In Cultural Change and Ordinary Life, author Brian Longhurst, Professor of Sociology and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Media and Social Sciences at Salford University, explores the relationships among ordinary life, media and cultural change.

Longhurst asserts that ordinary life in the UK is ‘drenched’ by the media of communication (i.e. television, radio, film, mp3 players, mobile phones). He argues that contemporary theories fail to conceptualize how the media as well as social and cultural contexts transform ordinary life. He suggests that it is shaped by globalization, hybridization, fragmentation, enthusing behaviour, spectacle and performance as well as media pervasiveness.

A central theme of Longhurst's argument is that ordinary life is focused around the interactions of performance and audience. He asserts that human processes of belonging, distinguishing and individualizing are increasingly mediated through everyday performance and spectacle, just as in media life. He demonstrates how the media structures daily time use and produces certain ways of connecting with others, and performing identity. Furthermore, he describes how shifts in measures of sociability, social trust and other types of social capital may be due to the media's influence on patterns of interaction. It is suggested that the self is extended, diffused and linked through ‘mediatized’ processes whereby individuals and groups are ‘able to perform electively in a wide range of increasingly audienced situations’ (p. 124). The growing presence and accessibility of media in ordinary life have formed particular modes of expressing and distinguishing the self.

The changing nature of ordinary life may be better understood by synthesizing research in the fields of sociology, cultural and media studies. Cultural Change and Ordinary Life describes how the processes of identifying, distinguishing, belonging and enthusing are performed and constructed every day and shaped by media consumption.

Longhurst's objective to weave together the themes of culture change, media and ordinary life is commendable and ambitious. His efforts could have been reinforced by the utilization of additional examples to illustrate his theoretical concepts. I recommend this book to graduate students and seasoned scholars of sociology, cultural and media studies alike.