Introduction. Why increase media literacy? -- Media literacy approach -- Audience. Audience : individual perspective -- Industry perspective on audience -- Children as a special audience -- Industry. Development of the mass media industries -- Economic perspective -- Current status -- Content. Mass media content and reality -- News -- Entertainment content -- Advertising -- Interactive media -- Effects. Proactive perspective on media effects -- Broadening our perspective on media effects -- Confronting the issues. Who controls the mass media? -- Privacy with the media -- Piracy with the media -- Media violence -- Media influence on sports -- The springboard. Personal strategy for increasing media literacy -- Helping others increase media literacy.
Summary
"This book offers a detailed approach to studying media influences and presents readers with a clear vision of what it means to operate at a higher level of media literacy. W. James Potter argues that the media have a profound influence on the way we perceive the world by shaping our beliefs and expectations. By becoming more media literate, we can avoid the potentially negative effects of those media messages as well as amplify the potentially positive effects." "With substantial discussion of media content, audiences, and the media industries, the book tackles key issues related to media ownership, invasion of privacy, piracy of media messages, violence, and sports. Readers will gain a clearer perspective on the borders between the real world and the simulated media world and will become more informed and literate media consumers."--BOOK JACKET.
