No one can escape the influence of the media. Every day we watch hours of TV, listen to the radio, read newspapers and magazines, go to the cinema, sit in front of videos or surf the Web. These information commodities exercise enormous influence and power over all of us.

Introducing Media Studies explores the complex relationship between the media, ideology, knowledge and power. It provides a scintillating tour of media history and presents a coherent view of the media industry, media theory and methods in media research. It explains how 'the audience' is constructed and how it in turn interprets the content and meaning of media representation. We also learn how to analyse film, deconstruct advertising and appreciate how TV and the press shape public opinion.

The media is a condition of our existence and, in an unprecedented way, the pervading shape of our history. No one can afford to neglect a critical understanding of its omnipresence. Here is an entertaining and informative book, accessible to students and general readers concerned with the increasing power, influence and proliferation of the media.

Ziauddin Sardar is a hugely renowned writer, broadcaster, journalist and critic. 'Britain's own Muslim polymath' (Independent) has become one of the UK's leading intellectuals and writes on a huge variety of subjects in numerous newspapers and magazines throughout the world. He is also Visiting Professor of Postcolonial Studies at the City University, London.

Borin Van Loon has worked on numerous Introducing titles. He is a freelance illustrator, surrealist painter and collagist who produces the comic strip 'The Severed Head' for The Chap magazine.