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Media, Culture and Society
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Media, Culture and Society
An Introduction

Third Edition


April 2024 | 376 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
  • As digital media come to saturate more and more of our societies, what benefits and challenges do they bring?
  • Who holds power in contemporary media industries, and do they have our best interests at heart?
  • What role do media play in our cultural identities and the relations between communities?
  • How much control do media users have over the role of platforms, algorithms and data in their lives?

Media increasingly dominate our social and cultural worlds, affecting issues of power, politics, knowledge, identity, and everyday life.  But what are the implications of the mediatisation of contemporary life, and how should we make sense of it? 

In this fully updated and revised edition of his bestselling textbook, Paul Hodkinson explores the social and cultural significance of media in the age of digital platforms.  Encompassing media technologies, industries, texts and users, and combining coverage of classic theories with extensive new material on platforms, social media, datafication and more, this book will equip you to navigate the fast-moving field of media and communication studies. Media, Culture and Society provides an essential overview for students studying introductory media modules, as well as depth for those further into their media degree.


 
 
Chapter 1: Introduction: From Representation to Mediatisation
 
PART ONE: ELEMENTS OF MEDIA
 
Chapter 2: Media Technologies
 
Chapter 3: Media Industries
 
Chapter 4: Media Content
 
Chapter 5: Media Users
 
PART TWO: MEDIA, POWER AND CONTROL
 
Chapter 6: Media as Manipulation? Marxism, Ideology and Exploitation
 
Chapter 7: The Construction of News
 
Chapter 8: Media Purpose and Control
 
Chapter 9: Advertising
 
Chapter 10: Media, Democracy and the Public Sphere
 
PART THREE: MEDIA, IDENTITY AND CULTURE
 
Chapter 11: Media, Community and Individualisation
 
Chapter 12: Media, Race and Ethnicity
 
Chapter 13: Mediated Gender
 
Chapter 14: The Mediation of Everything

This excellent book achieves the impressive task of reviewing a century of scholarship while remaining finely attuned to the latest developments – from TikTok to ChatGPT and beyond. A magnificent introduction to media and communication studies that should be a required textbook for anyone engaging with our field.

Axel Bruns
Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology

In his beautifully balanced and broad-ranging account of a fast-changing field, Paul Hodkinson has successfully brought together myriad perspectives with which to critically analyse today's media culture and media society, skilfully integrating theory from earlier times with the latest insights and problems.

Sonia Livingstone
Department of Media & Communications, LSE

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