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Table of Contents

1 Mass Communication: A Critical Approach 

Culture and the Evolution of Mass Communication 

Oral and Written Eras in Communication 

The Print Revolution 

The Electronic Era 

The Digital Era 

The Linear Model of Mass Communication 

A Cultural Model for Understanding Mass Communication 

The Development of Media and Their Role in Our Society 

The Evolution of Media: From Emergence to Convergence 

Media Convergence 

Stories: The Foundation of Media 

Media Stories in Everyday Life 

Agenda Setting and Gatekeeping 

Surveying the Cultural Landscape 

EXAMINING ETHICS Covering War and Displaying Images 

Culture as a Skyscraper 

Culture as a Map 

Cultural Values of the Modern Period 

Shifting Values in Postmodern Culture 

Critiquing Media and Culture 

Media Literacy and the Critical Process 

MEDIA LITERACY AND THE CRITICAL PROCESS 

Benefits of a Critical Perspective 

CHAPTER REVIEW 

LaunchPad 

For videos, review quizzing, and more, visit LaunchPad for Media & Culture at launchpadworks.com

2 The Internet, Digital Media, and Media Convergence 

The Development of the Internet and the Web 

The Birth of the Internet 

The Net Widens 

The Commercialization of the Internet 

Social Media and Democracy 

EXAMINING ETHICS Social Media Fraud and Elections 

Convergence and Mobile Media 

Media Converges on Our PCs and TVs 

Mobile Devices Propel Convergence 

The Impact of Media Convergence and Mobile Media 

The Next Era: The Semantic Web 

The Economics and Issues of the Internet 

Ownership: Controlling the Internet 

Targeted Advertising and Data Mining 

GLOBAL VILLAGE Designed in California, Assembled in China 

Security: The Challenge to Keep Personal Information Private 

MEDIA LITERACY AND THE CRITICAL PROCESS Note to Self for Healthy Digital Consumption 

Appropriateness: What Should Be Online? 

Access: The Fight to Prevent a Digital Divide 

Net Neutrality: Maintaining an Open Internet 

Net Neutrality 

Alternative Voices 

The Internet and Democracy 

CHAPTER REVIEW 

LaunchPad 

3 Digital Gaming and the Media Playground 

The Development of Digital Gaming 

Mechanical Gaming 

The First Video Games 

Arcades and Classic Games 

Consoles and Advancing Graphics 

Gaming on PCs 

Portable Players

The Internet Transforms Gaming 

MMORPGs, MOBAs, Virtual Worlds, and Social Gaming 

Gaming Apps  

The Media Playground 

Video Game Genres 

Communities of Play: Inside the Game 

Communities of Play: Outside the Game 

GLOBAL VILLAGE Phones in Hand, the World Finds Pokémon (and Wizards) 

Trends and Issues in Digital Gaming 

Electronic Gaming and Media Culture 

Video Games at the Movies 

Electronic Gaming and Advertising 

Addiction and Other Concerns 

Examining Ethics The Gender Problem in Digital Games

Regulating Gaming

MEDIA LITERACY AND THE CRITICAL PROCESS First-Person Shooter Games: Misogyny as Entertainment? 

The Future of Gaming and Interactive Environments 

The Business of Digital Gaming 

The Ownership and Organization of Digital Gaming 

The Structure of Digital Game Publishing 

Selling Digital Games 

Alternative Voices 

Digital Gaming, Free Speech, and Democracy 

CHAPTER REVIEW 

LaunchPad 

4 Sound Recording and Popular Music 

The Development of Sound Recording 

From Cylinders to Disks: Sound Recording Becomes a Mass Medium 

From Phonographs to CDs: Analog Goes Digital 

Convergence: Sound Recording in the Internet Age 

The Rocky Relationship between Records and Radio 

The Rise of Pop Music 

Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay 

Rock Muddies the Waters 

Battles in Rock and Roll 

The British Are Coming! 

Motor City Music: Detroit Gives America Soul 

Folk and Psychedelic Music Reflect the Times 

MEDIA LITERACY AND THE CRITICAL PROCESS Music Preferences across Generations 

Punk and Indie Respond to Mainstream Rock 

Hip-Hop Redraws Musical Lines 

The Reemergence of Pop 

Music Labels Influence the Industry 

Making, Selling, and Profiting from Music 

GLOBAL VILLAGE Latin Pop Goes Mainstream

Examining Ethics The Music Industry’s Day of Reckoning

Alternative Voices 

5 Popular Radio and the Origins of Broadcasting 

Maxwell and Hertz Discover Radio Waves 

Marconi and the Inventors of Wireless Telegraphy 

Wireless Telephony: De Forest and Fessenden 

Regulating a New Medium 

Building the First Networks 

Sarnoff and NBC: Building the "Blue" and "Red" Networks 

Government Scrutiny Ends RCA-NBC Monopoly 

CBS and Paley: Challenging NBC 

Bringing Order to Chaos with the Radio Act of 1927 

The Golden Age of Radio 

Transistors Make Radio Portable 

The FM Revolution and Edwin Armstrong 

The Rise of Format and Top 4 Radio 

Resisting the Top 4  

Format Specialization 

Examining Ethics How Did Talk Radio Become So One Sided? 

Nonprofit Radio and NPR 

MEDIA LITERACY AND THE CRITICAL PROCESS Comparing Commercial and Noncommercial Radio 

New Radio Technologies Offer More Stations 

Radio and Convergence 

GLOBAL VILLAGE Radio Stories from Around the World 

Local and National Advertising 

Manipulating Playlists with Payola 

Radio Ownership: From Diversity to Consolidation 

Alternative Voices 

6 Television and Cable: The Power of Visual Culture 

Early Innovations in TV Technology 

Electronic Technology: Zworykin and Farnsworth 

Controlling Content—TV Grows Up 

CATV—Community Antenna Television 

The Wires and Satellites behind Cable Television 

Cable Threatens Broadcasting 

Cable Services 

DBS: Cable without Wires 

GLOBAL VILLAGE Telling and Selling Stories around the World

Home Video 

The Third Screen: TV Converges with the Internet 

Fourth Screens: Smartphones and Mobile Video 

EXAMINING ETHICS #MeToo and TV Station Policy

TV Entertainment: Our Comic Culture 

TV Entertainment: Our Dramatic Culture 

TV Information: Our Daily News Culture 

Reality TV and Other Enduring Genres 

Public Television Struggles to Find Its Place 

MEDIA LITERACY AND THE CRITICAL PROCESS TV and the State of Storytelling 

Government Regulations Temporarily Restrict Network Control 

Balancing Cable’s Growth against Broadcasters’ Interests 

Franchising Frenzy 

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 

Production 

Distribution 

Syndication Keeps Shows Going and Going . . . 

Measuring Television Viewing 

The Major Programming Corporations 

Alternative Voices 

7 Movies and the Impact of Images 

The Development of Film 

The Introduction of Narrative 

The Arrival of Nickelodeons 

Production 

Distribution 

Exhibition 

Hollywood Narrative and the Silent Era 

The Introduction of Sound 

The Development of the Hollywood Style 

Outside the Hollywood System 

Examining Ethics Breaking through Hollywood’s Race Barrier 

GLOBAL VILLAGE Beyond Hollywood: Asian Cinema 

The Hollywood Ten 

The Paramount Decision 

Moving to the Suburbs 

Television Changes Hollywood 

Hollywood Adapts to Home Entertainment 

Production, Distribution, and Exhibition Today 

The Major Studio Players 

MEDIA LITERACY AND THE CRITICAL PROCESS The Blockbuster Mentality 

Convergence: Movies Adjust to the Digital Turn 

Alternative Voices 

PART 3: Words and Pictures 

8 Newspapers: The Rise and Decline of Modern Journalism 

Colonial Newspapers and the Partisan Press 

The Penny Press Era: Newspapers Become Mass Media 

The Age of Yellow Journalism: Sensationalism and Investigation 

"Objectivity" in Modern Journalism 

Interpretive Journalism 

Literary Forms of Journalism 

Contemporary Journalism in the TV and Internet Age 

Consensus versus Conflict: Newspapers Play Different Roles 

MEDIA LITERACY AND THE CRITICAL PROCESS Covering the News Media Business 

Newspapers Target Specific Readers 

Newspaper Operations 

Examining Ethics Alternative Journalism: The Activism of Dorothy Day and I. F. Stone 

Newspaper Ownership: Chains Lose Their Grip 

Joint Operating Agreements Combat Declining Competition 

Readership Declines in the United States 

GLOBAL VILLAGE Newspaper Readership across the Globe

Going Local: How Small and Campus Papers Retain Readers 

Convergence: Newspapers Struggle in the Move to Digital 

New Models for Journalism 

Alternative Voices 

9 Magazines in the Age of Specialization 

The First Magazines 

Magazines in Colonial America 

U.S. Magazines in the Nineteenth Century 

National, Women’s, and Illustrated Magazines 

Social Reform and the Muckrakers 

The Rise of General-Interest Magazines 

Examining Ethics The Evolution of Photojournalism  

The Fall of General-Interest Magazines 

Convergence: Magazines Confront the Digital Age 

Men’s and Women’s Magazines 

GLOBAL VILLAGE Cosmopolitan Style Travels the World

Sports, Entertainment, and Leisure Magazines 

Magazines for the Ages 

Elite Magazines 

Media Literacy and the Critical Process Uncovering American Beauty 

Minority-Targeted Magazines 

Supermarket Tabloids 

Magazine Departments and Duties 

Major Magazine Chains 

Alternative Voices 

1 Books and the Power of Print 

The Development of Manuscript Culture 

The Innovations of Block Printing and Movable Type 

The Gutenberg Revolution: The Invention of the Printing Press 

The Birth of Publishing in the United States 

The Formation of Publishing Houses 

Types of Books 

EXAMINING ETHICS Contemporary Politics Revives Interest in Classic Novels 

Influences of Television and Film 

Audio Books 

Convergence: Books in the Digital Age 

Preserving and Digitizing Books 

Censorship and Banned Books 

GLOBAL VILLAGE Buenos Aires, the World’s Bookstore Capital 

MEDIA LITERACY AND THE CRITICAL PROCESS Banned Books and "Family Values" 

Ownership Patterns 

The Structure of Book Publishing 

Selling Books: Book Superstores and Independent Booksellers 

Selling Books Online 

Alternative Voices 

PART 4: The Business of Mass Media 

11 Advertising and Commercial Culture 

The First Advertising Agencies 

Advertising in the 18 s 

Promoting Social Change and Dictating Values 

Early Ad Regulation 

The Influence of Visual Design 

Types of Advertising Agencies 

The Structure of Ad Agencies 

Trends in Online Advertising 

Conventional Persuasive Strategies 

The Association Principle 

Advertising as Myth and Story 

Product Placement 

EXAMINING ETHICS Do Alcohol Ads Encourage Binge Drinking? 

MEDIA LITERACY AND THE CRITICAL PROCESS The Branded You 

Critical Issues in Advertising 

GLOBAL VILLAGE Smoking Up the Global Market 

Watching Over Advertising 

Alternative Voices 

Advertising’s Role in Politics 

The Future of Advertising 

12 Public Relations and Framing the Message 

P. T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill 

Big Business and Press Agents 

The Birth of Modern Public Relations 

Approaches to Organized Public Relations 

Performing Public Relations 

GLOBAL VILLAGE Public Relations and Bananas 

Public Relations Adapts to the Internet Age 

Public Relations during a Crisis 

Elements of Professional Friction 

Shaping the Image of Public Relations 

Alternative Voices 

MEDIA LITERACY AND THE CRITICAL PROCESS The Invisible Hand of PR 

13 Media Economics and the Global Marketplace 

The Structure of the Media Industry 

The Business of Media Organizations 

EXAMINING ETHICS Are the Big Digital Companies Too Big?

From Regulation to Deregulation 

Media Powerhouses: Consolidation, Partnerships, and Mergers 

Business Tendencies in Media Industries 

Economics, Hegemony, and Storytelling 

The Rise of Specialization and Synergy 

Disney: A Postmodern Media Conglomerate 

Global Audiences Expand Media Markets 

The Internet and Convergence Change the Game 

MEDIA LITERACY AND THE CRITICAL PROCESS Cultural Imperialism and Movies 

The Limits of Antitrust Laws 

GLOBAL VILLAGE China’s Dominant Media Corporations Rival America’s 

The Fallout from a Free Market 

Cultural Imperialism 

The Effects of Media Consolidation on Democracy 

The Media Reform Movement 

PART 5: Democratic Expression and the Mass Media 

14 The Culture of Journalism: Values, Ethics, and Democracy 

What Is News? 

Values in American Journalism 

GLOBAL VILLAGE  News Bias around the Globe 

Ethical Predicaments 

Resolving Ethical Problems 

Focusing on the Present 

MEDIA LITERACY AND THE CRITICAL PROCESS Telling Stories and Covering Disaster 

Relying on Experts…Usually Men 

Balancing Story Conflict 

Acting as Adversaries 

Differences between Print, TV, and Internet News 

Pundits, "Talking Heads," and Politics 

Convergence Enhances and Changes Journalism 

The Power of Visual Language 

The Rise and Decline of the Public Journalism Movement 

The Shifting Meanings of "Fake" News and the Rise of Satiric Journalism  

Social Responsibility 

Deliberative Democracy 

A Lost Generation of Journalists

EXAMINING ETHICS WikiLeaks, Secret Documents, and Good Journalism 

15 Media Effects and Cultural Approaches to Research 

Propaganda Analysis 

Public Opinion Research 

Social Psychology Studies 

Marketing Research 

Early Theories of Media Effects 

Conducting Media Effects Research 

MEDIA LITERACY AND THE CRITICAL PROCESS Wedding Media and the Meaning of the Perfect Wedding Day 

Contemporary Media Effects Theories 

Evaluating Research on Media Effects 

Early Developments in Cultural Studies Research 

GLOBAL VILLAGE International Media Research

Conducting Cultural Studies Research 

EXAMINING ETHICS Our Masculinity Problem 

Cultural Studies’ Theoretical Perspectives 

Evaluating Cultural Studies Research 

16 Legal Controls and Freedom of Expression 

Models of Expression 

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution 

Censorship as Prior Restraint 

Unprotected Forms of Expression 

Media Literacy and the Critical Process Who Knows the First Amendment? 

CASE STUDY Is "Sexting" Pornography? 

First Amendment versus Sixth Amendment 

Social and Political Pressures on the Movies 

Self-Regulation in the Movie Industry 

The MPAA Ratings System 

The FCC Regulates Broadcasting 

Dirty Words, Indecent Speech, and Hefty Fines 

Political Broadcasts and Equal Opportunity 

The Demise of the Fairness Doctrine 

Communication Policy and the Internet 

EXAMINING ETHICS  Is "Sexting" Pornography?

Notes 

Glossary

Credits 

Index

Authors

Richard Campbell

Richard Campbell,Founder and former Chair of the Department of Media, Journalism and Film at Miami University, is the author of “6 Minutes” and the News: A Mythology for Middle America (1991) and coauthor of Cracked Coverage: Television News, the Anti-Cocaine Crusade, and the Reagan Legacy (1994). Campbell has written for numerous publications, including Columbia Journalism Review, Journal of Communication, and Media Studies Journal, and he is on the editorial boards of Critical Studies in Mass Communication and Television Quarterly. He also serves on the board of directors for Cincinnati Public Radio. He holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University and has also taught at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, Mount Mary College, the University of Michigan, and Middle Tennessee State University.

Richard Martin

Richard Martin is an award-winning science writer whose work has appeared in Wired, Time, Fortune, The Atlantic, and The Best Science Writing of 2004. He is the author of SuperFuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future. He is the editorial director of Pike Research, a leading clean energy firm. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Bettina Fabos

Bettina Fabos, is a professor of visual communication and interactive digital studies at the University of Northern Iowa. She is the executive producer of the interactive web photo history, Proud and Torn: A Visual Memoir of Hungarian History (proudandtorn.com), the co-founder of a public archive of Iowa family snapshots, “Fortepan Iowa” (fortepan.us), and a champion of the Creative Commons. Fabos has also written extensively about critical media literacy, Internet commercialization, the role of the Internet in education, and media representations of popular culture. Her work has been published in Visual Communication Quarterly, Library Trends, Review of Educational Research, and Harvard Educational Review. Fabos has also taught at Miami University and has a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa.

Christopher Martin

Christopher R. Martin is a professor of communication studies and digital journalism at the University of Northern Iowa and author of the forthcoming The Invisible Worker: How the News Media Lost Sight of the American Working Class (Cornell University Press) and Framed! Labor and the Corporate Media (Cornell University Press). He has written articles and reviews on journalism, televised sports, the Internet, and labor for several publications, including Communication Research, Journal of Communication, Journal of Communication Inquiry, Labor Studies Journal, Culture, Sport, and Society, and Perspectives on Politics. He is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Communication Inquiry. Martin holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and has also taught at Miami University.

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