Ettema and Whitney have collected essays that study the ways in which the organizational life of mass media limit, shape, and encourage the creativity of individuals within them. Commercial demands, the values of people within the industry, ideas of product image, and the forces that form broadcast news are among the subjects discussed. 'Ettema and Whitney have edited an interesting, often provocative collection whose unifying theme...represents an important application of organization theory to the communication process.' -- Journal of Communication, Spring 1983

The future of mass media may appear unpredictable and too complex to fathom, but Mass Media in 2025 takes a scholarly, theoretical approach to identifying trends and explaining their possibilities. Noted contributors approach a variety of media with a solid grounding in the history of each, and an eye for which may be vulnerable and which may thrive in the new technological age. Trends such as interactivity and niche building will affect everything from the newspaper to public relations, and this collection of essays provides a fascinating guide to where the next decades may take us. Regardless of the visual, aural, or printed form, Mass Media in 2025 illustrates the degree to which older media will have to incorporate the level of interaction and specialization offered by newer media if they are to survive. These effects can already be seen in the proliferation of television channels, in the ironic bent of advertising, in the rise of infotainment in news organizations. This book shows not only how all of this has come to be, but also, more importantly, where it will go.

The reference will discuss mass media around the world in their varied forms—newspapers, magazines, radio, television, film, books, music, websites, and social media—and will describe the role of each in both mirroring and shaping society.

This book argues that the no-Marxists mostly have it wrong. Although corporate media are structurally organized to maximize profits and produce content that generally helps elites achieve their goals, this does not mean corporate media have less capacity to facilitate social change than entrepreneurial or other forms of media. In fact, historical evidence and comparative critical studies presented in this book show that mass media become more, not less, critical of dominant power groups, institutions and value systems as they become more "corporatized."This proposition is part of a larger theoretical model that integrates the role of both social structure and human agency in explaining the persistence of modern capitalism. The structural part of the theory also enables scholars to make predictions about the future of mass media, including the ideas that the Internet is "stealing" some of the mediating power of traditional mass media, and the market power of global media will grow in absolute terms but will shrink in relative terms because of increasing competition from new and traditional media.

This book discusses two related themes concerning the role and processes of mass communication in society. The first deals with questions regarding the power of the media: how should it be defined? how is it wielded and by whom? are previous approaches and answers to such questions adequate? The second theme revolves around the divisions between the liberal pluralist and Marxist approaches to the analysis of the nature of the media. These divisions have, in recent years, been fundamental to the debate concerning the understanding of the role of mass communication, and the examination of them in this book will challenge the reader to look more closely at a number of assumptions that have long been taken for granted.

Taking a unique approach to the study of mass communication and cultural studies, MediaMaking is a volume that presents the current knowledge about the relationship between media, culture, and society. What sets this volume apart from competing texts is the approach taken and the distinguished scholarship. Rather than examining each major medium separately (newspapers, books, magazines, radio, television, film), the authors contend that mass communication cannot be studied apart from the other institutions in society and the other dimensions of social life-each is shaping and defining the other. They hold that media can only be understood in relation to their context-institutional, economic, social, cultural, and historical. As such, this book explores the variety of ways in which the media are involved in our social lives. The authors explore the different relationships between the media and the systems of social value and social differences that organize power in contemporary society. They examine how the media are reproduced and consumed and what they produce in turn. Theoretically and analytically organized with sections on media′s relation to behavior, politics, media effects, the public, globalization, organizations, meaning , and ideology, this text offers students a more comprehensive understanding of the nature of media communication processes-an absolutely necessary part of understanding contemporary life.

In this large-scale, postindustrial society, the mass media has become deeply embedded into the lifestyles of everyday citizens. People are lured by television ratings, celebrity-sponsored products, and high-profile crimes and scandals, all finding their way into living rooms across America by satellites, cable wires, and modems. This book examines the real, imagined, and potential effects of the mass media on individuals and society. The book explores the processes through which the mass media is enabled and constrained by such factors as technology, law, industry structure, and occupational careers, accounting for the vast changes that have developed in recent years. This book is divided into two parts. Part I defines mass communication and locates its role in social life. Part II considers the factors which influence media content, providing insight into how the industry operates. Sociologists, Communication and Mass Media specialists, film, music, and pop culture critics, and enthusiasts of these fields.

Mediating the Message, 2/e demonstrates the many ways in which a wide variety of forces including media owners, advertisers, audiences, politicians, interest groups, and journalist" personal attitudes affect mass media content.

Making Media Content addresses the development of media content and the various factors and constituencies that influence content, such as advertisers, corporate interests, owners, and advocacy groups. It examines the strategic decision-making of mass media organizations as they determine what content they present to their audiences through broadcast, publication, or electronic access. The work focuses on the internal and external influences on media content, laying out the various processes and opening up the topic for further consideration.This book will appeal to academics in.