Media and Society explores the media's influence in our world, providing a comprehensive introduction to the main concepts and theories used in media studies. The fourth edition of this book continues to provide an accessible and student-friendly analysis of the relationship between media and society.

Table of Contents

FIGURES AND PLATES; ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; INTRODUCTION: THE 'MEDIA-WORLD'; GUIDED TOUR; PART 1; PART 1: GETTING READY: THE MEDIA AND MEDIA STUDIES; 1. Defining the Media; 2. Media Studies; 3. What Do the Media Do to Us? Media and Society; 4. What's in a Name? Language and the Social Construction of Reality; 5. Mediation and Representation; 6. Texts, Meanings, and Audiences; 7. New Media and Technological Development; PART 2: PICTURES: SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS; 8. Semiology; 9. Reading Images and Advertisements; 10. Model Essay: Semiotic Analysis of an Advertisement; PART 3: MAKING SENSE: DISCOURSE, IDEOLOGY, AND HEGEMONY; 11. Defining Discourse and Ideology; 12. Where are Discourses and Ideologies Found?; 13. Dominant Ideology and Hegemony; 14. Culture Jamming and Counter-hegemony; PART 4: STORIES: APPROACHES FOR NARRATIVE ANALYSIS; 15. Genres, Codes, and Conventions; 16. The Language of Film: American Beauty; 17. Narrative Structure and Binary Oppositions; 18. Documentary and Reality TV; 19. Why Stories?; PART 5: MEDIA AND IDENTITY: REPRESENTATION, IMPACT, AND INFLUENCE; 20. Feminism, Postfeminism, and Ideologies of Femininity; 21. Ideologies and Discourses of Masculinity; 22. Ethnicity, Ideology, and the Media; 23. Stars and Celebrities; PART 6: BUT THEY KEEP MOVING THE POSTS: POSTMODERN AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES; 24. Postmodernism; 25. Globalisation and Technological Development; CONCLUSION; NOTES; GLOSSARY; BIBLIOGRAPHY; FURTHER READING; INDEX