Social Sciences
-
Mapping Media Ecology: Introduction to the Field (Understanding Media Ecology Book 4)
Until now, the academic foundations of media ecology have been passed down primarily in the form of edited volumes, often by students of Neil Postman, or are limited to a focus on Marshall McLuhan and/or Postman or some other individual important to the field. Those volumes are invaluable in pointing to key ideas in the field; they provide an important and informed account of the fundamentals of media ecology as set forth at the field’s inception. Yet there is more to the story.
Offering an accessible introduction, and written from the perspective of a «second generation» scholar, this single-authored work provides a unified, systematic framework for the study of media ecology. It identifies the key themes, processes, and figures in media ecology that have coalesced over the last few decades and presents an elegant schema with which to engage future exploration of the role of media in shaping culture and consciousness.
Dennis D. Cali offers a survey of a field as consequential as it is fascinating. Designed to be used primarily in media and communication courses, the book’s goal is to hone insight into the role of media in society and to extend the understanding of the themes, processes, and interactions of media ecology to an ever-broader intellectual community.
Read more
£32.10 -
Heartstopper 16-Month 2023-2024 Weekly/Monthly Planner Calendar with Bonus Stickers
Join Charlie, Nick, Elle, Tao, and their classmates from Truham and Higgs as they explore love, friendship, and life in the hit Netflix series Heartstopper. Included in this 16-month planner are colorful images and graphics from the show, along with bonus stickers.
Heartstopper is based on the New York Times LGBTQ+ bestselling graphic novel series by Alice Oseman.
Features include:- 7″ x 9″ (14″ x 9″ open)
- Spiral bound
- Printed on FSC-certified paper with soy-based ink
- Spans September 2023–December 2024
- Generous grid space for notes, appointments, and reminders
- Monthly at-a-glance grids
- Extra pages at back for notes, goals, and more
- Official major world holidays and observances
- Moon phases, based on Universal Time
- Includes stickers
Read more
£15.20 -
Next Level Games Review 2024: A bumper, illustrated, and annual gaming guide packed with over 150 video games – plus a special eSports chapter – the perfect gift for for teens…
Take it to the next level! Bursting with the biggest games, latest trends, and hottest news, Next Level Games Review 2024 is the ultimate annual gaming guide.
Next Level Games Review is back! Packed full of the biggest games, latest trends, and hottest news, it’s the ultimate guide to gaming.
In this year’s Games Review, you’ll find the latest news in gaming. Explore the world of eSports, go behind the scenes with gaming experts, learn all about the next triple-As or indie hits, and discover mind-blowing stats and entertaining facts on over 150 games.
Be transported to legendary gaming locations with all your favourite characters. Swing through New York City with Spider-Man, uncover Wizarding World secrets in Hogwarts Legacy, join Link as he glides through Skyloft clouds, defend the Overworld from the piglins and explore Genshin Impact’s Teyvat in this game-changing guide!
150+ GAMES: Find out surprising stats and entertaining facts on over 150 games, including Mario, Overwatch, Forza, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Roblox, Pokémon, Sonic, Final Fantasy, Madden NFL, Diablo, Fortnite, and The Legend of Zelda.
PERFECT FOR NEW GAMERS: Packed with tips and tricks for new and young gamers, plus a special glossary section so you can learn the lingo.
ESPORTS CHAPTER: Catch up on all the news and read fascinating trivia on the top eSports games, including League of Legends, PUBG, Fortnite, Dota 2, Valorant, and Overwatch.
INSIDER INFO: Get the inside take from gaming experts and learn all about your favourite game studios, including SEGA, Capcom, Nintendo, EA Tiburon, Epic Insomniac Games, and Square Enix.
Read more
£16.20£20.90 -
Roskov, Book 24
Mystery & conspiracy, international, supernatural mystery fiction series, progressive, a young adult feel-good series, empire building.Ricky Roskov leaves school in England to start work in his uncle’s factory, to make enough money for college, a future in politics planned – unaware that he has been reincarnated, that he fought in the Crusades, and that an angel watches over him.
Modelling for the company brochure, he gets noticed, and he accidentally starts a very lucrative parallel career in modelling and acting, soon surrounded by beautiful models.
Involving himself in charity work and politics in his home town, a dying women sets him on the trail of uncovering corruption, conspiracy, rape and murder at the hands of the town’s elite.Contains: Mystery & conspiracy, international, supernatural, hidden treasure, strong sex, regular sex, paranormal, undercover investigations … a long progressive series.
Read more
£2.50Roskov, Book 24
£2.50 -
The Traitors: The Interactive Game Book
It’s time to start your adventure. Get them before they get you.
Put your sleuthing skills to the test in a world of deception, betrayal, and strategy. Placed in a castle in the Scottish Highlands, you must figure out if your fellow players are Faithful or a Traitor. Can you trust Jorge, the dentist with an encyclopaedic memory and tendency to smile at everyone? Or Nina, the retiree who acts like the group’s matriarch but has a knowing glint in her eyes..? Beware, for in this treacherous game, trust is a luxury you cannot afford.
In the official book of the BAFTA-winning phenomenon, The Traitors: The Interactive Game Book, the decisions you make will decide what happens next. Take this thrilling journey on your own or with others, pooling your wisdom to make the right choices. With over 20 standalone games to play as a pair or in a group – all with cunning Traitors twists – this is the perfect gift, guaranteed to unleash hours of mischief and fun.
Read more
£10.00£20.00The Traitors: The Interactive Game Book
£10.00£20.00 -
Avoiding the News: Reluctant Audiences for Journalism (Reuters Institute Global Journalism Series)
A small but growing number of people in many countries consistently avoid the news. They feel they do not have time for it, believe it is not worth the effort, find it irrelevant or emotionally draining, or do not trust the media, among other reasons. Why and how do people circumvent news? Which groups are more and less reluctant to follow the news? In what ways is news avoidance a problem―for individuals, for the news industry, for society―and how can it be addressed?This groundbreaking book explains why and how so many people consume little or no news despite unprecedented abundance and ease of access. Drawing on interviews in Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States as well as extensive survey data, Avoiding the News examines how people who tune out traditional media get information and explores their “folk theories” about how news organizations work. The authors argue that news avoidance is about not only content but also identity, ideologies, and infrastructures: who people are, what they believe, and how news does or does not fit into their everyday lives. Because news avoidance is most common among disadvantaged groups, it threatens to exacerbate existing inequalities by tilting mainstream journalism even further toward privileged audiences. Ultimately, this book shows, persuading news-averse audiences of the value of journalism is not simply a matter of adjusting coverage but requires a deeper, more empathetic understanding of people’s relationships with news across social, political, and technological boundaries.
Read more
£23.55£28.00 -
Chaucer Here and Now
The Geoffrey Chaucer of this book is not the Father of English Literature that you think you know. In this wide-ranging collection of essays you will find wartime Chaucer, postcolonial Chaucer, feminist Chaucer, misogynist Chaucer, radical Chaucer and conservative Chaucer, among many other interpretations. Featuring beautiful illustrations of early manuscripts and rare editions, Chaucer Here and Now gives a picture of how varied adaptations of and responses to his work have been, from fifteenth- century scribes who finished off incomplete tales, through early printers who constructed Chaucer as the Father of the Nation, to contemporary postcolonial writers such as Zadie Smith. The book moves through years of censorship, the creation of children’s Chaucer, Protestant Chaucer and imperial Chaucer – and the travels of Chaucer all around the world. It also explores Chaucer on film and Chaucer in the present moment. Today’s creative responses follow in a line of irreverent, partial responses that we can trace back to Chaucer’s very first readers and editors, showing that Chaucer is available for every here and now to remake, rework and reinvent.Read more
£28.50Chaucer Here and Now
£28.50 -
Immediacy, Or The Style of Too Late Capitalism
Why speed, flow, and direct expression now dominate cultural styleContemporary cultural style boosts transparency and instantaneity. These are values absorbed from our current economic conditions of “disintermediation”: cutting out the middleman. Like Uber, but for art. Immediacy names this style to make sense of what we lose when the contradictions of twenty-first-century capitalism demand that aesthetics negate mediation. Surging realness as an aesthetic program synchs with the economic imperative to intensify circulation when production stagnates. “Flow” is the ultimate twenty-first-century buzzword, but speedy circulation grinds art down to the nub. And the bad news is that political turmoil and social challenges require more mediation. Collective will, inspiring ideas, and deliberate construction are the only way out, but our dominant style forgoes them. Considering original streaming TV, popular literature, artworld trends, and academic theories, Immediacy explains the recent obsession with immersion and today’s intolerance of representation, and points to alternative forms in photography, TV, novels, and constructive theory that prioritize distance, impersonality, and big ideas instead.
Read more
£17.10 -
Welcome to the O.C.: The Oral History
“A fascinating peek behind the making of a megahit, and a delightful bit of nostalgia for those of us who remember life before streaming TV.” —Town & Country
Welcome to the O.C., b*tch: it’s the definitive oral history of beloved TV show The O.C., from the show’s creators, featuring interviews with the cast and crew, providing a behind-the-scenes look into how the show was made, the ups and downs over its four seasons, and its legacy today.
On August 5th, 2003, Ryan Atwood found himself a long way from his home in Chino—he was in The O.C., an exclusive suburb full of beautiful girls, wealthy bullies, corrupt real-estate tycoons, and a new family helmed by his public defender, Sandy Cohen. Ryan soon warms up to his nerdy, indie band-loving new best friend Seth, and quickly falls for Marissa, the stunning girl next door who has secrets of her own. Completing the group is Summer, Seth’s dream girl and Marissa’s loyal—and fearless—best friend. Together, the friends fall in and out of love, support each other amidst family strife, and capture the hearts of audiences across the country.
Just in time for the show’s twentieth anniversary, The O.C.’s creator Josh Schwartz and executive producer Stephanie Savage are ready to dive into how the show was made, the ups and downs over its four seasons, and its legacy today. With Rolling Stone’s chief TV critic and bestselling author Alan Sepinwall conducting interviews with the key cast members, writers, and producers who were there when it all happened, Welcome to the O.C. will offer the definitive inside look at the beloved show—a nostalgic delight for audiences who watched when it aired, and a rich companion to viewers currently discovering the show while it streams on HBO Max and Hulu.
The O.C. paved the way for a new generation of iconic teen soaps, launched the careers of young stars, and even gave us the gift of Chrismukkah. Now, it’s time to go back where we started from and experience it all over again.
Includes exclusive interviews with: Ben McKenzie * Mischa Barton * Adam Brody * Rachel Bilson * Peter Gallagher * Kelly Rowan * Melinda Clarke * Tate Donovan * Chris Carmack * Autumn Reeser * Willa Holland * Samaire Armstrong * Alan Dale * Colin Hanks * Amanda Righetti * Navi Rawat * Shannon Lucio * Michael Cassidy * McG * Imogen Heap * Alex Greenwald * Ben Gibbard * Paul Scheer * Doug Liman * and many more!
Read more
£23.80 -
Phew, Eh Readers?: The Life and Writing of Tom Hibbert
Idiosyncratic.Iconoclastic.
Acerbic.
Hilarious.
The influence of Tom Hibbert’s music writing across print, radio, TV and podcasts is incomparable. From his genre-defining work at Smash Hits to his ‘Who the Hell … ?’ profiles for Q magazine and beyond, this book brings together many of Hibbert’s funniest writings.
Compiled by Barney Hoskyns and Jasper Murison-Bowie at Rock’s Backpages, the archive of music journalism, Phew, Eh Readers? showcases some of Hibbert’s greatest pieces. Presented thematically and chronologically, they highlight his marvellously eccentric perspective on life and popular culture.
Many leading writers and journalists attest to Hibbert’s genius. This compendium supplements his writing with new reflections on Tom from some of his peers, colleagues and admirers, including Mark Ellen, Bob Stanley, Tom Doyle, Chris Heath, Sylvia Patterson, along with his widow Allyce.
Phew, Eh Readers? is a must-read homage to one of the most influential writers of our time, a man who left an indelible mark on our cultural landscape.
Read more
£19.20£20.90 -
Critical Hits: Writers on Gaming and the Alternate Worlds We Inhabit
‘A loot drop of brilliance’ Naomi Alderman, author of The Power
Whether you’re an avid gamer, a Twitch subscriber, or just an incidental Subway Surfer, video games have changed the way you interact with the world, and have been part of our lives for over fifty years. Critical Hits is a celebration of play and playfulness, and the lasting impact of videogames.
Composed of sharp, impassioned, and inquisitive essays, this collection begins with an introduction by Carmen Maria Machado and presents video games through the eyes of eighteen writer-gamers as they straddle real and artificial worlds. In games, they find solace from illness and grief, test ideas about language, bodies, race, and technology, and see their experiences and identities reflected in-or complicated by-the interactive virtual realities they inhabit.
From a deep dive into “portal fantasy” games by Charlie Jane Anders and a comic by MariNaomi about her time as a video game producer, to the overlaps in gaming and poetry by Stephen Sexton, Critical Hits illuminates fragments of an industry that is wildly popular, grossly misunderstood, and absolutely spellbinding.
Read more
£12.30£13.50 -
The Old Gays’ Guide to the Good Life: The must-read memoir and manifesto from the TikTok sensation @theoldgays
‘I’ve fallen in love with this fabulous foursome … They are a phenomenon!’ Drew Barrymore
From @theoldgays, the internet’s most beloved foursome, a book of inspirational stories and aspirational advice for living life at the fullest.
The Old Gays have taken TikTok by storm with their viral videos, by turns outrageous and hilarious, fashionable and fierce. But as four gay men, aged from 67 to 80, Mick, Jessay, Robert, and Bill have lived through decades of momentous change and they’ve got stories that take more than three minutes to tell.
They grew up in the closet, experienced Stonewall, lived large during the gay sexual revolution, lost friends during the AIDS crisis, dealt with their own HIV+ diagnoses, and saw gay marriage became legal. Between them, they’ve been through it all – divorce, depression, bankruptcy, near-death experiences. And then there’s the dinner parties, the nudism, the professional bodybuilding, the orgies and the matter of church.
These are the tales – sometimes scandalous, sometimes profound, sometimes heart-breaking – that only an older gay man can tell. Their Guide to the Good Life is a celebration of lives lived to the fullest, and the art of getting old without getting bored. Whether it’s ageing, coming out, losing everything, starting over, finding happiness or just injecting a little more fun into proceedings, it’s good to know someone’s been there before, and they’re more than happy to give their best, bawdiest, most hard-won advice.
Read more
£6.90£16.10