Communication Studies

Something has gone really wrong in Britain.

Our economy has tanked, our freedoms are shrinking, and social divisions are growing. Our politicians seem most interested in their own careers, and much of the media only make things worse. We are living in a country almost unrecognisable from the one that existed a decade ago. But whose fault is it really? Who broke Britain and how did they do it?

Bold and incisive as ever, James O’Brien reveals the shady network of influence that has created a broken Britain of strikes, shortages and scandals. He maps the web connecting dark think tanks to Downing Street, the journalists involved in selling it to the public and the media bosses pushing their own agendas. Over ten chapters, each focusing on a particular person complicit in the downfall, James O’Brien reveals how a select few have conspired – sometimes by incompetence, sometimes by design – to bring Britain to its knees.

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‘Would you like to know where Putin comes from? What the Russians are like today? And why? Read this book’ SVETLANA ALEXIEVICH

‘Brilliant and immersive … reportage at its brave and luminous best’ OBSERVER

To be a journalist is to tell the truth. To be patriotic is to be critical, honest and fearless.

I Love Russia takes us to places that non-Russians have never seen and brings us voices we have never heard. It is Elena Kostyuchenko’s courageous attempt to document Russia as experienced by those whom it systematically and brutally erases: village girls recruited into sex work, queer people in the outer provinces, patients and doc­tors at a Ukrainian maternity ward, and reporters like herself.

At once uncompromising and deeply humane, it stitches reportage and personal essays into a kaleidoscopic, often other-worldly journey. Here is Russia as it is, not as we imagine it.

I Love Russia may be the last work from her homeland Kostyuchenko will publish for a long time – perhaps ever. She writes driven by the conviction that the greatest form of love and patriotism is criticism. And because the threat of Putin’s Russia extends beyond herself, beyond Crimea, and beyond Ukraine.

This is a singular portrait of a nation, and of a woman who refuses to be silenced.

‘Elena’s bravery and reportage are astonishing’ CHRISTINA LAMB

‘Kostyuchenko is an important guide to the twenty-first century’ TIMOTHY SNYDER

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Unpacks and pulls the curtain back on what happens to our brains and our behaviors each time we addictively engage social media and the influencers we encounter there.

Individuals seeking to widen their tribes of friends, fans, and followers have an abundance of resources for building their digital footprints and social media popularity. All of this seems well and good from the perspective of revenue, exposure, and perhaps ego-building, but what is the impact of this on the human brain and our behavior? Is anyone paying attention to the lurking side effects of the social media influencer revolution?

As “Dr. Brian” Boxer Wachler―one of the world’s most esteemed authorities on human perception―reveals in Influenced: The Impact of Social Media on Our Perception, we are oblivious to the mental evolution that is already in process. Science is proving that our addictive reliance upon social media and its influencers is having a demonstrable impact on how we think, feel, and perceive everything around us― and even how we react to stimuli. One might think that a “Like” is nothing more than a split-second tap on a device. However, brain scans tell a different story. Our brains literally light up with every buzz, ding, alert, and ring in anticipation of how our network is responding to us. As we tap away at our devices, we anxiously seek the approval of others―often people we don’t know.

Influenced unpacks what happens to our brains and our behaviors each time we click “Like”; follow an influencer; consume a video; share or reshare an article; post or repost a photograph; write a comment; pile on a trend;; just scroll for new content; and why do we keep coming back for more. Dr. Boxer Wachler includes his own social and medical findings and highlights them with interviews with top influencers, the latest studies, and pop-culture anecdotes.

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’You never knew what you were going to be confronted with when you went on Later…’ Nick Cave

‘Later… is a voyage of discovery for us as well as the viewers’ Dave Grohl

Dave Grohl and Alicia Keys loved it, Björk treasured it, Ed Sheeran’s life was changed by it, Kano felt at home while Nick Cave was horrified but inspired, and they all kept coming back.

This first-hand account of the BBC’s Later… with Jools Holland takes you behind the scenes of one of the world’s great musical meeting places. Legends including Sir Paul McCartney, Mary J. Blige and David Bowie found a regular welcome, alongside the next generation of superstars including Adele, Ed Sheeran and Amy Winehouse. Part of what has made the show so special is the format – all those bands, singers, stars and newbies brought together to listen as well as to perform in Jools’ circle of dreams. But there’s always been plenty of mayhem alongside the magic of convening a room full of musicians hosted by one of their own.

Written by the show’s co-creator and 26-year showrunner, music journalist Mark Cooper, this is the story of how Later… grew into a musical and TV institution. It was Mark who had to explain to Jay-Z why he couldn’t just do his numbers and split, who told Seasick Steve why he had to play ‘Dog House Boogie’ on the Hootenanny and persuaded Johnny Cash that he simply had to come in, even when The Man in Black wasn’t feeling well.

From Stormzy to Björk, from Smokey Robinson to Norah Jones, from Britpop to trip hop, here is the word on how Later… began, evolved and has endured, accompanied by exclusive interviews with some of the show’s regular stars as well as the unique pictorial record of Andre Csillag who photographed the show for over 20 years. A must-read for music fans everywhere, Later… with Jools Hollandpulls back the curtain on classic performances to reveal that the show is just as magical, if even more chaotic, than you imagined.

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To have a colour named after you is one of the highest accolades in fashion. Valentino Garavani is one such icon.

Since the founding of the House of Valentino in 1950s Rome, Garavani has been celebrated for the desirability of his designs. His stunning gowns in his signature Valentino Red have been sought after by the jet set for over half a century, and still signify the very epitome of red carpet glamour.

Little Book of Valentino tells the story of this most elegant of brands. Beginning with Garavani’s initiation into the world of haute couture in 1950s Paris, progressing through the glittering social scene of 1970s New York and Valentino’s domination of Hollywood from the 1980s to the present day, images of every dazzling era are beautifully reproduced alongside text exploring the significance of each stunning piece.

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Containing the stories of four legendary fashion houses, this collectable box holds a beautiful set of covetable style guides.

Exploring four designers who exemplify elegance and high couture, these little books of fashion follow these brands from their creation, moving through their style evolutions, the key looks that define them and their impact on the fashion landscape today.

Discover the story behind the little black dress with the Little Book of Chanel, the tailoring behind Milan minimalism with Prada, the conception of the New Look with Dior and the genius behind androgynous maximalism with Gucci.

Featuring hundreds of exquisite images and text by best-selling authors, these definitive guides to luxury style are the perfect gift for any fashion lover.

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Frequently hilarious, sometimes disturbing, always entertaining, these fascinating stories of the chaos that lies on the fringe of our daily lives will have you wondering just what we’re capable of.

This updated edition of Lost at Sea includes the complete text of Frank: The True Story that Inspired the Movie.

Jon Ronson has been on patrol with America’s real-life superheroes and to a UFO convention in the Nevada desert with Robbie Williams. He’s met a man who tried to split the atom in his kitchen and asked a conscious robot if she’s got a soul.

Fascinated by madness, strange behaviour and the human mind, Jon has spent his life exploring mysterious events and meeting extraordinary people. Collected from various sources (including the Guardian and GQ) Lost at Sea features the very best of his adventures.

Portions of this book have appeared previously, in slightly different form, in Out of the Ordinary, What I Do, the Guardian and GQ.

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‘A whopping biography of the pop phenomenon and queen of reinvention. Life is a mystery – hers oughtn’t to be after reading this.’ THE TIMES, ‘ biggest books for autumn’

‘It’s a mark of Gabriel’s skill that she has managed to wrestle this complex, sprawling, eventful life into a book that rarely flags and conveys its subject’s wider significance without tipping into hagiography. We come to understand Madonna the person as well as Madonna the concept: a woman who, for a generation, embodied female artistic, sexual and financial liberation.’ GUARDIAN

‘A fascinating take on one of music’s greatest icons’ BELFAST TELEGRAPH

‘Madonna built the house in which nearly all female artists now live . . . A Rebel Life brings home not just her obvious willpower and strength, but her fearlessness and sheer intelligence’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

In this exceptional biography, Pulitzer Prize finalist Mary Gabriel chronicles the meteoric rise and enduring influence of the greatest female pop icon of the modern era: Madonna.

With her arrival on the music scene in the early 1980s, Madonna generated nothing short of an explosion – as great as that of Elvis or the Beatles – taking the nation by storm with her liberated politics and breathtaking talent.

But Madonna was more than just a pop star. Everywhere, fans gravitated to her as an emblem of a new age, one in which feminism could shed the buttoned-down demeanour of the 1970s and feel relevant to a new generation. Amid the scourge of AIDS, she brought queer identities into the mainstream, fiercely defending a person’s right to love whomever – and be whoever – they wanted. Despite fierce criticism, she never separated her music from her political activism. And as an artist, she never stopped experimenting. Madonna existed to push past boundaries by creating provocative, visionary music, videos, films and live performances that changed culture globally.

Deftly tracing Madonna’s story from her Michigan roots to her rise to super-stardom, master biographer Mary Gabriel captures the dramatic life and achievements of one of the greatest artists of our time.

‘Daring to write a biography of a woman with whom the entire world is on a first-name basis, Mary Gabriel has created (astonishingly) a book neither gossip-driven nor highly snarky… she reveals instead a Madonna both more true and more unbelievably believable; a rock-and-roll suffragette… Norman Mailer once said to Madonna, ‘I’ve come to the conclusion that you are a great artist.’ Exquisitely detailed in her storytelling, Gabriel is clearly in that camp, convincing us that we all still vogue in the House of Madonna.’
Brad Gooch, author of City Poet

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This cutting-edge textbook examines contemporary media business models in the context of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital transformation. AI has dramatically impacted media production and distribution, from recommendation engines to synthetic humans, from video-to-text tools to natural language models. “AI is really the change agent of the media industry,” answered a natural language generation model when AI was ‘asked’ about the subject of this book. “It will open incredible opportunities.” This book seeks to explore them.

The media is examined through four sections. ‘Principles’ maps business models and the key tools of AI. ‘Platforms’ covers distribution channels in Games, Streamers, Social Networks, Broadcast and Digital Publishing. ‘Producers’ covers the engines of content-making, including Scripted, Entertainment, Factual, Content Marketing, Creators and Music. Finally, ‘Pioneers’ covers emerging sectors of Podcasting, Esports, the Metaverse and other AI-driven developments. Then in each chapter, a standard value creation model is applied, mapping a single sector through development, production, distribution and monetisation.

Diverse case studies are analysed from India, Nigeria, South Korea, South Africa, France, the Netherlands, the US, the UK, Denmark and China – around creative entrepreneurship, revenue models, profit drivers, rights and emerging AI tools. Questions are provided for each case, whilst chapter summaries cement learning.

Applied and technology-focused, this text offers core reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduates studying Media Management – or the relationship between Entertainment, Media and Technology. Online resources include chapter-by-chapter PowerPoint slides and an Instructor’s Manual with further exercises and case studies.

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