Michael Tapper

Cinematic terror: a global history of terrorism on film

the research should stop with the West Coast and she maintains that, ‘there remains much to be done to document Latino radio in other areas’ and that ‘despite the dearth of archival tapes, Sounds of Belonging encourages fellow media historians, radio enthusiasts, feminists, and ethnic studies scholars to preserve and reconstruct whatever possible’ (p. 12). This is the only way for ‘The Golden Age of Radio’ to be reimagined in the present day, growing stronger each day over the Spanish language airwaves in the United States.

Alfred Hitchcock's America

and why we create one at all’ (p. 148). And it is perhaps here that the work seems most in need of a serious reading of some of the key cultural studies texts. For, to adopt from Geertz, the idea that culture is a ‘way of life’ without reference to Raymond Williams or consideration of the Cultural Studies tradition seems remiss. In fact, Williams is mentioned only in relation to his work on Television, Technology and Cultural Form (Williams, 1990) in the later chapter about television. His foundational work on culture and meaning is not mentioned. In a book espousing suspicion of the art historical approach for its focus on biography, it is perhaps ironic that we should be given so much personal background to our six ‘intellectual guides’. Howells and Negreiros present an approach to visual culture more recognizable to art historians than to scholars of the media. In the second part, each chapter is devoted to a different ‘media’ form: ‘Fine Art,’ ‘Photography,’ ‘Film,’ ‘Television’ and ‘New Media’. Throughout these are discussed in relation to theories of the real. This pushes us back on the central art historical concern with verisimilitude and the representation of the real. Each chapter includes a section on further reading clearly aimed at the undergraduate reader. It is here that some of the more significant revisions have occurred but here also where the authors highlight works that one wishes they had considered in greater detail. At the heart of the thesis is the affirmation of the importance of visual literacy within pedagogic discourse about art, culture and the media. The clarity of writing and purpose distinguish Visual Culture favourably from some more obscurantist texts. We can look forward to a third edition, which may engage with some of the broader paradigms of scholarship relating to the study of visual culture.

Nazisploitation! The Nazi Image in Low-Brow Cinema and Culture

tributions of Baird and the BBC. The methodological dependence on archive sources compounds this emphasis as both parties generated considerable written resources attendant upon attitudes ranging from self-preservation to self-aggrandizement. A discursive error of which all media historians should be wary is teleology; history as a backwards glance from the author’s contemporary position will necessarily exclude paths not taken and occlude routes that later proved dead ends. In this discussion, Aldridge makes two teleological assumptions: that the location of television in the domestic sphere was a foregone conclusion and that television was destined to be a ‘public service’. We know that there were unofficial, pirate broadcasts and other forms of commercial broadcasting through most of the early history of radio and television broadcasting, yet this important (unofficial) history is not noted here. Aldridge also neglects to consider the exhibition of television experiments in cinemas, theatres, clubs and pubs. But more significantly, the idea of ‘public service’ in inter-war Britain was typically used to refer to public utilities such as gas, transport and electricity; economic goods that were state owned and controlled. ‘Public service’ did not necessarily have the rather high-minded cultural association it acquired latterly. Despite these limitations, Aldridge has written a valuable contribution to the history of early television in Britain, drawing extensively on a rich range of archive material.