{"title":"James Curran","description":"\u003cp\u003eJames Curran's works traverse the complex terrains of \u003cstrong\u003epolitics\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003emedia\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cstrong\u003esociety\u003c\/strong\u003e, offering insightful analysis on the forces shaping our world. His books delve into the intricate interplay between media power, communication, and political influence, inviting readers to rethink contemporary issues with clarity and depth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBeyond politics, Curran's exploration of \u003cstrong\u003esports\u003c\/strong\u003e and cultural narratives highlights human ambition and achievement, while his contributions to \u003cem\u003eeducation and reference\u003c\/em\u003e provide a thoughtful foundation for understanding media’s role in society. His writing weaves intellectual rigour with accessible scholarship, engaging those curious about the stories behind current affairs and media landscapes.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"understanding-media-by-joanna-redden-9780241685402","title":"Understanding Media","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn authoritative and accessible guide to the world's most influential force - the contemporary media.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOur lives are more mediated than ever before. Adults in economically advanced countries spend on average over eight hours per day interacting with the media. The world now has more than 5 billion internet users, and big tech continues to amass more and more money and power. Are we living through a media revolution? \u003cem\u003eUnderstanding Media\u003c\/em\u003e addresses this question by drawing on decades of research investigating how the news, television, film and technology are intertwined with power and social change.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eChanges in the media are related to wider changes in society. The media have supported dictatorship in some places, social liberalism in others, and reflect the spread of neoliberal orthodoxy and inequality around much of the globe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTracing overarching trends while attending to crucial local context, from the United States to China, Norway to Malaysia, and Brazil to Britain, this book arms the reader with the facts and perspectives needed to navigate the reality of the media and the world we live in.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46355249692908,"sku":"9780241685402","price":65.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/567563482274.jpg?v=1744303456"},{"product_id":"australias-china-odyssey-by-james-curran-9781742237152","title":"Australia's China Odyssey","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShortlisted, The 2023 Australian Political Book of the Year Award\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAustralia's relationship with China is one of the dominant geopolitical stories of our times. The need to understand the tectonic forces of history moving beneath the surface of these critical events has never been more pressing.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eAustralia's China Odyssey\u003c\/i\u003e, acclaimed historian James Curran explores this crucial and complicated relationship through the prism of the prime ministers who have handled relations with Beijing since Whitlam in 1972.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMuch recent analysis assumes that managing China has been difficult only since 2017. Yet, this relationship has always been difficult. And while there have been moments of euphoria and uplift—moments, even, when some believed Australia could have a 'special relationship' with China—high anxiety and fear have often trailed closely in that slipstream. This book provides historical ballast to a debate so often mired in the parochialism of the present.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe task of adjusting to China's rise is the greatest challenge Australian diplomacy has faced since Japan's revisionist attempts to remake East Asia in the 1930s. Ultimately, while China under Xi Jinping has indeed changed, and while there is justifiable alarm concerning the course of Beijing's aggressive and authoritarian nationalism, \u003ci\u003eAustralia's China Odyssey\u003c\/i\u003e asks whether we have the courage to look in the mirror and see what this debate also reveals about Australia. Reflecting on the 2022 change in government in his postscript, Curran tackles an even harder question: the future of Australia's China policy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'A first-class historian who knows a good story, Curran raises the titillating question of today: Where will this lead Australia?' - Jane Perlez\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Absorbing and compelling...written with flair and balance.' - Peter Varghese\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'A sharp analysis of contemporary events interwoven with a deep sense of the historical threads.' - Dennis Richardson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Yes, you must read this.' - John McCarthy\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Comprehensive, engaging, and very valuable.' - Hugh White,\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ci\u003eAustralian Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Curran supplies what is usually absent from contemporary Australian discussions of China - a well-grounded sense of historical perspective.' - Kerry Brown,\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ci\u003eInside Story\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46848486047980,"sku":"9781742237152","price":103.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/8273203482808.jpg?v=1758981630"},{"product_id":"campese-by-james-curran-9781922310576","title":"Campese","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnce hailed as the \u003cem\u003e‘Bradman of Rugby’\u003c\/em\u003e, David Campese thrilled spectators both in Australia and overseas with his footloose, crazy-brave style of free running. This book tells the story of his rise from humble beginnings to the very top of a global sport.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs a rugby player, David Campese seemed to operate on pure instinct, one that left many a defender clutching for him in vain, stranded in the slipstream of his audacity. He followed no straight path, observed no convention, and in so doing brought a whole swag of new supporters to the game. Hailed as the \u003cem\u003e‘Bradman of Rugby’\u003c\/em\u003e by former Wallaby coach Alan Jones and the \u003cem\u003e‘Pele’ of Rugby\u003c\/em\u003e by others, Campese was a match-winner. True, he could lose the odd game as well, but this was part of his unique allure—Campese took crowds to the edge of their seats... and their patience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe refrain \u003cem\u003e‘I saw Campese play’\u003c\/em\u003e now speaks to much more than wistful reminiscences about a player widely regarded as the most entertaining ever to play the game of Rugby Union. It has come to represent a state of chronic disbelief that the Wallaby ascendancy of Campese’s era—the style, panache, and winning ways of the Australian team in the 1980s and 1990s—has now been squandered by Rugby’s continuing struggle to adapt to the coming of professionalism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCampese occupies a unique intersection in the sport’s history—one of its last amateurs, and one of its first professionals. The rigid, robotic game of today appears incapable of accommodating a player of his dash and daring, or of replicating his teams' successes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCampese\u003c\/em\u003e is an intelligent and deeply felt meditation on the rugby player’s genius, as well as an erudite analysis of Campese’s complex position in the wider context of Australian sport. The book is an immense success. Unlike Campese’s on-field opponents, Curran, a historian, sociologist and passionate rugby fan, is able to understand this quixotic sportsman.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e- Barnaby Smith, Australian Book Review\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCurran is not so much interested in Campese’s life, but with the aesthetics of his play, analysing it as you might a poem or mythology. The result—astute, imaginative and very accessible—is the kind of superior sports writing that comes along rarely. You don’t have to be a rugby fan to appreciate it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e- Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen, The Sydney Morning Herald\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA smart writer pursues one of Australia’s most elusive and enigmatic champions. The result is shrewd, measured, evocative, and, at times, transporting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e- Gideon Haigh, author of \u003cem\u003eOn Warne\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47076388798700,"sku":"9781922310576","price":37.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/11516883482872.jpg?v=1765196603"},{"product_id":"understanding-media-by-joanna-redden-9780241289617","title":"Understanding Media","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn authoritative and accessible guide to the world's most influential force - the contemporary media.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOur lives are more mediated than ever before. Adults in economically advanced countries spend, on average, over eight hours per day interacting with the media. The news and entertainment industries are being transformed by the shift to digital platforms. But how much is really changing in terms of what shapes media content? What are the impacts on our public and imaginative life? And is the Internet a democratising tool of social protest, or of state and commercial manipulation?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on decades of research to examine these and other questions, \u003cem\u003eUnderstanding Media\u003c\/em\u003e interrogates claims about the Internet, explores how representations in TV and film may influence perceptions of self, and traces overarching trends while attending to crucial local context, from the United States to China, Norway to Malaysia, and Brazil to Britain. \u003cem\u003eUnderstanding Media\u003c\/em\u003e is an accessible and essential guide to the world's most influential force - the contemporary media.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47341784236268,"sku":"9780241289617","price":30.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/5f3439db0489bdfbafba13ae13dba00e.jpg?v=1772220390"},{"product_id":"media-and-power-by-james-curran-9780415077392","title":"Media and Power","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eMedia and Power\u003c\/i\u003e addresses three key questions about the relationship between media and society. \u003cem\u003eHow much power do the media have?\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eWho really controls the media?\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eWhat is the relationship between media and power in society?\u003c\/em\u003e In this major new book, James Curran reviews the different answers which have been given, before advancing original interpretations in a series of ground-breaking essays.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis book also provides a guided tour of the major debates in media studies. What part did the media play in the making of modern society? How did 'new media' change society in the past? Will radical media research recover from its mid-life crisis? Is public service television the dying product of the nation in an age of globalization?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eMedia and Power\u003c\/i\u003e provides both a clear introduction to media research and an innovative analysis of media power.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Taylor \u0026 Francis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47606810607852,"sku":"9780415077392","price":548.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/237bf03ac36898e4ea783e2ac6067ddc.jpg?v=1778191467"},{"product_id":"misunderstanding-the-internet-by-james-curran-9781138906204","title":"Misunderstanding the Internet","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe growth of the internet has been spectacular. There are now more than 3 billion internet users across the globe, some 40 per cent of the world’s population. 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Three decades on, \u003cem\u003eGrand Ambition\u003c\/em\u003e revisits that vision – bold, contested and largely unrealised – and asks whether Keating’s prime ministership represents a path not taken to redefine the nation’s place in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on newly revealed documents and extensive interviews, it traces how Keating sought to reshape Australia’s foreign policy at the end of the Cold War: anchoring the country in Asia, embedding China within a regional order, deepening ties with Indonesia and challenging long-held assumptions about dependence on great powers. For Keating, economic reform, national identity and international strategy were inseparable: part of a single, sweeping project to remake Australia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAmbitious and provocative, \u003cem\u003eGrand Ambition\u003c\/em\u003e offers both a portrait of a singular political mind and a reappraisal of a pivotal era. It argues that the questions Keating grappled with – about independence, security and identity – remain unresolved, and more urgent than ever in a world defined by rising tensions between the United States, China and the rest of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47745273463020,"sku":"9781761425233","price":59.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781761425233-grand-ambition.jpg?v=1781497480"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/james-curran.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}