This welcome Third Edition provides students with an overview of the entire media process - from production to content to audiences - with an emphasis on how social forces influence the media and how media potentially affect society. A key emphasis throughout the work is how various elements in the media process interact with each other. This updated edition provides students with conceptual tools for understanding the role of media in contemporary society - where mass media images come from, how and why they matter, and the kinds of questions and dilemmas that mass media raise about social life.

The book:

- covers three important traditions in media analysis: the political economy of the media - i.e. who "owns" the media and how do these economic factors affect content, distribution, and media impact; an analysis of media content as a reflector of society's values, culture; and thirdly how the media affect audiences and, conversely, how audiences' interaction with media produce changes in the opposite direction.

- provides a sociological approach to mass media by focusing on the big picture and emphasizing relationships between the various components of the media process.

- includes revised Internet resources, the latest data on the media industry, and updated discussions of media policy, online media, and independent media.

The book will be an essential resource for students of media studies, mass communication and the sociology of popular culture.