Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology (with InfoTrac 1-Semester, vMentor™Communications 1-Semester, Premium Web Site Printed Access Card (Available Titles CengageNOW)

Do your students understand how they are affected by the media they use? Do they understand how technology works, develops and changes over time? MEDIA NOW is the first mass communication text to encourage students to think critically about the media and its effects on culture and also provide them with a thorough understanding of how the media technologies develop, operate, converge and affect our greater society. Unlike other introductory mass communication books, MEDIA NOW prepares students for their careers in the expanded field of telecommunications, interactive media, and traditional media industries, by providing them with a book that will not only excite them but teach them the foundational theories, concepts and technical knowledge to help them thrive.

DR. JOSEPH D. STRAUBHAAR is the Amon G. Carter Centennial Professor of Communications in the Radio-TV-Film Department and Latino Media Studies Director in the Moody College of Communication of the University of Texas at Austin. He was the Director of the Center for Brazilian Studies within the Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies. His most recent book is Latin American Television Industries (2013), with John Sinclair. He has published books, articles, and essays on international communications, global media, digital inclusion, international telecommunications, Brazilian television, Latin American media, comparative analyses of new television technologies, media flow and culture, and other topics appearing in a number of journals, edited books, and elsewhere. His primary teaching, research, and writing interests are in global media, international communication and cultural theory, the digital divide in the U.S. and other countries, and global television studies. He does research in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, and has taken student groups to Latin America and Asia. He has presented seminars abroad on media research, television programming strategies, and telecommunications privatization. He is on the editorial board for the Communications Theory, Media Industries, Chinese Journal of Communication, Journal of Latin American Communication Research, Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, Comunicacion e Cultura, and Revista Intercom. Visit Joe Straubhaar on the Web at http://rtf.utexas.edu/faculty/joe-straubhaar.

Robert Larose is a Full Professor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University and serves as director of the Media and Information Studies Ph.D. program. He won Outstanding Article Award for the year in the field of communication from the International Communication Association as well as the McQuail Award for the Best Article Advancing Communication Theory from Amsterdam School of Communication Research for his 2010 paper, "The Problem of Media Habits." Dr. Larose conducts research on the uses and effects of the Internet. He has published and presented numerous articles, essays, and book chapters on computer-mediated communication, social cognitive explanations of the Internet and its effects on behavior, understanding Internet usage, privacy, and more. In addition to his teaching and research, he is an avid watercolor painter and traveler. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication Theory and Research from the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California. Visit Robert LaRose on the Web at http://www.msu.edu/~larose.