Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture
encourages students to be active media consumers and gives them a deeper
understanding of the role that the media play in both shaping and
reflecting culture. Through this cultural perspective, students learn
that audience members are as much a part of the mass communication
process as are the media producers, technologies, and industries. This
was the first, and remains the only, university-level text to make media
literacy central to its approach, and given recent national and global
turmoil, its emphasis on media use and democracy could not be more
timely.
About the Author:
Stanley Baran earned his Ph.D. in communication
research at the University of Massachusetts after taking his M.A. in
journalism at Pennsylvania State University. He taught for 4 years at
Cleveland State University, eventually moving to the University of
Texas. He led the Department of Radio-TV-Films graduate program for 6 of
his 9 years in Austin and won numerous teaching awards there, including
the AMOCO Teaching Excellence Award as the best instructor on that
40,000-student campus, the College of Communications Teaching Excellence
Award as that colleges outstanding professor, and Utmost Magazines
Student Poll for best instructor. Dr. Baran moved to San Jose State
University in 1987 and served 9 years as chair of the Department of
Television, Radio, Film, and Theatre. At SJSU he was named Presidents
Scholar as the Universitys outstanding researcher. Now, he teaches at
Bryant University, where he is the founding chair of that schools
Communication Department. Among his other experiences shaping this book
are service as a Fulbright Scholar and his many years of professional
activity in audience research, writing for radio, and producing for
television. Dr. Baran has published 10 books and scores of scholarly
articles and sits or has sat on the editorial boards of six journals.
His work has been translated into half-a-dozen languages. He is a
skilled boater and a tenor saxophonist for the Wakefield, Rhode Island,
Concert Band. He is married to Susan Baran and has two very cool
children, Matt and Jordan, who grew up much faster than he wanted.