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Theorising Video Practice MIKE WAYNE, 1997
London, Lawrence & Wishart, 12.99 (pbk), 250 pp. ISBN 0 85315 827 4 The wide availability of camcorders in the domestic market and the potential for an independent video culture, akin to the independent music culture, is stated as a prime motive for this book. So what readership might the author have in mind? Not the average camcorder owner, I suspect. The text assumes an understanding of critical theory and cultural analysis beyond the ken of the average graduate.
In reviewing this book I readily accept that my perspective is that of a wage slave and fearful exponent of the 'professional' video and film practices inflicted on students of the media. If this review was written for a different journal, I might have declined the task, but the Association's membership and the Journal's readership contain, I suppose, a majority of like souls, so I feel justified in commenting from this perspective.
This is a very political book, and does a creditable job of explaining and demonstrating the effects of capitalism on the media industries. From the hegemony of Hollywood to the...