New Book: Archaeology and the Media

Left Coast Press

Thanks very much to co-author Marcus Brittain for his email to the Arch-Theory group (ARCH-THEORY@JISCMAIL.AC.UK) announcing the publication of a new book. I suspect that the examples will all be focused on Europe, but I thought that the title would have a global appeal, so I've posted the details provided by Brittain:

I am pleased to inform you that ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE MEDIA, edited by Timothy Clack and Marcus Brittain, has recently been published (Left Coast Press, 2007, Hardback 978-1-59874-233-6, Paperback 978-1-59874-234-3). Under 5 different themes, its contents are:

Preface
Chapter 1. “Introduction: Archaeology and the Media”, by Marcus Brittain & Timothy Clack (pp. 11-65)

PART I. Archaeology’s Reception of the Media Chapter 2. “An Archaeological Fashion Show: How Archaeologists Dress and How they are Portrayed in the Media”, by Cornelius Holtorf (pp.69-88) Chapter 3. “Not Archaeology and the Media”, by Peter Fowler (pp.89-107)

PART II. Translating Archaeological Narratives Chapter 4. “A Short History of Archaeological Communication”, by Karol Kulik (pp. 111-124) Chapter 5. “In the Camera’s Lens: An Interview with Brian Fagan and Francis Pryor”, by Marcus Brittain and Timothy Clack (pp. 125-134) Chapter 6. “Darkness Disseminated: Lennart Larsen’s Images as Photojournalism, Pop Archaeology, and Works of Art”, by Christine Finn (pp. 135-150)

PART III. Has the Media Changed Archaeology?
Chapter 7. “Archaeology and the German Press”, by Marion Benz and Anna Katrien Liedmeier (pp. 153-174) Chapter 8. “Great War, Great Story: A Personal View of Media and Great War Archaeology”, by Jon Price (pp. 175-184)

PART IV. Visual Archaeology
Chapter 9. “Screening Biases: Archaeology, Television, and the Banal”, by Timothy Taylor (pp. 187-200) Chapter 10. “ ‘Worldwonders’ and ‘Wonderworlds’: A Festival of Archaeological Film”, by Tom Stern (pp. 201-220) Chapter 11. “Faking It: Why the Truth is so Important for TV Archaeology”, by Angela Piccini (pp. 221-236) Chapter 12. “The Iconography of Exhumation: Representations of Mass Graves from the Spanish Civil War”, by Layla Renshaw (pp. 237-251)

PART V. Archaeology, the Media, and the Digital Future Chapter 13. “The Past as Playground: The Ancient World in Video Game Representation”, By Andrew Gardner (pp. 255-272) Chapter 14. “Digital Media, Agile Design, and the Politics of Archaeological Authorship”, by Michael Shanks (pp. 273-289)


From back cover:

“Archaeology fascinates the public. As a result, archaeologists deal with media and media issues much more regularly than colleagues in other academic disciplines. Archaeologists need mass media to communicate their research to the public who read, support and, ultimately, fund their work.
Media logic has often coloured how archaeologists do that work and report their findings. In this volume, a group of distinguished archaeologists, many with media-backgrounds, address the wide range of questions in this intersection of fields. They explore the crucial question: what are the long-term implications of the increasing exposure through – and reliance upon – media forms for the practice of archaeology? An array of media forms are covered including television, film, photography, the popular press, art, video games, radio and digital media. The volume will be of interest to public archaeologists, public historians, communication researchers, and their students.”

Left Coast Pressis a relatively new publisher of academic titles, launched in 2005. Egyptology titles can be found via the site's search engine.