This is a practical handbook for English students and teachers in Years 10-12 that builds skills and knowledge for analysis of: issues; persuasive language techniques (written and oral); persuasive images; points of view. It is packed with all types of media texts with activities and sample student responses. This fabulous resource tutors the student through this most demanding area of their English studies.

This is the brilliant BRAND NEW EDITION of one of Insight’s best-selling Senior English resources. Through discussion, analysis, examples and activities based on different media types, students develop the ability to interpret a wide range of print and electronic NEW FEATURES include an engaging full-colour design, dynamic and stimulating activities catering to different levels of ability, and updated media texts covering a range of issues.media texts and to explore in depth how language is used to persuade readers and audiences.

This book is among the first to combine a historical view of media texts with a critical look at their textual diversity today. The thirteen chapters cover corpora of early news-papers and pamphlets, present-day news stories and commentaries, TV talk shows and commercials as well as internet presentations. The studies focus on the wide range of text types in 18th century newspapers and the interpersonal strategies of pamphlets; they pursue the development of the persuasive potential of headlines and advertisements right down to the sophisticated postmodernist and multilingual examples of today. Other topics are the definition and structure of news stories and commentaries, the interpersonal and multi-modal aspects of talkshows, and more radically, the questioning of the journalist’s role in the age of the internet. Generally the stress is on the attention-getting side of media texts rather than on the manipulative qualities investigated by critical discourse analysis.

Persuasion in the Media Age addresses the impact of electronic media on the practice of persuasion and reviews constantly evolving digital strategies. Today’s world demands a new perspective on persuasion—one that is grounded in the assumption that human consciousness and culture have been forever altered by communication technology. The fourth edition provides timely examples of persuasion in political campaigns, social movements, marketing, and interpersonal relationships—and the role of social media and media technologies in all of the contexts. From advertisers to politicians to influencers to friends, persuaders use increasingly sophisticated strategies to sway behavior. Borchers skillfully weaves theory, research, and engaging examples to help readers understand the practice of social influence—and to apply critical-thinking skills to the persuasion they encounter daily. The text takes an interdisciplinary approach to provide the latest thinking on persuasion while also drawing on a broad theoretical base for foundational concepts, such as attitudes, rhetoric, and human motivation. Throughout, Borchers emphasizes audience, storytelling, visual images, and ethics. This comprehensive, insightful, and accessible overview of persuasive communication teaches readers how to be skilled creators of persuasive messages—as well as critical consumers.

For secondary school age.

This thoroughly revised and updated third edition provides a comprehensive introduction to the various approaches to the field, explaining why media messages matter, how media businesses prosper and why media is integral to defining contemporary life. The text is divided into three parts – Media texts and meanings; Producing media; and Media and social contexts – exploring the ways in which various media forms make meaning; are produced and regulated; and how society, culture and history are defined by such forms. Encouraging students to actively engage in media research and analysis, each chapter seeks to guide readers through key questions and ideas in order to empower them to develop their own scholarship, expertise and investigations of the media worlds in which we live. Fully updated to reflect the contemporary media environment, the third edition includes new case studies covering topics such as Brexit, podcasts, Love Island, Captain Marvel, Black Lives Matter, Netflix, data politics, the Kardashians, President Trump, ‘fake news’, the post-Covid world and perspectives on global media forms. This is an essential introduction for undergraduate and postgraduate students of media studies, cultural studies, communication studies, film studies, the sociology of the media and popular culture.

A revision guide for the AQA English specification aimed at the more advanced student looking to boost his/her grade to A*. As well as the normal revision material, it explores advanced skills and techniques necessary to reach the very top.