This is the first volume in the four-part textbook series, Media Studies. This up-to-date, comprehensive, user-friendly and accessible series has been written by key thinkers in Media Studies locally and from abroad.

Media Studies encompasses the systematic, critical and analytical study of the media, in all its forms, and sees the media as one of the most important generators and disseminators of meaning in contemporary society. Media Studies investigates who owns the media, who produces the media, media content and the users of the media. It investigates the power relationships between the media and politics, culture, economy, society, and above all, the relationship between the media and democracy.

• A history of the South African media
• A macro history of the media in Africa
• Theoretical approaches to mass communication and media research
• The functions and effects of the media in society
• Media culture/media and culture* The ideological power of the media
• The media as public sphere in contemporary society
• The impact of globalisation and communication technology on media and media communication.

Volume 1, in particular, is suited to undergraduate students of Media Studies at universities and universities of technology.