Features

New to This Edition

A reframing to reflect the reality of our digital world. Rather than approach the digital revolution as an ongoing realignment that we are just beginning to understand, Media & Culture, Thirteenth Edition, acknowledges that digital media culture is firmly established in today’s world and takes steps to analyze and explore what this means and why it matters. Chapters 1 and 2 have been fully revised to reflect this emphasis, and additional coverage is included throughout--for example, in Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, which spotlight the rapid growth of streaming in digital games, movies, TV, radio, and music; Chapter 11, which looks at the latest in digital marketing, including single sign-on, predictive marketing, and the impact of influencers; and Chapter 13, which analyzes the corporate takeovers and mergers that characterize today’s media conglomerates.

Centered in the “now,” with a better balance between today and yesterday.

• Each chapter begins with a new section on the latest developments in the industry today (a look at where we are now) before examining key topics in the industry’s history and why they’re important (a look at how we got here).
• Chapter 1 includes a new subsection explaining why historical information is included in the text, with a direct explanation about how understanding history prompts critical thinking and provides insight into today’s media world.
• Historical coverage throughout has been refocused to highlight the most important and relevant content.
• Chapters connect historical developments to current technologies and modern cultural touchstones whenever possible to further illustrate the relationship between past and present.

Increased emphasis on representation and diverse voices. New and expanded coverage includes an introduction to the politics of representation and the impact of media portrayals (Chapter 1); an examination of the racial biases woven into algorithms that increasingly guide the way we live (Chapter 2); an expanded discussion of gender and racial diversity in digital gaming (Chapter 3); a new section on the importance of gay material and the quality audience during television’s post-network era (Chapter 6); a discussion of how journalistic objectivity and newsroom diversity are being reconsidered in light of the racial justice movement (Chapters 8 and 14); and much more.
 
New and expanded frameworks for media analysis. Accessible models in Chapter 1 prompt students to reflect on the meaning, impact, and importance of media use—in their own lives and in our society as a whole. The new  “three roles framework” helps students think critically about their roles as media producers, media consumers, and media citizens—including how these roles intersect and compete. In addition, an expanded discussion of the cultural model, one of the hallmarks of the book, explores the interconnections between media texts, industries, technologies, users and the cultural context within which they are embedded.

Coverage of key media developments. Topics include the exponential growth of streaming and digital gaming during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the concurrent financial struggles of newspapers without advertisers and theaters without moviegoers; media coverage of the protests for racial justice; the use and abuse of social media platforms and the proliferation of fake news (including a survey activity that students can use to assess the credibility of news stories for themselves); the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath; and consumer privacy and the rise of targeted online advertising.

New author voices. This edition welcomes Ron Becker, who brings energy, enthusiasm, and his complementary research background. Together, Ron and long-time Media & Culture co-authors Chris Martin and Bettina Fabos contribute their own specialties to Media & Culture: journalism and media coverage of labor unions and the working class (Chris), video production, web development, and online public archiving (Bettina), and television/film studies and LGBTQ+ representation (Ron).

Now available with Achieve! The Achieve courseware for Media & Culture sets the standard for driving student learning in your mass communication course with powerful learning content, engaging activities, and actionable insights and analytics. Achieve brings together an interactive e-textbook, LearningCurve adaptive quizzing and other assessments, media literacy activities, engaging videos, and extensive instructor resources–all within a new, enhanced technology platform carefully built over the past five years.