Summary

This classic textbook, written by distinguished academics from around the world, has now reached its third edition. It provides an invaluable guided tour through key areas: theories of media and society; studies of media organization; and studies of media, culture, and ideology. Critical overviews are combined with original case studies. To keep pace with the rapidly change field, the majority of essays in this third edition are new. These include overviews of media and society from the perspectives of class, gender, and ethnicity that plug media studies into new developments in the social sciences. This new edition also includes essays focusing on changes in the media: the emergence of the Internet, the fragmentation of political communications, and the rise of globalization.