Summary

Media/Society: Industries, Images, and Audiences provides a framework to help students understand the relationship between media and society and helps students develop skills for critically evaluating both conventional wisdom and one's own assumptions about the social role of the media. The Seventh Edition retains its basic sociological framwork, but also includes additional discussions of new studies and up-to-date material about a rapidly changing media landscape. This edition significantly expands on discussions of the "new media" world, including digitization, the Internet, and the spread of mobile media devices, and the role of user-generated content, the potential social impact of "new" media on society, and "new" media's effect on traditional media outlets. The new edition includes updated research, the latest industry data, and current examples from popular media, which will help to illustrate enduring themes in the sociology of media.