Captive Audience

This book is concerned with the media's role in everyday life, power relations and the construction of masculine identities in the context of prisons. It is based upon unique research into the nature, impact and consequences of a situation where most prisoners in English prisons have access to some media resource, whether radio or television, or with communal or individual access to it. Captive Audience charts for the first time the way in which prisons use media in coping - or failing to cope - with the pressures of prison life, exploring the impact of the media in terms of prisoner identitie.

Cover; Captive Audience: Media, Masculinity and Power in Prisons; Copyright; Contents; Acknowledgements; Introduction: prisons, media and everyday life; Chapter 1 Prison, pain and identity: a review of the literature; The loss of liberty; The problem of time: 'doing' time, 'killing' time and 'marking' time; The importance of material possessions; Autonomy, choice and personal responsibility; The deprivation of heterosexual relationships and notions of masculinity; Fear of contamination and assault; Fear of personal deterioration and breakdown.

Contextualising the importance of media in everyday lifeChapter 2 Identity, self and constructions of masculinity; The cultural milieu of the prison; Self and identity; The social construction of masculinity; Hegemonic masculinity in prisons; Concluding thoughts; Chapter 3 Research context and methodology; Pilot phase; The main phase of research; Research strategy and methodology; My identities; Chapter 4 The microsocial contexts of media use; Identity and place; Identity and time; Place-time-space; Relationship between different media.

Meanings and motivations sought in specific media contentChapter 5 The meso-sphere of culture, interacti…