Lost in Media

Lost in Media examines collectively the ethical issues that have arisen in media-driven everyday life and will that arise as paradigm shifts occur on a global scale. Films, television and the new media often serve the globalization aims of a capitalist society as they function to socially reproduce the hegemonic norms, values, and styles of the larger society. Chapters in the book use the tradition of critical theory to look at issues of free market fundamentalism, journalism’s erosion of communication of truth, public relations ethics of perception management; yielding self-censorship in the media, entertainment media pedagogically cultivating consumerism and docility, music and morality, misrepresentation of resistance movements, ethics of spectatorship, and the transformation of everyday ethics.

Benjamin Frymer (PhD in Sociology from UCLA)is assistant professor of sociology in the Hutchins School of Liberal Studies, Sonoma State University. He has co-edited the books, Cultural Studies, Education, and Youth: Beyond Schools (2011) and Hollywood’s Exploited: Public Pedagogy, Corporate Movies, and Cultural Crisis (2010). Tony Kashani (PhD in Humanities from California Institute of Integral Studies) is a faculty member in the Liberal Arts Department of Brandman University of Chapman University Systems. Aside from many scholarly articles, Dr. Kashani is the author of two editions of Deconstructing the Mystique: An Interdisciplinary Introduction to Cinema (2005, 20009) a textbook used at various universities in the US. He is also the co-editor and contributor of Hollywood’s Exploited: Public Pedagogy, Corporate Movies, and Cultural Crisis.