This provocative new edition examines the mass media as economic and cultural institutions that shape our social identities, particularly regarding gender, race and class. A comprehensive introductory section outlines the book's integrated approach to media studies, which incorporates three distinct but related areas of investigation: the political economy of production, textual analysis and audience response.

"In her writing for Harper's, the London Review of Books, The New Yorker, and elsewhere, Lauren Oyler has emerged as one of the most trenchant and influential critics of her generation, a talent whose judgments on works of literature--whether celebratory or scarily harsh--have become notorious. But what is the significance of being a critic and consumer of media in today's fraught environment? How do we understand ourselves, and each other, as space...

"Readers will learn how to build a complete working science lab (starting with a workbench) for chemistry, biology, and physics--and how to perform experiments with those tools. The instructions and experiments may appear fearless and bold by today's standards, but many from previous generations fondly remember how we as a society used to approach scientific learning. As you build your equipment, you'll get ready for the over 1600 experiments in the...

"In battle for the Bird, Bloomberg journalist Kurt Wagner takes the reader inside Twitter's everchanging headquarters, charting its rise from flippant 140-character posts to one of the world's most consequential tech companies. From Jack Dorsey's triumphant return as CEO in 2015 to the rise and fall of @realDonaldTrump to the contentious $44 billion sale to Elon Musk, Battle for the Bird exposes the messy reality and relentless challenges that come...