The Media Studies Toolkit
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publishing:12th Feb '26
£39.99
This title is due to be published on 12th February, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
In the second edition of this critical primer, Michael Z. Newman introduces newcomers to the key concepts, issues, and vocabulary of media studies.
Across ten chapters , Newman examines topics from text and audience to citizenship and consumerism, drawing on a myriad of examples of media old and new. Film and TV rub shoulders with mobile games and social media, and popular music and video sharing platforms with journalism and search engines. While the book takes a critical, cultural approach, it covers topics that apply across many kinds of media scholarship, bridging the humanities and the social sciences and looking at media as a global phenomenon. It considers media in relation to society and its unequal structures of power, and relates media representations to their conditions of production in media industries and consumption in the everyday lives of audiences and users. Spanning the historical periods of mass media and online participatory culture, it also probes assumptions about media that were formulated in a previous era and looks at how to update our thinking to address an ever-changing digital mediascape.
With its clear and accessible style, this book is tailor-made for undergraduate students of media, communication, and cultural studies, as well as anyone who would like to better understand media.
"The Media Studies Toolkit balances its expansive purview with clear prose and a straightforward organization. Across the chapters, Michael Newman parses out key conceptual frameworks and critical vocabulary used in media and cultural studies with an eye toward illustrative examples and generative questions. The result is an excellent textbook, which my colleagues and I like so much that we used it to reimagine our introductory course."
F. Hollis Griffin, Associate Professor of Communication and Media, University of Michigan, USA
"Michael Z. Newman’s The Media Studies Toolkit is an invaluable introduction to everything that matters about the study of media. From technology, industry and policy, to representation and audiences, the book covers the essential methods, questions, and intellectual traditions that have informed the discipline. A must for introductory classes."
Maureen Ryan, Research Assistant Professor of Media Arts, Film and Media Studies, University of South Carolina, USA
Praise for the Previous Edition:
"Bravo to Michael Newman for expertly rendering the dense and sometimes unwieldy discipline of media studies into an approachable and useable form for instructors and students. Having studied and taught media studies for a quarter of a century, this is the first book I have encountered that adequately captures and explains a media studies approach for undergraduate students. Deeply grounded in key classic and contemporary work of the field, Newman deftly explores the broad range of media with which today’s students engage. Critical questions related to race, gender, and sexuality are impressively integrated throughout the book. Finally, the ‘toolkit' approach makes this an infinitely flexible text for instructors and students."
Kathleen Battles, Professor and Chair, Department of Communication, Journalism, and Public Relations, Oakland University, USA
ISBN: 9781032903408
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
350 pages
2nd edition