Media and Society explores the relationship between the media, their institutions and the world we live in, examining how they are connected and how society and the media affect each other. The book analyses representations of the world found in films, television, advertisements, news and online to understand the impact of the media in the contemporary world.The sixth edition explores several themes throughout the text, including the contradictory nature of the media and the psychological concerns of the media, to provide clear explanations of complex theories and ideas.

New to this Edition:

• New author, Sarah Casey brings experience in digital technologies and social media…
• New chapter 17 on Digital Television and Interactive Narratives exploring emerging and evolving narrative forms including streamed television and interactive gaming.
• New and updated case studies including:
  • Self-representation in photographs—‘selfies’
  • Television, algorithmic culture and surveillance
  • University and students – media, law and humour
  • Banksy – street art, anonymity and culture jamming
  • UnREAL and reality TV
  • Celebrity “activism”: celanthropy, the Half the Sky movement, and the need to be seen to “care”
  • Star-celebrity profile: George and Amal Clooney, and the transmission of culture values
• Updated examples to encourage students to reflect further on the issues discussed in each chapter, including:
  • Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner at the Victoria’s Secret runway show.
  • Bruce Jenner coming out as transgender woman, Caitlyn Jenner.
  • Jonathan Thurston sharing a moment of parental intimacy with his daughter during the celebration of the NRL grand final win.
  • Kanye West and his Twitter appeal to Mark Zuckerberg to help him financially by investing a billion dollars in his novel business plans.

Part 1 Getting Ready: The Media
1. Defining the Media
2. Media Studies
3. What Do the Media Do to Us? Media and Society
4. What’s in a Name? Language and the Social Construction of Reality
5. Mediation and Representation
6. Texts, Meanings and Audiences
7. New Media and Technological Development
Part 2 Pictures: Semiotic Analysis
8. Semiology
9. Reading Images and Advertisements
10. Model Essay: Semiotic Analysis of an Advertisement
Part 3 Making Sense: Discourse, Ideology and Hegemony
11. Discourse and Ideology
12. Dominant Ideology and Hegemony
13. Culture Jamming and Counter-hegemony
Part 4 Stories: Approaches for Narrative Analysis
14. Genres, Codes and Conventions
15. The Language of Film: American Beauty
16. Narrative Structure and Binary Oppositions
17. Digital Television and Interactive Narratives
18. Documentary and Reality TV
19. Why Stories?
Part 5 Media and Identity: Representation, Impact and Influence
20. Feminism, Post-feminism and Ideology of Femininity
21. Ideologies and Discourses of Masculinity
22. Ethnicity, Ideology and the Media
23. Stars and Celebrities
24. Part 6: But They Keep Moving the Posts: Postmodern and Global Perspectives
25. Postmodernism
26. Globalisation

Michael O’Shaughnessy, formerly School of Media and Communications, Edith Cowan University

Jane Stadler, Associate Professor, Film and Television Studies, University of Queensland

with Sarah Casey, School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Griffith University