MEDYA MANTIĞI

“Media Logic” is the study of the usage of the media instruments and its consequences for the media culture. The major concern of the authors is with dramatic changes in theoretical issues in the media culture, the role of the usage of the mass media in our lives. In fact, the book addresses how the logic and forms of the media perspectives have shaped fundamental reality of our social life. With the help of critics towards the impartiality of the media culture, the authors conduct systematic research of the issue. Not only does the book highlight the issue between media usage and the social culture, but also it establishes a theoretical approach about how researchers can become aware media images. The book consists of eight chapters. The first chapter is an introductory part, written by the authors. In this part, the authors take a significant approach to examine media as a social structure in our lives. When they state “Media logic becomes a way of “seeing” and of interpreting social affairs,” they try to demonstrate that people’s opinions were transmitted by the media instruments such as television, radio, and newspaper. What the media introduces to us becomes the reality of the social structure. In the conclusion of the first chapter, the authors repeat their plan, which analyzes entertainment, news, politics, religion, and sports in the American culture. They analyze the American society due to fact that they argue that these categories’ strategies have become specific media formats in that culture. In the rest of the book, those categories were analyzed deeply. For instance, in the fourth chapter, titled as “Media Politics I”, the authors discuss the image formats of the media logic in the political area. The statement “Since politics has been most closely aligned with the rise and evolution of media forms, it is not surprising that political life today bears the clearest mark of the media’s influence” demonstrates the media as a dominant instrument of the effectiveness that has been controlled and shaped by the politics. Therefore, media formats become the main framers of the political life in the American society. In the fifth chapter, titled “Media Politics II: The Bert Lance Case”, the authors examine the process of the media politics by investigating Bert Lance Case (Altheide & Snow, 1979: 75).After mentioning the book’s content, it is significant to evaluate the authors’ qualifications. First of all, the main author, Dr. David L. Altheide, is the professor of the Regents at the Arizona State University. He has focused on the areas of mass communication, qualitative research methods, social control, and propaganda and official information. He published eleven books and 150 papers. His major expertise is the mass media; in fact, he argues that the media is the central of the social sciences. It is necessary to evaluate media’s influences on people because its impact is so imperative to realize what they do and what the consequences will be. Altheide uses especially qualitative research methods. Indeed, he believes that the most significant theoretical foundation for qualitative research is symbolic interaction. He uses all aspects of this method, such as interviewing and qualitative content analysis. When we mention his research methods, it is vital to focus on this book titled “Media Logic” too. Altheide (1979) tries to combine all research methods to provide his argument. In the book “Media Logic”, he focuses on qualitative content analysis, interviews with experts and reporters, a case study, and cooperation with students and his colleagues (Altheide & Snow, 1979:98). Moreover, Robert P. Snow is a professor in the department of Sociology at the Arizona State University, and he is the co-author of the book “Media Logic.” He generally studies the area of the use of television in education. His main field is mass communication. He has several articles about the mass media, two of which are “Teaching Sociology through Existing Television Programs” and “Learning and Self-Counseling through Television Entertainment “The Prisoner.” By looking at the authors’ qualifications of this book, it can be concluded that the authors are well educated in their areas, and they can provide their argument. After focusing the authors’ evaluation and the research method of this book, it is also important to spotlight the writing style of the authors. When this book is read, it is clearly seen that because of well organization of the ideas, the book can be easily read by readers. The writing style of this book explains the purpose of this book, and gives supporting details about it. As a result, it can be said that there is no unclarified part in this book.