Critical Media Studies

Provides a timely and accessible introduction to the study of mass media, helping students understand how digital media shape their perceptions and the world around them

Critical Media Studies: An Introduction for the Digital Age provides essential tools to analyze and interpret contemporary media technologies, industries, messages, and audiences. Blending foundational theories with the latest research, this leading textbook helps students navigate the increasingly complex media landscape and recognize the unprecedented power mass media hold in shaping public consciousness and individual identity. Authors Brian L. Ott and Robert L. Mack offer diverse critical perspectives —including feminist, psychoanalytic, and ecological analyses—while encouraging students to view media critically, participate in active citizenship, and develop their media literacy.

Now in its fourth edition, Critical Media Studies addresses the unique challenges of today's fast-evolving digital world with new and expanded content throughout. Up-to-date chapters examine the ecological impact of digital media, algorithmic targeting, the erosion of shared social experiences, the shift from analog to digital media, organizational and economic trends in global media, and much more. This new edition engages deeply with contemporary theories, particularly with the philosophy of Byung-Chul Han, a leading thinker in digital media studies.

Supplying the theoretical framework to understand media's role in shaping personal, social, and political realities, Critical Media Studies:

• Incorporates critical reception theory, focusing on how audiences interpret and engage with media texts
• Contains exclusive treatment of erotic analysis as a media perspective, rarely included in media studies textbooks
• Highlights the ethical implications of digital media and discusses media's role in democracy and citizenship
• Fosters in-depth analysis of media through frameworks including Cultural, Ecological, Marxist, Feminist, Queer, and Psychoanalytic analysis
• Offers a clear and logical progressions of topics, guiding students from foundational concepts to complex critical approaches

With a chapter-based format that allows for flexible course planning, Critical Media Studies: An Introduction for the Digital Age, Fourth Edition is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in media studies, communication, digital media, and media analysis and criticism.