Key Themes in Media Theory

"Key Themes in Media Theory is wonderfully wide-ranging and deservedly destined to become a key text for students of Media Studies."
Professor John Storey, University of Sunderland, UK

"The very best text books are not just summaries of complex ideas for a student audience or an introduction to a critical canon; the very best add something to the canon they reflect upon, and Dan Laughey’s Key Themes in Media Theory is one such book. [It] is not a means to an end, as many such books can be. Rather it is a motivational primer, and one that should send both students and teachers heading to the library toread the theorists presented here again, for the first time."
Richard Berger, Art, Design, Media; The Higher Education Academy, UK

• What is media theory?
• How do media affect our actions, opinions and beliefs?
• In what ways do media serve powerful political and economic interests?
• Is media consumerism unhealthy or is it empowering?

Key Themes in Media Theory provides a thorough and critical introduction to the key theories of media studies. It is unique in bringing together different schools of media theory into a single, comprehensive text, examining in depth the ideas of key media theorists such as Lasswell, McLuhan, Hall, Williams, Barthes, Adorno, Baudrillard and Bourdieu.

Using up-to-date case studies the book embraces media in their everyday cultural forms – music, internet, film, television, radio, newspapers and magazines – to enable a clearer view of the ‘big picture’ of media theory.

In ten succinct chapters Dan Laughey discusses a broad range of themes, issues and perspectives that inform our contemporary understanding of media production and consumption. These include:

• Behaviourism and media effects
• Feminist media theory
• Postmodernity and information society
• Political economy
• Media consumerism

With images and diagrams to illustrate chapter themes, examples that apply media theory to media practice, recommended reading at the end of every chapter, and a useful glossary of key terms, this book is the definitive guide to understanding media theory.