As a result of the convergence within the media environment, people are using media and technology in very different ways as compared to just a few years ago. Consider the experience of growing up today in a wireless broadband household, with easy access to cell phones and laptops, as compared with just a few years ago, when people used the Internet via a phone modem. Go even further back and remember how people viewed only the 500-channels available on the cable television lineup. So much has changed in the past 15 years.

To thrive in a media-saturated society, people need to ask critical questions about what we watch, see, listen to, read and use. Covering topics from news and information to the internet to media consumption and addiction, this key textbook provides the tools to both empower and protect students as they navigate our increasingly complex media environment.