Our lives are more mediated than ever before. Adults in economically advanced countries spend
on average over eight hours per day interacting with the media. The news and entertainment
industries are being transformed by the shift to digital platforms. But how much is really
changing in terms of what shapes media content? What are the impacts on our public and
imaginative life? And is the Internet a democratising tool of social protest or of state and
commercial manipulation? Drawing on decades of research to examine these and other questions
Understanding Media interrogates claims about the Internet explores how representations in TV
and film may influence perceptions of self and traces overarching trends while attending to
crucial local context from the United States to China Norway to Malaysia and Brazil to
Britain. Understanding Media is an accessible and essential guide to the world's most
influential force - the contemporary media.
