Media/ Society

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 Fourth Edition retains its focus on “classic” studies, but also includes additional discussions of new studies and up-to-date material about a rapidly changing media landscape. This update includes the following:

• Expanded analyses of “new” media. 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.
• Revised discussion of media policy. This includes debates on “net neutrality” and Internet governance in U.S. and global regulatory policy debates.
• Updated research examples and data. This edition provides coverage of new scholarship on companies, technology, content and users.
• Updated examples. This includes current examples from popular media, which will help to illustrate enduring themes in the sociology of media.