The ‘Milestones’ essays in Mass Communication and Society are reflective and analytical articles by the most notable scholars in the field. These classic essays address 21st century issues from the pioneers of media and communication studies, including Elihu Katz on new media and social movements, George Gerbner on cultivation analysis, and Dietram Scheufele on political communication. As technologies evolve and mass communication becomes mobilized and democratized - more individual and also more social - these landmark scholars provide ideas about how established theories may be applied in new ways, and how future research can expand our understanding of mass communication as its reach and effects grow ever larger. This book will be essential reading for both students and researchers of Mass Communications Research.

Providing leading-edge perspectives on the legacy theories of mass media and society, this collection advances the foundational theories of mass communications, which have sustained the field of study over the past fifty years. Many of these contributions were originally published as a Deutschmann Scholarly Essay in the Mass Communication and Society journal, and together they comprise a remarkable source of knowledge, equipped to lead mass communications theory through the emergence of new technologies, and the evolution of communications, in the 21st century. Moreover, the contributions gathered in this volume contradict any critics who may claim the theories of the 20th century have outlived their usefulness, for these prove to guide contemporary research as forcefully as ever in the digital era. Validating the classic media theories across time and their various forms constitute the second focal section of this volume. Finally, senior media scholars offer their views on the future directions in which mass communication theories can be advanced.

Drawing on examples from across the continent, this volume examines socially significant aspects of contemporary African popular culture—including music cultures, fandoms, and community, mass, and digital media—to demonstrate how neoliberal politics and market forces shape the cultural landscape and vice versa. Contributors investigate the role that the media, politicians, and corporate interests play in shaping that landscape, highlight the crucial role of the African people in the production and circulation of popular culture more broadly, and, furthermore, demonstrate how popular culture can be used as a tool to resist oppressive regimes and challenge power structures in the African context. Scholars of political communication, cultural studies, and African studies will find this book particularly useful.

This is an open access book which brings together leading scholars and critical discourses on political, economic, legal, technological, socio-cultural and systemic changes and continuities intersecting media and health crises in Sub-Saharan Africa. The volume extensively discusses COVID-19 but it also covers other epidemics, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS as well as “silent” health crises such as mental health---simmering across the subcontinent. The chapters fill knowledge gaps, highlight innovations, unpack the complexities surrounding the media ecosystem in times of health crises. They explore, among other issues, the politics of public health communication; infodemics; existential threats to media viability; draconian legislations; threats to journalists/journalism; COVID-related entrepreneurship, marginalization, and more. This is a timely resource for academics, advocacy groups, media practitioners and policy makers working on crises and media reporting, not just in Africa but anywhere in the global South.

Hailed as one of the "most significant books of the twentieth century" by Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Mediating the Message has long been an essential text for media effects scholars and students of media sociology. This new edition of the classic media sociology textbook now offers students a comprehensive, theoretical approach to media content in the twenty-first century, with an added focus on entertainment media and the Internet.

This fully revised and updated edition provides a comprehensive, non-technical introduction to the range of approaches to understanding mass communication.

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.

The Media Book provides today's students with a comprehensive foundation for the study of the modern media. It has been systematically compiled to map the field in a way which corresponds to the curricular organization of the field around the globe, providing a complete resource for students in their third year to graduate level courses in the U.S.

This handbook covers perspectives from both the social sciences and the humanities. It provides guidelines for how to think about, plan, and carry out studies of media in different social and cultural contexts.