Exploring Mass Communication examines the many paths that led to our digital media world and how digital media both connects and disconnects us. While providing the need-to-know concepts, history, and theories, Vincent F. Filak urges students to critically think about how media affects them, and how they can best engage with media to improve their everyday lives. Through Filak′s conversational and personable style, the text interweaves inclusivity and diversity throughout, presenting a modern and fresh approach that today’s students will connect with. This title is accompanied by a complete teaching and learning package. Contact your Sage representative to request a demo. Learning Platform / Courseware Sage Vantage is an intuitive learning platform that integrates quality Sage textbook content with assignable multimedia activities and auto-graded assessments to drive student engagement and ensure accountability. Unparalleled in its ease of use and built for dynamic teaching and learning, Vantage offers customizable LMS integration and best-in-class support. It’s a learning platform you, and your students, will actually love. Learn more. Assignable Video with Assessment Assignable video (available in Sage Vantage) is tied to learning objectives and curated exclusively for this text to bring concepts to life. Watch a sample video now. LMS Cartridge: Import this title’s instructor resources into your school’s learning management system (LMS) and save time. Don’t use an LMS? You can still access all of the same online resources for this title via the password-protected Instructor Resource Site. Learn more.

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.

"Michael R. Real is one of our best writers in the arena of critical studies in mass communication, and he has made his most significant contribution to date with Exploring Media Culture. The book is insightful, thought-provoking, and authoritative yet is highly accessible to undergraduate and graduate students alike. Professor Real knows where to find his college readers, and he meets them where they live. His explanations are candid, his examples timely, and his positions compelling. The case studies afford some of the best exemplars of the intersection of ritual participation and media texts in everyday life ever published. Exploring Media Culture is no ordinary textbook. It is a primer for life in the information age. In fact, this may be the first media criticism book that students will want to keep on their bookshelves long after they have graduated from college." --Robert K. Avery, Professor of Communication, University of Utah "Exploring Media Culture is a beautifully written, intellectually challenging, and highly readable exploration of the mysterium of contemporary mass media and popular culture. Michael R. Real does a masterful job of empowering his readers--teaching them how to make sense of everything from Madonna to postmodernism. Students will find this book - which deals with texts that many of them are familiar with -- fascinating, and in some cases terrifying." --Arthur Asa Berger, Broadcast & Electronic Communication Arts Department, San Francisco State University Providing a timely, fresh interpretation of media analysis, Exploring Media Culture is an engaging alternative to the typical mass communication text. Expanding on the approach used in his previous work, author Michael R. Real examines the interplay between popular culture and the media. Each chapter uses an aspect of popular culture to explicate a variety of complex topics such as ritual, postmodernism, identity, and political economy. Real includes analysis of such cultural phenomena as: - Hollywood films, the Superbowl, and presidential elections - MTV, video games, and the Internet - Music, aerobics classes, and the Olympics By staying close to texts, narratives, interpretations, and rituals of actual people, readers can "lay open" great ranges of media culture without getting lost in the most esoteric, though important of scholarly debates today. Exploring Media Culture is a guide for those who expect to attend to film, television, popular music, and similar media culture or conduct formal research on media. Students in communication, media studies, mass communication sociology, cultural studies, and popular culture will find this text is ideal for the classroom; it synthesizes a wide range of recent scholarship in an understandable format.

When should you send a text message, and when is it more appropriate to talk face-to-face? What is the best way to prepare for a job interview that will be conducted over video? How should you modify your speech if it will be recorded and posted online? The Communication Age: Connecting and Engaging introduces students to the foundational concepts and essential skills of effective communication, with a strong emphasis on the impact of technology in our increasingly interconnected world. This new Fourth Edition helps students become involved in our diverse global community and learn how to apply key principles of effective communication—whether incorporating media, technology, or traditional face-to-face speech communication—to foster civic engagement for a better future. With comprehensive coverage of the essentials of interpersonal, small group, and public communication, this text is ideal for use in hybrid introduction to communication courses.

Innovation is occurring at a rapid pace in digital work and demands increasing attention from academic scholars. In line with this demand, this book aims to provide an overview of recent advances in studies of innovation and technology in the digital space. The book addresses the cultural elements influencing the diffusion and adoption of digital technologies, the pervasive role of social media, the organizational challenges of digital transformations, and finally specific emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technology. The plurality of views offered makes this book particularly relevant to practitioners, academics, and policymakers, and provides an up-to-date view of the latest developments in Information Systems. It gathers a selection of the best papers (double-blind peer-reviewed) presented at the annual conference of the Italian AIS Chapter in October 2020 in Pescara, Italy.

Media outlets play a pivotal role in fostering the positive and beneficial development of countries in modern society. By properly informing citizens of critical national concerns, the media can help to transform society and promote active participation. Exploring Journalism Practice and Perception in Developing Countries is a crucial reference source for the latest scholarly material on the impacts of development journalism on contemporary nations and the media’s responsibility to inform citizens of government and non-government activities. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics such as media regulation, freedom of expression, and new media technology, this book is ideally designed for researchers, academics, professionals, policy makers, and students interested in the role of journalist endeavors in developing nations.

Since the advent of digitization, the conceptual confusion surrounding the semantic galaxy that comprises the media and journalism universes has increased. Journalism across several media platforms provides rapidly expanding content and audience engagement that assist in enhancing the journalistic experience. Exploring Transmedia Journalism in the Digital Age provides emerging research on multimedia journalism across various platforms and formats using digital technologies. While highlighting topics, such as immersive journalism, nonfictional narratives, and design practice, this book explores the theoretical and critical approaches to journalism through the lens of various technologies and media platforms. This book is an important resource for scholars, graduate and undergraduate students, and media professionals seeking current research on media expansion and participatory journalism.

A critical introduction to the key processes and contexts of social change in contemporary society, combining a thorough grounding of key theorists with hot topics such the media, the environment and new technologies - ideal for students across the social sciences.

As developing nations increase their consumption rate, their relevance in the global marketplace grows. Existing assumptions and postulations about consumer consumption in various societies are being displaced largely due to the dynamic nature of the market. However, research has not been adequately devoted to explore the developments in consumer behavior in developing nations, which has resulted in numerous unanswered questions. Exploring the Dynamics of Consumerism in Developing Nations provides vital research on consumer behavior in developing countries and changes in the socio-cultural dimensions of marketing. While highlighting topics such as celebrity influence, marketing malpractices, and the adoption of e-government, this publication is ideally designed for researchers, advanced-level students, policymakers, and managers.

People in general are concerned about the health of themselves and their families, but they lack reliable access to health knowledge. In order to ensure that people get accurate medical knowledge, dissemination of such knowledge by medical professionals is advocated. This is the basis of medical communication. This book covers the theoretical model of medical communication, explains the differences from medical science popularization and health communication, and from the perspective of medical practice, provides many examples to illustrate the practical application and significance of medical communication. It is hoped that this book will attract more people to join the team of medical communicators, pass the correct medical knowledge to the public, and ultimately the incidence and mortality of diseases can be reduced and the health level of people improved.