Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising

Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising
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Easy to Read and Fulfills Its Purpose

Is there an editor in the house?

Good, but there have been better

It tells it like it is...

Provocateur : Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising

Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising
Anthony J. Cortese
Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0742524981

Book Description

This updated second edition offers a refined theoretical framework, new pedagogical features, and expansion of advertising images and their analysis. Controversially, the second edition highlights preliminary evidence, contrary to popular opinion, that media sex and violence do not always sell. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Customer Reviews:

Easy to Read and Fulfills Its Purpose.......2005-03-18

This book, Provocateur, does an amazing job at what author Cortese calls "deconstructing" advertising. He describes the dominance of men, the portrayal of women and many images promoting the continuing prevalence of prejudice in society of minorties. It evaluates the cause and effect of these portrayals and also addresses the "why". It calls to attention advertiser's drive to sell a product or idea. Sometimes, it does both. Cortese knows his stuff and lets you know it in this book. Great job at breaking it down and keeping the concepts separate. One of the previous reviews says it was confusing, ... might be the teacher, not the acclaimed book.

Is there an editor in the house?.......2005-02-19

I teach culture studies at a university in Taiwan and thought that this text might be appropriate to supplement the unit on images and popular culture that will be part of my seminar next semester. So, I ordered it. I must admit that I was staggered by what I found, almost from the start. I've rarely seen such a mess. The media review on this site mentions this work's potential as a textbook; I urge teachers to look elsewhere. Despite the impressive array of examples of advertising, the written support behind them is sometimes almost incomprehensible, with frequent (almost violent) changes in direction, highly questionable assertions about human nature, and just plain illogical trains of thought which frequently omit any pretense to transitions. I ran some of the passages by colleagues just to make sure that I wasn't off-base--but it wasn't long before they were scratching their heads, too. Think twice about buying it.
I am revisiting this review and think that I could add a star to the rating I gave it. I still can't give it any more than that for reasons stated above, which I basically still stick to. But, to be fair to the examples collected by the author and the basic list of things to look for (sort of a checklist of common problems to pay attention to, the book may be worth a look to some. Check it out from your library.

Good, but there have been better.......2003-07-25

Provocateur is a good introduction into the world of cultural studies as they relate to media depictions of women and minorities, especially African-Americans. Cortese goes over all of the basics about visual analysis of an image and the psychology used to construct ads so that the untrained eye doesn't pick up on the discrimination, but the message still gets sent.

This is a great book for an undergrad in cultural studies who needs a reference when talking about ideas in media analysis that seem almost common sense but still need to cite someone with a Ph.D.. It's also a great book for someone who's interested in media analysis, but not enough to take a class.

I would also recommend Berger's "Ways of Seeing" which does a good job of explaining a concept known as "The Gaze" which is integral to the analysis of women in visual representations.

It tells it like it is..........2002-08-05

As we advance into the 21st century, women and consumers of color will collectively have enough economic clout to influence mainstream advertising. The question is when and how? Sounds like a great idea for a brand...

Provocateur : Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising.......2002-05-26

I just want you to know I have this book so you take it off your reccomendation lists and stop trying to sell it to me---and I don't know how/where else to do this!!

Book Description

Presenting effective, practicable strategies modeled from ultramodern technologies and framed by the critical insights of 78 field experts, this vastly expanded Second Edition offers 32 chapters of industry- and waste-specific analyses and treatment methods for industrial and hazardous waste materials-from explosive wastes to landfill leachate to wastes produced by the pharmaceutical and food industries. Key additional chapters cover means of monitoring waste on site, pollution prevention, and site remediation. Including a timely evaluation of the role of biotechnology in contemporary industrial waste management, the Handbook reveals sound approaches and sophisticated technologies for treating · textile, rubber, and timber wastes · dairy, meat, and seafood industry wastes · bakery and soft drink wastes · palm and olive oil wastes · pesticide and livestock wastes · pulp and paper wastes · phosphate wastes · detergent wastes · photographic wastes · refinery and metal plating wastes · power industry wastes This state-of-the-art Second Edition is required reading for pollution control, environmental, chemical, civil, sanitary, and industrial engineers; environmental scientists; regulatory health officials; and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in these disciplines.

Handbook of industrial and hazardous wastes treatment, second edition [A book review from: Journal of Hazardous Materials]

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Handbook of industrial and hazardous wastes treatment, second edition [A book review from: Journal of Hazardous Materials]
G.F. Bennett
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000RR44P8

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Hazardous Materials, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:

Industrial Waste Treatment Handbook, Second Edition [A book review from: Journal of Hazardous Materials]

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Industrial Waste Treatment Handbook, Second Edition [A book review from: Journal of Hazardous Materials]
G.F. Bennett
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000PDSRIY

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Journal of Hazardous Materials, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:

Handbook of Industrial and Hazardous Waste Treatment: Second Edition, Revised and Expanded

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Handbook of Industrial and Hazardous Waste Treatment: Second Edition, Revised and Expanded
Lawrence K. Wang
Manufacturer: CRC Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MBRRDA

Book Description

Everybody Out of the Pond

At the Water's Edge will change the way you think about your place in the world. The awesome journey of life's transformation from the first microbes 4 billion years ago to Homo sapiens today is an epic that we are only now beginning to grasp. Magnificent and bizarre, it is the story of how we got here, what we left behind, and what we brought with us.

We all know about evolution, but it still seems absurd that our ancestors were fish. Darwin's idea of natural selection was the key to solving generation-to-generation evolution -- microevolution -- but it could only point us toward a complete explanation, still to come, of the engines of macroevolution, the transformation of body shapes across millions of years. Now, drawing on the latest fossil discoveries and breakthrough scientific analysis, Carl Zimmer reveals how macroevolution works. Escorting us along the trail of discovery up to the current dramatic research in paleontology, ecology, genetics, and embryology, Zimmer shows how scientists today are unveiling the secrets of life that biologists struggled with two centuries ago.

In this book, you will find a dazzling, brash literary talent and a rigorous scientific sensibility gracefully brought together. Carl Zimmer provides a comprehensive, lucid, and authoritative answer to the mystery of how nature actually made itself.

Customer Reviews:

The Extinction of Species .......2007-01-07

"At the Waters Edge: Fish with Fingers, Whales with Legs
By Carl Zimmer

THE EXTINCTION OF SPECIES

Nearly all the species of Life Forms that have ever existed are now extinct. Through the millennia, there have been five documented "mass extinctions," affecting everything from primordial life forms to Dinosaurs.
The lesson is either that the rest of the species were unprepared for evolution; or that Man for reasons unknown, was better equipped for survival.

"The Permian mass extinction occurred about 248 million years ago and was the greatest mass extinction ever recorded in earth history; even larger than the previously discussed Ordovician and Devonian crises and the better known End Cretaceous extinction that felled the dinosaurs. Ninety to ninety-five percent of marine species were eliminated as a result of this Permian event"*

In "Fish with Fingers; Whales with Legs" science writer Carl Zimmer examines the extinction of species that once used their digits for underwater propulsion, but later evolved into legs for walking on land.

Why are the Frogs disappearing? Nearly 200 species of amphibians are either extinct or heading that way) Is it because Amphibians, with their Permeable skin and need for ample moisture to keep their Skin from wrinkling, are more susceptible to extinction than say, insects; or because we (Man, as the Custodian of the Ecology) have so impacted the Environment that certain species are destined for doom?
In Africa, the Hippopotamus is endangered. A certain Toad (the golden Toad) of Costa Rica hasn't been seen in thirty years. Many species of Frogs and other amphibians have disappeared or are listed as Threatened or Vulnerable by the International Conservation Union. The Polar Bear is losing its Habitat: the Arctic ice shelf is disappearing. Polar bears are smaller and weaker, and more vulnerable to disease and famine.

"Over the last few decades scientists and naturalists around the world have noticed a disturbing declining trend in many amphibian populations. The cause of such declines has so far been elusive and multiple factors working in tandem are likely to be responsible. Among the factors listed as contributing causes to such declines are: climate change, increased exposure to ultraviolet radiation, habitat destruction, increased exposure to pathogens, acid rain, human predation, and others. There is uncertainty as to whether these declines are caused by human activity or by natural cycles but most scientists believe that humans are at least partly responsible for many of these declines." (1)

But there are some positive signs. There are certain environmental niches, or enclaves where species have been protected and isolated from human and natural enemies. An example of that is the so-called "noah's ark" region in the tropical rainforests of Brazil and Coral Reefs in Indonesia where previously unknown species of fish are being discovered. According to research published in the National Geographic, there are 794 species of threatened or endangered animals, plants, and insects living in 595 sites around the world; little ecosystems where these species persevere. Another recent study shows that Earth's population is exceeding Earth's resources.
Man is the greatest enemy of the Environment. Man also has the capacity to arrest or reverse the tendency toward extinction and eradication of species.
Further Recommended Reading:
Ellis, Richard: No Turning Back: The Life and Death of Animal Species
Quammen, D: The Death of the Dodo
Dawkins, Richard: The Ancestor's Tale : A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution.
--END--

A Whale of A Tale!.......2006-08-26

This is one of my favourite books. Not just about whales, mind you, but about evolution of life in the oceans, then up onto land and, in some cases, back to sea again.

The author takes the reader through a complete yet understandable history of the evolution of whales. For my part, I knew that whales had once been terrestrial, but I didn't know even a tenth of the entire story. I learned that one of the first whales (or al least it's ancestor) was ambulocetus natans, a curious looking fellow who was something of a cross between a wolf and a whale. Then, on to Rodocetus and Basilosaurus and Dorudon, thogh not necessarily in that order.

I found out things I would never have expected in this book, such as the evolution of hand and how Hox genes work during development in the womb.

For anyone who is interested in whale evolution, human evolution, or life in the sea, this book is for you!

Enlightening........2006-04-25

I'm not one to pen lengthy reviews as the idea is, after all, what is the book about, did I or did I not like it and why - plain and simple. Well, I did like it, hence the 4 stars. However, I'm not quite sure why. Mr. Zimmer explains about evolution, some exploring, discovering, insight and mystery solving in a style that contributes to it all being easily understood (almost as if you were involved with it in some small way). It's inspiring, informative and educational. It isn't a cliff hanger, but it kept my attention and after having put it down I wanted to pick it up again. Not riveting but, I think, addictive. If you're interested in discovering the linear progression of how our understanding has arrived at where we now find ourselves (regarding evolution) then give it a try.

Walk in, then take the plunge!.......2005-09-21

At The Water's Edge is about about the evolution of large and important changes in species; Zimmer focuses on change in habitat, the move from sea to land, and then back to sea.

Zimmer begins by describing different fish lineages and concentrates on the branch that leads to our own chordate subphylum, the tetrapods. How and why did legs evolve? How did our left and right walking motion appear? Zimmer reveals a surprising answer. Tetrapods, legs, and walking did not evolve to help fish survive on land; they evolved to help fish swim in shallow swampy river deltas at the ocean's edge. These features allow fish to move more efficiently among the river plants and to sneak up on prey more easily. Once the left right motion was established, it was easy for fins to strengthen. At some point there came a need to move from puddle to puddle, or perhaps to escape predators, or to lie in wait out of the water. Strong alternating fins, which had evolved in a purely aquatic environment, were ideally suited to these new tasks.

To emphasize this original unplanned use of an existing feature, Zimmer uses Stephen Jay Gould's strange neologism "exaptation" rather than a more familiar term like pre-adaption. Zimmer prefers exaptation because pre-adaptation somehow implies that the final use of a thing was planned from the beginning. Zimmer emphasizes that it was not.

Once he's done with how tetrapods appeared and then came to land, Zimmer makes an about face and returns to the seafollowing whales and dolphins. Here too we find surprises. Early whale ancestors probably behaved like crocodiles and alligators. They would stay in the water with only their eyes and nose protruding, waiting for a land based prey to come close. Later, Zimmer describes echolocation, one of the most complex and useful features of cetaceans. Dolphins and many whales have a superb sonar system that works by echoing clicks out and back in through a fat-filled cavity in their forehead called the melon. The melon
acts as a sound lends letting dolphins "see" small objects hundreds of feet away. How can such a useful and complex organ evolve? The current hypothesis is that the melon's first function in early whales was simply to block the nasal passage during deep dives, to keep water out. Once it existed, it probably provided very rudimentary echolocation which gave natural selection something to work with. Another exaptation.

Another topic Zimmer touches often is cladism, which is the sorting of species into a genealogical table by identifying key features. Features common to a group of species can imply a common ancestor even if we haven't found any trace of the ancestor itself. Two cladistic schools are at this moment fighting it out: the biological and morphological school one side, and the genetic school on the other. The schools often arrive at different conclusions. The strength of the biological school is that its discoveries are practical; key features mean something concrete like a backbone (chordates) or a melon (dolphins and many whales). However, key features are very difficult to identify. Genes on the other hand are easy to identify and to compare among different species. Also, there's a mechanical logic to genes that readily lends itself to cladistic sorting. However, genes often don't mean anything, i.e. have no effect on how the organism works, and they can mutate at random, appearing and disappearing for no reason. Each camp will probably have to find a way to learn from the other.

Charles Darwin famously called his Origin of Species "one long argument", by which he sought to establish Natural Selection as the main means of evolution. You might take Zimmer's book as one short argument to establish exaptations and cladism as the main engines of macroevolution.

Truly excellent book on evolution .......2005-04-28

_At the Water's Edge_ by Carl Zimmer is a fascinating and well-written account of macroevolution, evolution outside of the "generation-by-generation" pace of microevolution. In microevolution, biologists can follow the process of natural selection; as every generation of a species produces a line of variants, some of these variants do better than others and survive to possibly pass on those variant traits to their offspring. Biologists can for instance track the success (and failure) of individual genes or how a particular species of insect adapts to a new pesticide. Macroevolution on the other hand works on much larger, grander scales, a scale in which completely new types of bodies appear.

Zimmer sought to examine macroevolution in the development of tetrapods from fish (which occurred between 380 and 360 million years ago) and whales from land mammals (occurring about 50 million years ago), using these fascinating accounts to introduce to the reader two of the most common features of macroevolution - exaptations of existing features and the correlated progression of many different parts.

Exaptation is a term used to describe the notion of a structure crafted by evolution for one function and later becoming ideal for another, often completely different function. Early in the 20th century this concept was known as preadaptation, a term coined by Alfred Sherwood Romer, though Stephen Jay Gould and Elizabeth Vrba in 1982 offered the term exaptation instead as preadaptation seemed to imply some sort of conscious planning for the future that evolution can never have.

In tetrapod evolution, the production of urea in lobe-fins was an exaptation - originally evolved as a way for an organism to avoid ammonia poisoning, excess salt, and water loss at sea, an excellent system for when tetrapods came ashore. Lungs may have evolved originally not for life on land but to give predatory fish more stamina in chasing prey at sea, this ability helping keep the heart nourished and allowing the fish to swim longer and harder than fish without lungs. Early tetrapods evolved legs to move along shallow, coastal lagoon bottoms and through flooded forests, not to move onto land, an "exaptation of the most dramatic sort." Among whales, _Ambulocetus_, an ancestor with perhaps a crocodile-like lifestyle, may have evolved the ability to hold its breath while it drowned its prey in deep water, an exaptation for later life at sea. Similarly, the ability of _Ambulocetus_ to hear low-frequency sounds traveling through the ground - as it rested its head on the shore, waiting for prey, the sounds traveling up its bony jaw - may have been an exaptation for hearing underwater.

Correlated progression is a bit harder of a concept to explain. Essentially, it is a "choreography of changes" in an animal. The term, originated by Keith Thomson in the 1960s, describes how one change in a particular aspect of an organism cannot take place unless natural selection was also altering the other parts of the organism for other adaptations at the same time; changes in one part of the body can sometimes make other changes more beneficial to an animal. If anatomical features of an animal are tightly linked together, they will change in concert.

The evolution of the tetrapod ear is an excellent example of correlated progression. The stapes in the human ear is homologous with a large bone that supports fish jaws, known as the hyomandibular. The ancestral lobe-fin fish's skull was originally a loose collection of bones held together by ligaments, the hyomandibular serving to brace the upper and lower jawbones against the back of the braincase and also helping to flare open the gill flap to let stale water out of the animal's head. As shown by such fossils as _Acanthostega_, early tetrapods developed a braincase that was fused shut, the jaw being able now to make direct contact with the sturdier skull, the hyomandibular bone no longer needed to support the jaw (and also not needed for working the gills as they became less important for breathing). The hyomandibular shrank and became lodged tightly in the back of the skull, at first locked in so much that it couldn't vibrate freely. Later on other bones of the skull became sturdy enough that the proto-stapes could loosen and begin transmitting sounds to the brain. The stapes could only evolve as a new type of bite was evolving thanks to changes in the skull and in breathing. In turn, the shrinking hyomandibular had its own effects; as the muscles that once connected it to the gill arches now were attached to the jaw to open and shut it and support the head on its shoulders, the dwindling hyomandibular let other bones and muscles create the tetrapod neck. Also, when the shoulders were liberated from the head and from the heavy bone once covering the gills, there was enough room for a bigger, more complex shoulder joint better suited to walking on land.

Similarly, the evolution of whale echolocation was a good example of correlated progression, each incremental change in the head of the whale encouraging other changes. Some whales may have accidentally made noises in their nose that, thanks to their echoes, made it easier to hunt prey. Sound may have inadvertently been focused by nose plugs, with whales with oversized nose plugs being favored (the nose plugs evolving into melons). The nose moved up towards the top of the head for easier breathing, but the jaws expanded back to carry it there, which made the whale's skull more stable as it moved back and creating a reflecting dish on the upper jaw for sounds waves coming from the nose as a well as a platform on which the melon to rest.

In addition to being a book on the concepts of exaptation and correlated progression, the book can simply be read as an excellent illustrated report of the evolution of tetrapods and whales, with the history of research, accounts of the personalities involved, and speculations on the lifestyles and habitats of early tetrapods and whales.

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