cover of Key Readings in Media Today: Mass Communication in Contexts

Key Readings in Media Today

Mass Communication in Contexts

Edited by Brooke Erin Duffy, Joseph Turow

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About the Book

By combining classic studies of mass communication with contemporary research on media, technology, and culture, Key Readings in Media Today will help students to make sense of the rapidly changing media environment. This collection is designed to supplement the 3rd edition of Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication, but it can also be used independently.

Key Readings in Media Today provides both historical and contemporary analyses of each of the major media industries: book, newspaper, magazine, sound recording/radio, motion picture, television, new media, advertising, and public relations. The volume places an emphasis on convergence, looking at the ways boundaries between these media industries are blurring in surprising new ways. Section introductions and headnotes for each article offer valuable critical and historical context, while review questions after each reading test students' understanding of key concepts. Additional resources on a companion website are designed to spark classroom discussion and connect the readings to the latest contemporary media issues and controversies.

Table of Contents

Introduction Part 1: Understanding the Nature of Mass Media 1. Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action, P.F. Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton 2. The Definition of Media Literacy, W. James Potter 3. Common Media for an Uncommon Nation, Ben Bagdikian 4. Political Problem, Political Solutions, Robert McChesney 5. Not Toasters: The Special Nature of Media Products, C. Edwin Baker 6. Four puzzles from Cyberspace, Lawrence Lessig Part 2: The Print Media 7. Making News: Time and Typifications, Gaye Tuchman 8. Convergence: News Production in a Digital Age, Eric Klinenberg 9. Future Oriented: The Timing of Magazines in the Digital Age, Brooke Erin Duffy 10. Sex, Lies, and Advertising, Gloria Steinem 11. Is There a Text in This Advertising Campaign?: Literature, Marketing, and Harry Potter, Philip Nel 12. Newspapers Rocken Espanol, Mark Fitzgerald Part 3: The Electronic Media 13: What Is News?, Neil Postman and Steve Powers 14. Queens for a Day: Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and the Neoliberal Project, Katherine Sender 15. Deconstructing the Diversity Principle, Philip M. Napoli 16. Radio and Modernity: Time, Place and "Communicative Capacity," David Hendy 17. Fallout: A Follow Up to "The Internet Debacle," Janis Ian 18. Promoting and Protecting the Industry, Janet Wasko 19. Blockbuster Meets Superhero Comic, or Art House Meets Graphic Novel?: The Contradictory Relationship between Film and Comic Art, Matthew P. McAllister, Ian Gordon and Mark Jancovich Part4: The Digital Media 20. The Long Tail, Chris Anderson 21. Peer Production and Sharing, Yochai Benkler 22. Your Brain on Video Games: Could They Actually Be Good for You?, Steven Johnson 23. Sports Online: The Newest Player in Mediasport, Michael Real 24. Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars?: Digital Cinema, Media Convergence and Participatory Culture, Henry Jenkins 25. Download This: YouTube Phenom Has a Big Secret, Ethan Smith and Peter Lattman Part 5: Advertising and Public Relations 26: The Work of Adcult, James B. Twitchell 27. ‘Chaos Scenario': A Look at the Marketing Industry's Coming Disaster, Bob Garfield 28. Rethinking Television in the Digital Age, Joseph Turow 29. Philanthropy as Public Relations: A Critical Perspective on Cause Marketing, Inger L. Stole 30. Media, War, and Propaganda: Strategies of Information Management during the 2003 Iraq War, Deepa Kumar 31. The Public and its Problems: Some Notes for the New Millennium, Stuart Ewen

About the Author(s)

Brooke Erin Duffy is pursuing her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication.

Joseph Turow is Robert Lewis Shayon Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. He is the author of more than 50 articles and 8 books on mass media industries, including the third edition of his textbook Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication (Routledge, forthcoming September 2008). He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Journalism, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Poetics, the Sage Annual Review of Communication Research, and New Media and Society. He was Chair of the Mass Communication Division of the International Communication Association from 1993 to 1997.