Blogistan is a much-needed step toward breaking away from the Western view of media studies. Sreberny and Khiabany strip away the myths of what we think we know about Iranian society and, particularly, the role of media in political revolutions. The authors conclude that "technologies in themselves are insufficient substitute for political strategy, goals and discourse." Ultimately, the Twitter Revolution did not bring down the regime in Tehran, and here the book ends. But Sreberny and Khiabany are at work on another book, which will explore in greater detail the role of the media in the recent unrest in Iran.
This little advertising workbook is packed with incredibly useful information for advertising students at any level who are expected to complete a campaign as part of their course requirements. At just 144 pages, it succeeds in walking students through the entire campaign experience from creating their agencies to completing their pitches, with an extra chapter devoted to the American Advertising Federation's (AAF's) National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC). The workbook is divided into chapters that make it easy for students-even if they've never taken an advertising class-to execute an advertising campaign in the span of one 15-week semester. Chapter 1 takes students through the process of creating an agency from start to finish. It focuses on the basics of working in teams, with a checklist and worksheet that students can use to rate their own strengths and then collect contact information for each of their teammates. There are lists of goals and definitions of key agency roles. This chapter is especially helpful for students who may be taking an introductory class and need to complete a mini campaign. Chapter 2 gets into what a campaign is. While this chapter may be too elementary for students in a capstone class, it does provide a good overview for introductory classes. It also helps to make the book more streamlined in its approach. Chapter 3 is the first chapter that gets into the creation of the campaign itself by focusing on understanding the client and where their brand fits within the market, and Chapter 4 takes students through several different research tools-Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI), Mintel, Redbooks, Simmons, and SRDS-that can be used to understand everything from agencies to media choices to consumers and brands. The next two chapters focus on understanding the situation the brand is in as well as conducting developmental research for the campaign itself, but Chapter 7 is what I consider the crown jewel of this book: the creative brief chapter.
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