Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Beautifully written and class tested, Exploring Mass Media for a Changing World provides a comprehensive but modestly priced text around which instructors can develop a customized teaching package. Written for introductory courses, it covers essential information students need in order to understand the media, the mass communication process, and the role of media in society. It summarizes basic, generally agreed-upon principles, theories, significant historical events, and essential facts, but does so in a tightly written, readable style. Taken together, this information can be thought of as a minimum repertoire that all citizens of the "information age" need in order to become literate consumers and users of mass communication.

Features include:
* Historical Framework --For ease of comprehension, media processes and individual media are placed in historical context to show their technological evolution and the effects of those changes on society.
* Organization --The first seven chapters deal with the evolution of communication theories and processes common to all media. The next five deal with specific media in the chronological order in which they became mass media. Chapters 13 and 14 introduce two non-media institutions (advertising and public relations) whose exploration is essential in order to understand how mass media functions in our society. Finally, chapter 15 returns to the theme of technological evolution and its effects on society with an in-depth discussion of the internet.
* Flexibility --Because it is concise, affordable, and comprehensive, it can be used either as a stand-alone text in mass media courses or as part of an instructional package in courses where mass communication is one of several major units.
* Themes --The following themes are introduced early and carried throughout: (a) the evolution of media technology and its effects on society, (b) the global and culture-bound characteristics of mass media, and (c) the need for media literacy in the 21st century.
* Supplements --An accompanying instructor's manual begins with a chapter-length essay on teaching the mass media course then offers the following items for each chapter: topical outline and key vocabulary; key ideas to be emphasized and pitfalls to be avoided; discussion questions; objective and essay test items; and both print and nonprint resources for further study.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. xix)
• 1 Development of Mass Media and Social Change (p. 1)
• The Age of Mass Communication (p. 3)
• Media Developments Through History (p. 5)
• The Example of Communication in China and the Orient (p. 19)
• The Long View of History Proves Media's Power (p. 20)
• 2 Process and Functions (p. 22)
• Definitions (p. 23)
• Mass Media (p. 24)
• Mass Media Continuum (p. 25)
• Mass Communication Process (p. 27)
• Functions of Mass Media (p. 36)
• 3 Political Systems: Nations and Cultures (p. 42)
• What Accounts for Media System Differences? (p. 43)
• The Media Systems Paradigm (p. 43)
• The Classic Four Systems of the Press (p. 45)
• Four Theories' Criticism and Alternatives (p. 48)
• The Freedom Versus Control Continuum (p. 49)
• New Global Realities (p. 50)
• The New Libertarian Reality (p. 52)
• The New Social Responsibility Reality (p. 53)
• The New Communist Reality (p. 53)
• New Realities in the Authoritarian Developing World (p. 54)
• One Global Media System? (p. 54)
• Media Subsystems (p. 55)
• A Comprehensive Mass Communication Model (p. 55)
• 4 Economic Realities: Ownership and Control (p. 59)
• Changing Ownership Patterns: Types of Entrepreneurship (p. 60)
• Types of Media Firms (p. 64)
• Global Media Conglomerates (p. 72)
• Government Regulation of Ownership (p. 73)
• Concerns About Media Consolidation (p. 76)
• Looking Ahead (p. 80)
• 5 Legal Concerns: Rights and Responsibilities (p. 82)
• The First Amendment (p. 82)
• Public Rights in Conflict (p. 83)
• Limitations on Government (p. 89)
• Where Government Has Authority (p. 93)
• Freedom Versus Responsibility (p. 98)
• What Are Media's Responsibilities? (p. 99)
• Ethical and Moral Considerations (p. 100)
• Codes of Professional Conduct (p. 101)
• Rights of Owners and Employees (p. 102)
• 6 Audiences: Use of Mass Media (p. 104)
• Mass Media's Audience (p. 104)
• Television and the Audience of Children (p. 106)
• Measuring Media Audiences (p. 108)
• Predicting Audience Behavior (p. 109)
• The Mass Audience (p. 110)
• Audience Diversification (p. 111)
• Demographic Distinctions (p. 113)
• Communicator Encoding-Audience Decoding (p. 116)
• Audience-Communicator Relationships (p. 116)
• Audiences of News (p. 119)
• Audiences for Specialized and New Media (p. 119)
• Audience Attitudes Toward Mass Media (p. 120)
• 7 Impact: Effects of Mass Media (p. 124)
• Research Difficulties (p. 125)
• Massive Effects (p. 125)
• Normative Effects (p. 127)
• Observable and Demonstrable Effects (p. 128)
• Limited Effects (p. 132)
• Critical and Powerful Effects (p. 135)
• Factors That Influence the Effectiveness of Mass Media (p. 138)
• Conclusion (p. 139)
• 8 Newspapers (p. 141)
• Defining Newspapers (p. 142)
• Development of Newspapers (p. 143)
• Twentieth-Century Newspapers (p. 153)
• Current Issues (p. 156)
• Nondaily Community Newspapers (p. 159)
• Content and Relationship With Readers (p. 161)
• Looking Ahead (p. 162)
• 9 Books, Magazines, and Newsletters (p. 166)
• Books (p. 166)
• Magazines (p. 173)
• Newsletters (p. 182)
• 10 Motion Pictures (p. 187)
• First Years (p. 188)
• Silent Era: 1896-1926 (p. 188)
• Talkies Arrive: 1926-1930 (p. 192)
• Golden Age: 1930-1946 (p. 193)
• Decline: 1946-1969 (p. 195)
• Refocusing: 1970-Present (p. 198)
• Current Issues (p. 199)
• Looking Ahead (p. 204)
• 11 Radio and Sound Recordings (p. 206)
• Radio (p. 207)
• Sound Recording (p. 219)
• 12 Television (p. 230)
• TV's Early Days: 1925-1945 (p. 232)
• Becoming a Mass Medium: 1945-1952 (p. 233)
• Television's Golden Age: 1952-1960 (p. 235)
• TV Comes of Age: 1960-1976 (p. 238)
• New Alternatives Emerge: 1976-1984 (p. 241)
• Critical Issues Intensify: 1984-1999 (p. 245)
• Remedial Efforts (p. 252)
• The Business of Television (p. 254)
• Looking Ahead (p. 256)
• 13 Advertising (p. 261)
• Advertising and Mass Media (p. 262)
• Advertising's Origins (p. 263)
• Types of Advertising (p. 264)
• Advertising Techniques (p. 269)
• Advertising's Place and Role in Different Media (p. 271)
• The Business of Advertising (p. 275)
• Regulation of Advertising (p. 276)
• Critical Issues (p. 278)
• In Defense of Advertising (p. 280)
• Looking Ahead (p. 281)
• 14 Public Relations, Public Opinion, and Mass Media (p. 284)
• The Scope of Public Relations Today (p. 285)
• Defining Public Relations (p. 285)
• Public Relations, Democracy, and Public Opinion (p. 287)
• Types of Public Opinion and Publics (p. 288)
• Courting Public Opinion (p. 289)
• Public Relations in American History: A Critical Role (p. 290)
• The Rise of Public Relations in the Twentieth Century (p. 291)
• Publicity, Advertising, and Credibility (p. 292)
• The Process of Public Relations (p. 293)
• Difficult Relations in an Age of Mass Media (p. 297)
• Attitudes Toward Public Relations (p. 298)
• 15 The Internet and the Future of Mass Media (p. 303)
• Convergence and New Media (p. 304)
• The Rise of the Internet (p. 305)
• Defining the Internet (p. 306)
• Historical Background (p. 307)
• Ownership and Control (p. 309)
• Rights and Responsibilities (p. 312)
• New Theories and Models (p. 314)
• Audiences (p. 315)
• Audience Uses and Internet Functions (p. 317)
• Effects of the Internet (p. 321)
• New Media Versus Old Media (p. 324)
• Author Index (p. 329)
• Subject Index (p. 331)