Books by Brian McNair

'The Sociology of Journalism' combines a comprehensive survey of the elements of journalistic production with critical analysis of traditional liberal pluralist and materialist perspectives on the subject.

In this major work, McNair argues that the role of digital communication will be crucial in determining the outcome of pressing global issues such as the future of feminism and gay rights, freedom of speech and media, and democracy itself.

We both love and hate our journalists. They are perceived as sexy and glamorous on the one hand, despicable and sleazy on the other. Opinion polls regularly indicate that we experience a kind of cultural schizophrenia in our relationship to journalists and the news media: sometimes they are viewed as heroes, at other times villains. From Watergate to the fabrication scandals of the 2000s, journalists have risen and fallen in public esteem.In this book, leading journalism studies scholar Brian McNair explores how journalists have been represented through the prism of one of our key cultural forms, cinema. Drawing on the history of cinema since the 1930s, and with a focus on the period 1997-2008, McNair explores how journalists have been portrayed in film, and what these images tell us about the role of the journalist in liberal democratic societies. Separate chapters are devoted to the subject of female journalists in film, foreign correspondents, investigative reporters and other categories of news maker who have featured regularly in cinema. The book also discusses the representation of public relations professionals in film.Illustrated throughout and written in an accessible and lively style suitable for academic and lay readers alike, Journalists in Film will be essential reading for students and teachers of journalism, and for all those concerned about the role of the journalist in contemporary society, not least journalists themselves. An appendix contains mini-essays on every film about journalism released in the cinema between 1997 and 2008.

Presents a comprehensive introduction to the political, economic and regulatory environments of press and broadcast journalism in Britain and Northern Ireland. Surveying the industry in a period of radical economic and technological change, this title examines the main trends in journalistic media and assesses the challenges of the industry.

This volume explores the relationship between politics, the media and democracy in the United Kingdom, the United States and other contemporary societies.

How have the tumultuous changes in the Soviet Union affected the Soviet press and television reporting? This detailed study looks at the changing role of journalism and the media in the Gorbachev era.

Striptease Culture explores this 'sexualisation' of contemporary life, considering the impact on mass culture and relating it to wider changes in post-war society.

Argues that the media are not 'dumbing down', but that the quantity of political information in mass circulation has expanded hugely, while different media have adapted to provide accessible and thorough coverage.