Editor: David Hesmondhalgh

 ISBN: 0335218849

The following review was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN:  Editor of Bookpleasures. CLICK TO VIEW  Norm Goldman's Reviews 

Media Production forms part of the series of courses and publications offered by The Open University pertaining to the understanding of the media.

As the preface of the book states, the aim of the series is to provide a cogent and wide-ranging introduction to the study of media.

According to its editor, David Hesmondhalgh, “even though much of the communication that goes on around us is created and distributed by relatively small numbers of people,” it is still vital that we know who these people are, their working practices and conditions, and how media products are made, as they do dominate much of our communicative environment.

Three major themes are examined and explored in Media Production, power; knowledge, values and beliefs; and change and continuity. These themes are divided into four chapters, wherein a wealth of information is provided pertaining to four crucial issues: the media industries: do ownership, size and internationalization matter; media organizations and media texts: production, autonomy and power; the media’s view of the audience; working in the media.

Readers are asked to consider such questions as: if the media only serves the interests of the wealthy and powerful? Are media production organizations propagandists? Is audience market research a means of exerting power over audiences?

How dangerous are media concentrations? How can we understand our relationships with media producers and knowledge, values and beliefs? How accurate and important is market research of audiences and what do they tell us? 

How are change and continuity intertwined in media production? What sort of media system is best for ‘the people?’

Incorporated into the study of these topics are several readings from key researchers along with recent case studies, including The Simpsons, CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera. As an example, British writer Raymond Williams provides an analysis of four different kinds of media systems, authoritarian, paternal, commercial and democratic. Hesmondhalgh compares five different approaches to the study of media organizations, in terms of their distinct perspectives pertaining to the relationship between media production, texts and power. He further studies the tension between knowledge and uncertainty about the audience that as he states, “to be so characteristic of mediated communication.”

In addition to the selected readings, the book also contains questions and activities permitting readers to apply what they have learned; and may also serve as guides for further research.  Each chapter ends with a brief resumé of the principles examined, as well as suggested readings and references.

Media Production is undoubtedly meant as a working textbook to go along with the Open University course, however, even if you are not attending the course, it will still prove to be very informative and useful.