APPROACHES TO MEDIA: A Reader

Approaches to Media presents in one accessible volume a wealth of influential sources charting the major different approaches to the study of media and mass communication. For each of the major traditions of media research, the volume provides exemplifying extracts from ‘seminal’ or otherwise significant works, which reflect the historical development of each tradition and which are contextualised by the editors’ opening chapters for each section. The opening section includes a variety of different perspectives on the field as a whole written by leading exponents at different periods of its development. The major traditions are identified here under the concepts of mass society, functionalism, pluralism, media effects, political economy, the public sphere, media professions, cultural hegemony, moving image, feminism, and the new audience research.

This book will prove an invaluable resource for students and scholars seeking to gain an understanding of the variety of ways in which the study of the mass media has been approached during this century.