Mass Media

Beautifully written and class tested, Exploring Mass Media for a Changing World provides a comprehensive but modestly priced text around which instructors can develop a customized teaching package. Written for introductory courses, it covers essential information students need in order to understand the media, the mass communication process, and the role of media in society. It summarizes basic, generally agreed-upon principles, theories, significant historical events, and essential facts, but does so in a tightly written, readable style. Taken together, this information can be thought of as a minimum repertoire that all citizens of the "information age" need in order to become literate consumers and users of mass communication. Features include: *Historical Framework--For ease of comprehension, media processes and individual media are placed in historical context to show their technological evolution and the effects of those changes on society. *Organization--The first seven chapters deal with the evolution of communication theories and processes common to all media. The next five deal with specific media in the chronological order in which they became mass media. Chapters 13 and 14 introduce two non-media institutions (advertising and public relations) whose exploration is essential in order to understand how mass media functions in our society. Finally, chapter 15 returns to the theme of technological evolution and its effects on society with an in-depth discussion of the internet. *Flexibility--Because it is concise, affordable, and comprehensive, it can be used either as a stand-alone text in mass media courses or as part of an instructional package in courses where mass communication is one of several major units. *Themes--The following themes are introduced early and carried throughout: (a) the evolution of media technology and its effects on society, (b) the global and culture-bound characteristics of mass media, and (c) the need for media literacy in the 21st century. *Supplements--An accompanying instructor's manual begins with a chapter-length essay on teaching the mass media course then offers the following items for each chapter: topical outline and key vocabulary; key ideas to be emphasized and pitfalls to be avoided; discussion questions; objective and essay test items; and both print and nonprint resources for further study.

"This book analyses issues of the internet and mass media in a rapidly changing environment. It covers a wide range of fundamentals which will be in effect for a longer time, and reflects the benefits of international and interdisciplinary collaboration." - Heinz-Werner Nienstedt, President, European Media Management Education Association "This excellent book will be of great use to researchers, teachers and students interested in the relationship between the Internet and the mass media and it offers an invaluable contribution to the literature. The overall picture that emerges from this book is one that is very balanced, stressing both the radical potential of the internet and the ways in which the various media sectors have experienced the impact differently." - Colin Sparks, University of Westminster What impact has the Internet really had on the media industries? What new regulatory policies and business models are driven by the Internet? And what are the effects of the Internet on how we produce, access and consume music, film, television and other media content? After an initial flurry of analysis and prediction of the future of the dot com boom, this is the first book to review the developments of the first Internet era and investigate its actual outcomes. Bringing together sophisticated analyses from leading scholars in the field, The Internet and the Mass Media explores the far-reaching implications of the Internet from economic, regulatory, strategic and organizational perspectives. This cross-disciplinary, international view is essential for a rich, nuanced understanding of the many technological, economic, and social changes the Internet has brought to the way we live and work.

An intellectual dissection of the modern media to show how an underlying economics of publishing warps the news.

This engaging text focuses on the role of technology in the development of the various media and the professions of advertising, journalism and public relations. The book is a highly visual text with its central components including the impact of the Internet on various media and the professions, the history of each medium and the demassification of various media. The issue of corporate ownership is also addressed and its effect on individuals and society. Christopher Harper writes in a lively, direct and journalistic style, which will have enormous appeal to students. Additionally, the text incorporates numerous aid boxes to assist learning such as: - Timeline boxes - Think About It boxes - Personal Journal boxes - People in the Media boxes

This book provides a much needed short, reliable and stimulating guide to the mass media in present day society. Incisive, surprising and stimulating it will become an essential text in thinking and writing about the mass media.

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