“Asking North Americans about the pervasive influence of media in this culture is a bit like ... asking fish about water. ‘Water? What water?’ We live and breathe media— but we are largely unaware of how they shape our...

“It is impossible to make sense of the special privileges allocated to the press in our society . . . except on the assumption that the press is supposed to serve some important public good.” —Judith Lichtenberg, philosophy professor...

The interest of sociologists in mass communication was stimulated by developments in technology allowing the reproduction and speedy transmission of messages. It began with the rise of the popular press, followed by the invention of film, sound...

Before the 1960s, the media reported sporadically on the environment—often then referred to as the 'ecology' issue. But Rachel Carson's 1962 book, Silent Spring, which raised deep concerns about the nation's...

In all technologically advanced countries, the media have become a central political arena. Their most obvious importance lies in the huge audiences they reach, and the way these audiences transcend and cut across other social divisions and political...

Mass media together comprise a new social institution, concerned with the production and distribution of knowledge in the widest sense of the word, and have a number of salient characteristics, including the use of relatively advanced technology for...

Mathematics as a tool of the media can influence the values, beliefs, and ideas of its readers and listeners. As a result, students and consumers of information must learn how to recognize sound and usable data in a wilderness of numbers. The use of...

The production of messages for mass communication is rooted in the *culture of the producers and that of the supposed audience. Messages are sets of cultural meanings and are effective as communication only if they fit with the structure of cultural...

The media are the methods of mass communication and entertainment, which have developed into vital political forces with the advent of virtual total adult literacy and extensive ownership of television and radio sets in the developed world; in the...

The mass media is one form of communication found in many societies throughout the world, and has become increasingly important in recent centuries. Communication is a prerequisite for human society. Humans are not genetically programmed for one...

The means of communicating to large groups of people. Used in some forms of distance...

Mass media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. It was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks,...