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Mass Communication
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Mass Communication
Living in a Media World

Ninth Edition
January 2025 | 520 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
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The best-selling Mass Communication: Living in a Media World offers an accessible introduction to mass communication, equipping students with the critical thinking skills they need to become savvy media consumers. Using a storytelling approach, the text weaves in examples drawn from everyday life, making it easier for students to retain the material and connect it to their own media experiences. Readers are encouraged to consider the media industry from the inside out and, in doing so, discover the many dimensions of mass communication that operate in our society. This newly revised Ninth Edition highlights the aftermath of how the media industry and media consumers have evolved since the global pandemic, closely examining the changing the face of media today.

This text is offered in Sage Vantage, an intuitive learning platform that integrates quality Sage textbook content with assignable multimedia activities and auto-graded assessments to drive student engagement and ensure accountability. Unparalleled in its ease of use and built for dynamic teaching and learning, Vantage offers customizable LMS integration and best-in-class support.

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Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Author
 
Part I. Introduction to the Media
 
Chapter 1. Living in a Media World: An Introduction to Mass Communication
 
Chapter 2. Mass Communication Effects: How Society and Media Interact
 
Chapter 3. The Media Business: Consolidation, Globalization, and the Long Tail
 
Part II. Legacy Media
 
Chapter 4. Books: The Birth of the Mass Media
 
Chapter 5. The News Business: Reflection of a Democratic Society
 
Chapter 6. Audio: Music and Talk Across Media
 
Chapter 7. Movies: Mass Producing Entertainment
 
Chapter 8. Television and Video: Broadcast and Beyond
 
Part III. Digital and Global Media
 
Chapter 9. Online and Mobile Media
 
Chapter 10. Social Media and Video Games: Becoming Part of the Story
 
Chapter 11. Global Media: Communication Around the World
 
Part IV. Strategic Communication
 
Chapter 12. Advertising: Selling a Message
 
Chapter 13. Public Relations: Interactions, Relationships, and the News
 
Part V. Regulation and Control of the Media
 
Chapter 14. Media Law: Free Speech and Fairness
 
Chapter 15. Media Ethics: Truthfulness, Fairness, and Standards of Decency
 
Glossary
 
Notes
 
Index
Key features
NEW TO THIS EDITION:
  • The new edition is available in Sage Vantage, an intuitive learning platform that integrates quality Sage textbook content with assignable multimedia activities and auto-graded assessments to drive student engagement and ensure accountability. Unparalleled in its ease of use and built for dynamic teaching and learning, Vantage offers customizable LMS integration and best-in-class support.
    • NEW! An AI Literacy module prepares students to engage confidently with today’s AI tools through an interactive, outcomes-focused experience—with minimal instructor lift and no course redesign required. Available exclusively in Sage Vantage and written by professors who teach and publish about AI, the AI Information Literacy, Academic Integrity, and Responsible AI Use module integrates video, data driven examples, applied activities, Knowledge Checks, and built-in assessments that help instructors track student understanding. Focused on strengthening critical thinking, the module teaches students how to evaluate AI outputs for accuracy and bias while developing responsible prompting strategies that support academic success without compromising students’ intellectual growth.
  • New chapter-opening vignettes include generative artificial intelligence (AI), Taylor Swift and the Ticketmaster public relations disaster, Reservation Dogs and the increase in representation and diversity in television, an uptick in efforts to ban books on race and sexuality from schools and libraries, and the influence of social media on young people.
  • Updated case studies including Coke Freestyle, Jose Antonio Vargas, and Door Dash's Super Bowl ad.
  • Content on magazines and their influence on our culture now appears in relevant chapters rather than in its own chapter, reflecting a major shift in today’s media.
  • Chapters include substantially updated examples and statistics related to new developments, new scholarship, and recent events in mass communication.
KEY FEATURES:
  • A focus on the importance of representation, inclusion, and diversity is incorporated throughout the book, with an emphasis on whose voices are heard.
  • Seven Secrets About the Media highlight important principles of media literacy by uncovering such information as what the media are, who controls the media, how media content is selected, why the media behave the way they do, and how society and the media interact with each other.
  • Chapter-opening vignettes exemplify chapter themes by engaging students with current stories about the people at the center of newsworthy events.
  • Test Your Media Literacy boxes ask students to read about current research, interviews, data, or events, and then answer questions that encourage critical thinking to elicit analysis of the topic presented.
  • Test Your Visual Media Literacy boxes showcase images from various media, seeking instinctive reactions from readers, before providing context and questions that encourage critical assessment.
  • Review questions at the end of every chapter encourage students to apply critical thinking to examples of mass communication from literature and popular culture.
  • Chapter objectives, summaries, and key terms guide readers through the content and allow them to revisit the material to reinforce learning.

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapters 1 and 2

Vantage Reference: 
Mass Communication - Vantage Learning Platform

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