Journalism, advertising, radio, television, film, and new media are seen as dynamic parts of our daily lives, interacting with and creating the culture we live in. Media Studies: An Introductory Textbook, introduces students to media as they are and have been, integrating history with close textual analysis in a consise, readable style. Media Studies is a comprehensive text for introductory and advanced courses in the growing field of media studies. This new book provides a critical apparatus for "reading" the media students take for granted: clarifying the form and structure, history, production, reception, and the ways the media relate to one another and the audience that attends to them. Media Studies examines media--from print through the digital--as the production of media makers, media consumers, and the cultural, economic, political, and ideological forces that shape and contain them. It gives students the analytic skills they need in a presentation that is readable without sacrificing complexity. Written in a clear, compelling style based upon examples and informed by critical analysis, Media Studies will allow students to move within the media they know while increasing comprehension.