Beyond Consumer Capitalism

Justin Lewis is Professor of Communication and Head of the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University

• Acknowledgements page vii1 Introduction: The problems of consumer capitalism in the twenty-first century – and why we find it sodifficult to appreciate them 1Part I Stretching beyond its limits: The tired machinery of consumer capitalism2 Consumer capitalism as a cul-de-sac 153 The environmental, economic and social constraints of consumer capitalism 26Part II Selling stories4 The insatiable age 535 Tales of sales: The politics of advertising 70Part III Reporting consumer capitalism6 Disposable news and democracy: Rethinking the way we report the world 937 Disposable news, consumerism and growth 111Part IV Waste and retrieval8 Obsessed with obsolescence: Confusing hyperconsumption with progress 1339 Imagining a different world 154Notes 177References 205Index 223

"Examines with eloquence and erudition the rampant consumer capitalism and persistent neo-liberalism of contemporary society and investigates the media’s collusion in this state of affairs. This is a book for our times."James Curran, Goldsmiths, University of London "A masterpiece. With panache and vision, Lewis makes a powerful case for the severe limitations of contemporary capitalism for a sustainable or humane society and he locates the commercial media's fingerprints all over the rotting corpse. Lewis provides a powerful critique and also points towards a way out. Elegantly written and with a sweeping command of the relevant literature, Beyond Consumer Capitalism is a book I will use in my classes; it should be required reading for young people wanting to understand our predicament."Robert W. McChesney, University of Illinois "Justin Lewis is one of the world's most acute observers of contemporary cultural politics. Effortlessly blending political economy, textual analysis and participant observation, his latest book alerts us, in an incisive but always humane way, to the excesses of consumption. This is an instant classic with abiding lessons for us all."Toby Miller, University of California Riverside