Media and Society is an established title, popular worldwide for its insightful and accessible essays from leading international academics on the most pertinent issues in the media field today.
The book is organised into three key areas of debate: media and society, media production and mediations. Each new edition of the book has sought to be a textbook that encompasses the field, including essays on political communication, media and feminism, media political economy, sociology of media organisations, media representations, media influence, internet studies and more. New to this edition is an emphasis on film studies, an increasingly important area of media studies.
What is judged to be the staple elements of the field has evolved over time, as well as becoming more international in orientation. Yet the overriding aim of the book - to be useful to students - has remained constant. This text is an essential resource for all media, communication and film studies students who want to broaden their knowledge and understanding of how the media operates and affects society across the globe.

"An original contribution to media studies. Beautifully organized, well written and incisive." Professor James Carey, Colombia University, USA
"Still the best collection of current thinking in the field." Professor Elihu Katz, Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

James Curran is Professor of Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. He is the author or editor of 21 books about the media. These include Media and Power (2002), Media and Democracy (2011) and Misunderstanding the Internet (with Natalie Fenton and Des Freedman) (2016, 2nd ed.), all translated into multiple foreign languages, and Power Without Responsibility (with Jean Seaton), 8th edition due out in 2017. Also widely translated, this book was described by the Times Higher as having 'cracked the canon', and by the Irish Times as a 'classic of media history and analysis.'

List of contributors
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Part 1: Media and Society
1. Communication Power: Mass Communication, Mass Self-Communication, and Power Relationships in the Network Society Manuel Castells
2. Film and Society Toby Miller
3. Entertaining Democracy James Curran
4. Media and Feminism Susan Thornham
5. Media and Politics Aeron Davis
6. Western Media Systems in Comparative Perspective Daniel C. Hallin and Pablo Mancini
7. Interactive, Engaging but Unequal: Critical Conclusions from Internet Studies Sonia Livingstone
Part 2: Media Production
8. Media Industry Studies, Media Production Studies David Hesmondhalgh
9. Four Approaches to the Sociology of News Revisited Michael Schudson
10. The Contribution of Critical Political Economy Jonathan Hardy
11. Beyond the Global/Local: Examining Contemporary Media Globalization Trends Across National Contexts Kalyani Chadha and Anandam Kavoori
12. Contempoary Hollywood Radicalism Ben Dickenson
13. Chinese Media, Contentious Society Yuezhi Zhao
Part 3: Mediations
14. The State of Media Effects Research Shanto Iyengar
15. Media Regimes and Democracy Bruce Williams and Michael X. Delli Carpini
16. Arab Film and Islamic Fundamentalism Lina Khatib
17. The Politics of Reality TV: An Overview of Recent Research Susan Murray
18. Race and Identity in Digital Media Lisa Nakamura
19. The Rise of Internet News Media and the Emergence of Discursive Publics in South Korea June Woong Rhee
20. The Future of the News Industry Robert G. Picard
Index