. Vibrantly written and packed with eye-opening examples from everyday life, her wide-ranging analysis encompasses everything from gender and racial stereotyping to social identity, domestic violence, and presidential politics. She discusses the ways that super-thin models and actresses have altered women's self-images, dissects the manipulative strategies of advertising aimed at children and medical consumers, and explains how the "fake news" of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report may offer more authentic and incisive coverage than the cable channels and network newscasts. She also assesses the growing importance of "new media" like text-messaging, blogs, and Facebook in how we communicate and process information.
In a media-saturated society, Dill argues, understanding precisely how these powerful forces affect us and learning how to deal with them are vital to the very way we function as citizens. How Fantasy Becomes Reality shows what we can do to move from the passenger's seat to the driver's seat as media consumers.
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| Customer Reviews:
Scientific research made plain - Awareness is power! October 4, 2009
The Pen (Conover, NC)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Karen Dill's new book will capture readers from the first pages when she introduces what she calls "Media Manipulation Denial Syndrome." She coins this phrase based on three facts: "Fact 1: We spend most of our waking hours watching media. Fact 2: Research shows clearly that media are powerful and affect us in many ways. Fact 3: Many of us passionately disbelieve Fact 2."
Dill attributes our personal media diet in part to free choice and part to a Borg-like assimilation where "resistance is futile." Media exert a powerful influence whose purpose is to lure us into their productions and engage us at an emotional level. The positive or negative consequences depend a great deal on the choices we make about our personal media diet.
Dill offers numerous examples of how various products produce such consequences. She'll lead you through the basics of media and social construction, what it means to live and grow up in a media-saturated world, how violent media produce lasting effects, issues of race and gender portrayal, advertising and consumerism, media in politics, and how to take control of our personal media consumption.
While this text presents a great deal of scientific research that will teach you about basic psychology, it is also a relaxing read for anyone interested in media influence from video games to television. Dill's conversational style will allow you to see yourself in her examples and will soon have you scratching your head about why you make certain choices. You may be moved to both laughter and tears as you discover the truth of how we are influenced in very profound ways. If you heed her advice, you may find yourself playing a more vital role in your own life and the lives of those within your personal circle of influence. Don't miss it. Awareness is power!
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