Paul
Starr, author of The Creation of the
Media, has quite a large background in numerous forms of mass communication.
Although he is currently a Stuart Professor of Communications and Public
Affairs and a Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University,
he still remains entitled as both the co-editor and co-founder of the prestigious
American Prospect magazine. His background
as a journalist expands extensively through various political magazines as well,
for example the New Republic. Also,
he has written a total of nine books, the most recent being Remedy & Reaction: The Peculiar Struggle
over Health Care Reform. If this
merely doesn’t build up his credible repertoire, he has multiple other
articulate articles and speeches on social trends, public policy, and politics.
In these sections he thrives the most, which is no surprise as to why Basic
Books published this particular book.
The Creation of the Media was published
in 2004. It received the 2005 Goldsmith Book Prize along with other astonishing
acknowledgements. Therefore, this was the farthest thing from a mistake on the publisher’s
part. Basic Book’s motto is to publish “serious nonfiction by intellectuals,
scholars, and journalists”. With this being said, the publisher clarifies they
are targeting a certain scholarly audience. With Starr’s background the
audience becomes even more pin pointed to prior followers of those interested
in his specified topics of interest, writing, media, and politics.
Paul
Starr’s academic book depicts the history of communication from the 1700’s-1940.
This article can be interpreted by countless main points. Throughout the book
he develops a theme of competition in media between production and politics. In
chapter twelve, Coda, he touches base on how media is a not only a source of
power, but wealth. Most of this was obtained by targeting consumers based upon
politics. Once advertisements made an impact, papers became more independent.
They no longer had to choose a political side for recognition because the
papers depended on the income from advertisements in order to have more
coverage opportunity. Therefore, they received more of an audience. He also describes the positive and negative effects
of limited regulations. He uses the above examples in order to describe the
impact politics has on the media and visa versa.
Basing his ideas off of politics,
publication, and communication, he’s targeting a select group of readers
interested in certain aspects of the media. He gives them crucial background
knowledge within the field. A continuous
message appears within the entire chapter. His goal throughout is to inform his
audience about how communication and politics are relative to one another, as
well as their impacts.
Publishers Weekly states that this
is an overall great depiction of media’s history and its effects. The point was
made clear. Starr and Basic Books combined their audiences to target a select
group, which was beneficial for both of them. Overall, they strengthened each
other’s academic reputation by complimenting one another with perfection. The
chapter made us aware of the past and could be helpful knowledge for anyone in
the field.
Sites/Sources
c.spanvideo.org/paulstarr
princeton.edu/~starr/
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/30/books/the-american-information-revolution.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
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