I media. La prospettiva sociologica

Michele Sorice is one of the foremost researchers in the area of media studies in Italy. He is Professor of the sociology of cultural and communicative processes at Rome's La Sapienza University and also teaches sociology at the Universita della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano. He is, in addition, a visiting lecturer at the Pontifical Gregorian University's Centro Interdisciplinare sulla Comunicazione Sociale This book is aimed at both students and scholars in Italy and gives an up-to-date, coherent account of recent developments in the media. It is also a useful book with which to introduce media studies to students as it is written in clear, accessible language, which is not so usual in academic books, whether they are written in Italian or in any other language. It would be useful both for media studies students and for others who are studying human and social sciences in giving them an overview of the methodological foundations of media research, particularly, as its cover tells us, of the most recent trends in European research in cultural studies. The chapters look at subjects from the definition of the terms used, through the history of media research, effects studies, and ethnographic and audience studies; the book would be useful for its extensive, multilingual bibliography (pp. 201-225) alone. The book concludes in an unusually frank manner, saying: It is not an easy task [to cover these subjects]. Here is why this is so, once again, it is not possible to arrive and to write true conclusions: Research is always the joining of trajectories that come from new points of departure. There are only two rules that should always bring to those who undertake social research on the media. The first of these is that humble and impassioned participatory style of which Boltanski speaks, which will then result in many other things. The second is to remember that the beginning and end of our research are the people of today and of tomorrow. (p. 199)