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Mass Communication Theory: Foundations, Ferment, and Future

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Get on media's cutting edge today. MASS COMMUNICATION FOUNDATIONS, FERMENT, AND FUTURE introduces you to both current and classical mass communication theories, and explains the media literacy movement in terms you can understand. Plus, this mass communications textbook helps you develop a better understanding of media theory so you can play a role in the media industry's future. And because it�s loaded with study tools, it will help you succeed on exams and in the course.

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

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Stanley J. Baran

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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
40 reviews
July 17, 2009
Main text for Advanced Media class
1 review1 follower
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March 23, 2013
it is helpful for me
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Clancy.
115 reviews4 followers
July 30, 2020
It's a textbook, so it was a slog to get through. But worthwhile.

I'm entering post-grad in a related, but still markedly different discipline, to that which I've studied and worked up until now.

This edition of the book covers, in easily understandable terms, all of the major theories and trends in communication s studies, since the discipline's inception. This history is obviously of great significance to any contemporary student in the field.

I can't comment on what may or may not have been addressed in the latest edition, out this year, but there are number of serious shortcomings here that I feel compelled to mention. The authors have limited understanding of contemporary digital technology, its terminology, its usage, and in many ways its place in contemporary society — even for the period in which this edition was published. While the final chapters address in detail the scholarly and theoretical developments concerning contemporary technology and its disruption and reshaping of communications in our time, their lack of familiarity and conversence results in a rather limited explanation of where the field is today.

Another bizarre oversight was to do with the impact of media violence on real-world behaviour. Despite every other section of the book openly discussing limitations in extrapolating research data (in this field of research) into declarative statements about the real world, this is seemingly abandoned when discussing this particular area of concern and research.

Despite these two limited, but significant problems, this book has been, and will be in future, massively useful and worthwhile to me.
Profile Image for Izzy.
59 reviews
November 4, 2024
i read for class. gives a good foundation for theories in research and writing. easy read.
2 reviews
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February 7, 2016
want to know about definition
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