In the third volume of this series, Media Studies, the emphasis is on media content and media audiences. Media content and media audiences (or users) are covered from methodological and theoretical perspectives.

For the revised reprint of this volume, a new introduction has been included to highlight the relevance of the current content and to contextualise within it the content of Volume 4 Social (New) Media and Mediated Communication Today (2017).

Part 1 of the book deals with: quantitative content analysis; communication and media semiotics; media, language and discourse; media and visual literacy; visual text analysis; textual analysis: narrative and argument; narrative analysis; film theory and criticism Part 2 deals with: media audience theory (dealing with the uses and gratification theory, reception theory and ethnography); questionnaire surveys in media research; field research in media studies; measuring media audiences; psychoanalysis and television as an illustration of an applied theoretical approach in media audience research.

In the second volume of the four-part textbook series on Media Studies the emphasis is again on the relationship between media and society. While further exploring media as an institution, this volume also introduces the topics of media regulation and content.

Volume 2 is guided in part by the question: How do we control and manage the media? Communications policy is explained, with overviews of how the Southern African media is externally and internally regulated to ensure a well-organised and disciplined modern media system. Strategic ways of managing the media are discussed. The book deals with the concept of media representation: How does the media reflect and represent reality or its aspects? Is the news that is presented an accurate portrayal of reality? How does the media deal with identity, race, gender, sexual orientation, the environment, AIDS, violence and terrorism?

This section thus critically analyses questions about how the media depicts people, topics, organisations and issues.

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.

Contents Include:
• 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.