Media/Society : Industries, Images, and Audiences

by David Croteau

• ISBN13: 9781412974202
• ISBN10: 1412974208
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-24
• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc

Summary

In a society saturated by mass media, from newspapers and magazines, television and radio, to digital video projects and the Internet, iPods and TiVo, most students possess a great deal of media knowledge and experience before they ever enter the classroom. What they often lack, however, is a broader framework for understanding the relationship between media and society.Media/Society: Industries, Images, and Audiences provides that context and helps students develop skills for critically evaluating both conventional wisdom and one's own assumptions about the social role of the media.Previous editions of Media/Society introduced thousands of students to a sociologically informed analysis of the media process. The Fourth Edition builds on this success with new material on students as producers (e.g., YouTube), revised Internet resources, the latest data on the media industry, new examples from the independent media sector, and updated discussions of media policy, online media, and independent media.Media/Society is unique among media texts in that it offers:'¢ A sociological approach that examines overarching relationships between the various components of the media process - the industry, its products, audiences, technology - and the broader social world'¢ An integrated study of mass media that looks at media technologies, collective influences, and connections between mass media issues that are often treated as separate'¢ An examination of how economic and political constraints affect the media and how audiences actively construct their own interpretations of media messages

Table of Contents

List of Exhibits

Preface

Acknowledgments

Media/Society

Media and the Social World

The Importance of Media

The Rise of Mass Media

Media and Society

a Sociology of Media

a Model of Media and the Social World

Applying the Model: a Civil Rights Movement

Conclusion

Production: The Media Industry and the Social World

The Economics of the Media Industry

Changing Patterns of Ownership

Consequences of Conglomeration and Integration

The Effects of Concentration

Mass Media for Profit

The Impact of Advertising

Conclusion

Political Influence on Media

The Case of "Pirate Radio"

Common Features of Media Regulation Debates

The "First Freedom"

The "Public Interest" and the Regulation Debate

Regulating Media Content and Distribution

Informal Political, Social, and Economic Pressure

Conclusion

Media Organizations and Professionals

The Limits of Economic and Political Constraints

Decision Making for Profit: Imitation, Hits, and Stars

The Organization of Media Work

The Rise of User-Generated Content

Occupational Roles and Professional Socialization

Norms on the Internet, New Media, and New Organizations

Conclusion

Content: Media Representations of the Social World

Media and Ideology

What Is Ideology?

Theoretical Roots of Ideological Analysis

News Media and the Limits of Debate

Movies, the Military, and Masculinity

Television, Popularity, and Ideology

Rap Music as Ideological Critique?

Advertising and Consumer Culture

Advertising and the Globalization of Culture

Conclusion

Social Inequality and Media Representation

Comparing Media Content and the "Real" World

The Significance of Content

Race, Ethnicity, and Media Content: Inclusion, Roles, and Control

Gender and Media Content

Class and the Media

Sexual Orientation: Out of the Closet and Into the Media?

Conclusion

Audiences: Meaning and Influence

Media Influence and the Political World

Media and Political Elites

Media and Individual Citizens

Media and Social Movements

The Internet and Political News

Politics and Entertainment Media

Global Media, Global Politics

Conclusion

Active Audiences and the Construction of Meaning

The Active Audience

Meanings: Agency and Structure

Decoding Media and Social Position

The Social Context of Media Use

Active Audiences and Interpretive "Resistance"

The Pleasures of Media

Conclusion

Media Technology

The Nature of Media Technology

Technological Determinism and Its Limits

The Social Construction of Media Technologies

How Media Technology Matters

New Media Technology and Social Forces

The Threat to Privacy: The Expansion of Behavioral Targeting

In Search of an Audience: The Long Tail and the Fragmentation of Media

Using New Technologies

Conclusion

Globalization and the Future

Media in a Changing Global Culture

What Is Globalization?

The Global Media Industry

Global Media Content

Global Media Consumption: Limits of the "Global Village"

Regulating Global Media

Afterword: The Ubiquity of Change and the Future of Media

Appendix: Selected Media-Related Internet Resources

References

Index

About the Authors

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