Lost in Media examines collectively the ethical issues that have arisen in media-driven everyday life and will that arise as paradigm shifts occur on a global scale. Films, television and the new media often serve the globalization aims of a capitalist society as they function to socially reproduce the hegemonic norms, values, and styles of the larger society. Chapters in the book use the tradition of critical theory to look at issues of free market fundamentalism, journalism's erosion of communication of truth, public relations ethics of perception management; yielding self-censorship in the media, entertainment media pedagogically cultivating consumerism and docility, music and morality, misrepresentation of resistance movements, ethics of spectatorship, and the transformation of everyday ethics.

Lost in Media examines collectively the ethical issues that have arisen in media-driven everyday life and will that arise as paradigm shifts occur on a global scale. Films, television and the new media often serve the globalization aims of a capitalist society as they function to socially reproduce the hegemonic norms, values, and styles of the larger society. Chapters in the book use the tradition of critical theory to look at issues of free market fundamentalism, journalism's erosion of communication of truth, public relations ethics of perception management; yielding self-censorship in the media, entertainment media pedagogically cultivating consumerism and docility, music and morality, misrepresentation of resistance movements, ethics of spectatorship, and the transformation of everyday ethics.

Movies Change Lives is a rigorous interdisciplinary examination of cinema as a vehicle for personal and social transformation. Interdisciplinary scholar Tony Kashani builds a theory of humanistic transformation by discussing many movies while engaging the works of philosopher/psychologist Erich Fromm, cultural studies theorist Stuart Hall, critical pedagogy theorist Henry Giroux, political philosopher Hannah Arendt, the great French thinker Edgar Morin, the pioneering psychologist Carl Jung, the co-founder of string theory, physicist Michio Kaku, and Frankfurt School philosopher Jurgen Habermas, among others. The book argues that in the globalized world of the twenty-first century, humanity is in dire need of personal and social transformation. Movies have universal appeal and can deeply affect their audiences in a short time. Coupled with critical pedagogy, they can become tools of personal and social transformation. Movies Change Lives is an ideal text for graduate and upper-division undergraduate courses on film (cinema) and society, visual culture, consciousness studies, transformative studies, media and social change, advanced personal and social psychology, and political philosophy.