ACRC

Film and Television: a guide to the reference literature

by Mark Emmons

I forgot how I stumbled upon this book in ACRC. I think I was poring over publishers’ catalogues trying to catch up on my book selections. 

This is what was said of the resource:

The popularity and pervasiveness of film and television in 21st century life is inescapable. Whether viewed as entertainment, educational, or cultural forms, the effect of these media on our lifestyles and attitudes is unmistakable. No wonder an increasing number of academics, students, and laypeople are drawn to study their particular appeal.

Mark Emmons’ magnum opus is a true labor of love. International in scope, it offers 1,244 substantially annotated entries, organized by topic. Its focus is movies and television shows: how they are produced; the people who make and appear in them; their content, their distribution and exhibition; and their reception by audiences, reviewers, critics, and scholars.

Beginning with general guides, dictionaries and encyclopedias, the book then turns to filmographies, filmmakers, and filmmaking respectively. “Filmographies” list films and television shows in the categories of national cinema and genre, made by studios or filmmakers, or featuring various groups of people. “Filmmakers” includes biographies and credits for filmmakers and actors. “Filmmaking” includes reference sources on making film and television shows.

This is a great resource for me, the subject librarian for film and broadcast … and for students who want a broad sweep of related literature in this field of study.  

 Available in the NTU Library – Asian Communication Resource Centre (unless I am holding on to it)

Call No. Z5784.M9E54

 Personal Influence: the part played by people in the flow of mass communications

by Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld

“Personal Influence was perhaps the most influential book in mass communication research of the postwar era, and it remains a signal text with historic significance and ongoing reverberations … more than any other single work, it solidified what came to be known as the dominant paradigm in the field, which later researchers were compelled either to cast off or build upon” ~ Peter Simonson, The University of Pittsburgh

First published in 1955, Personal Influence reports the results of a pioneering study conducted in Decatur, Illinois, validating Paul Lazarsfeld’s serendipitous discovery that messages from the media may be further mediated by informal “opinion leaders” who intercept, interpret, and diffuse what they see and hear to the personal networks in which they are embedded. This classic volume set the stage for all subsequent studies of the interaction of mass media and interpersonal influence in the making of everyday decisions in public affairs, fashion, movie-going, and consumer behaviour.

Available in NTU Library – Asian Communication Resource Centre

Call No: HM1236.K1