About the Book
Media Today puts students at the center of profound changes in the twenty-first century media world-from digital convergence to media ownership-and gives them the skills to think critically about what these changes mean for the role of media in their lives.
Completely revised with updated examples, case studies, and media resources, the third edition of this innovative mass communication textbook is built upon a media systems approach that gives students an insider's perspective on how mass media industries operate. By making students more knowledgeable about the influences that guide media organizations, Media Today builds media literacy skills to make students sensitive to ways of seeing media content as a means of learning about culture. Joseph Turow emphasizes throughout the many ways in which media convergence has blurred distinctions between and among various media. Each chapter guides students through the essential history of media industries; examines the current forces shaping their creation, distribution and exhibition; and explores the impact of emerging trends in media and society from globalization to social networking to video games.
Comprehensive and engaging, Media Today features:
- a three-pronged media systems approach focused on media literacy, convergence, and emerging trends in today's media culture
- up-to-date coverage of the latest political, economic, technological, and cultural issues affecting media industries
- exciting new resources including an enclosed DVD with media examples and an interactive companion website featuring a full range of instructor and student materials including study podcasts
Endorsements
"Media Today is the best textbook to understand the organization, economics, and emerging trends within the U.S. media sector. Its institutional focus and the level of detail and updated knowledge it provides in this regard makes it the best textbook for an introductory media course." - Gisela Gil-Egui, Fairfield University
"What makes Media Today especially stand out is the extra attention to the dynamics of the ever-changing media industries. Joe Turow's book offers a nuanced, comprehensive and accessible treatment of how economic incentives and current trends in media matter for us and our democracy." - Matt McAllister, Pennsylvania State University
"Media Today engages students and serves as a helpful guide to our new media-saturated world. The writing is lively and concise, and the colorful illustrations are full of zest. Turow's dry wit engages students in a conversational narrative that prompts them to connect what they read to their own experience of contemporary media trends." - Edward M. Clift, Woodbury University
"Media Today skillfully weaves together all the core components needed for an introductory media course: basics of media literacy and criticism, details about a wide range of the most current media, and an uncommonly thorough integration of the functioning of media industries. Accessible and smart in its writing style and full of useful illustrations and tables, Media Today, is not only up-to-date in its information, but its perspective prepares the future of media studies." - Amanda Lotz, University of Michigan