Media/Society: Industries, Images, and Audiences, Fifth Edition, by David Croteau and William Hoynes provides a framework for understanding the relationship between media and society and helps readers develop skills for critically evaluating both conventional wisdom and their own assumptions about the social role of the media. Retaining its acclaimed sociological framework, the Fifth Edition covers new studies, includes up-to-date material about today’s rapidly changing media landscape, and significantly expands discussions of the “new media” world, including digitization, the Internet, the spread of mobile media devices, the role of user-generated content, the potential social impact of new media on society, and new media’s effect on traditional media outlets. Updated research, the latest industry data, and current examples from popular media illustrate enduring themes in the sociology of media.

David Croteau taught about the sociology of media as an Associate Professor (retired) in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the author of Politics and the Class Divide: Working People and the Middle-Class Left and co-author, with William Hoynes, of Experience Sociology.

William Hoynes is Professor of Sociology and former Director of the Media Studies Program at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he teaches courses on media, culture, and social theory. He is the author of Public Television for Sale: Media, the Market, and the Public Sphere and co-author, with David Croteau, of Experience Sociology.