Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication

Abstract

Turow, Joseph (1999). Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 490 pp. Paperback, $40. It used to be easier to select a text for the Intro to Mass Media course. The book had to be well-written and current, of course, with a chapter on each medium. The choice came in a text's context chapters -- those on the communication process, regulation, effects, ethics, advertising, and technology. As the media became more pervasive and powerful, a few new texts focused on function, discussing each medium but also how the media collectively inform, entertain and influence us. Those who have taught the introductory course long enough to remember when the half-dozen available texts helped frame pedagogy increasingly have had their classroom comfort index challenged. Recent textbooks reflect the changing communications landscape and an audience of students for whom media boundaries have blurred. The new teaching challenge is to help these students appreciate how each medium evolved, plus understand how technology is merging the media and what that means to communicators, consumers and This is almost too much for one course, or one textbook. Teachers and authors have to make choices. Textbooks can't be all things to all teachers, especially when an introductory course is taught in a variety of departments and colleges. So it's no surprise that new texts, with different perspectives, have found receptive audiences. Intro profs just have to find the text that fits the course's focus and its students. For example, Turow's book has the same subtitle as Joseph Campbell's 1998 text, Media and Culture. Both predictably have chapters on newspapers, magazines, radio, television, movies, recordings, books, advertising, and public relations. But the tone and focus of the two are quite different. Campbell's cultural perspective moves him from the content of various media as social institutions to the impact of those messages on individuals and Turow, a University of Pennsylvania communications professor, identifies his focus as mass media industries, their interactions with one another, and their impact on society. As much as Campbell concentrates on the media consumer, Turow concerns himself with how and why media decision-makers give us the messages they do. Both authors respectfully characterize each medium, and their contextual perspectives acknowledge the collective impact of media convergence. But they deliver different messages, allowing teachers a choice. Since this is a review of Turow's new text - some particulars. Highly readable, with a healthy selection of media examples and details likely to engage college students, this text has organizational features teachers and students will appreciate. Each chapter begins with a concise description of what will follow and a useful overview of what issues or questions will be addressed and why. A brief summary succinctly revisits those points at the end of each chapter. A valuable glossary helps with media terminology. The text's early chapters set the business tone for the text. Chapter One moves directly to what each communication industry does: produce, distribute, and exhibit. With early deference to media convergence, the emphasis is clearly on how and why industries do what they do. …

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