Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents: Mass communication, culture, and mass media: The people's communication charter -- The stories we tell -- Media literacy and culture: Floklore in a box -- The big sellout: Is creative independence a luxury we can no longer afford? -- History? education? zap! pow! cut! -- Books: The crushing power of big publishing -- The oprah effect: how TV's premier talk show host puts books over the top -- The dumb-down -- Newspapers: A tour of uncertain future -- Shop talk at thirty: A look at Asians as portrayed in the news -- Los Angeles times publisher mark willes in praise of the "cereal killer" -- Holiness, royalty and fame -- Magazines: Girl wide web -- The color of money part I -- The power of money part II -- Film: Hollywood guilds put the moves on multimedia -- Disney's all smiles -- Radio and sound recording: Radio activity -- Reading between the lines: Let's stop crying wolf on censorship -- Television: Call it courage -- The rich tapestry of hispanic america is virturally invisible on commercial television -- TV could nourish minds and hearts -- Public relations: PR! a social history of spin -- Smoker's hacks -- Targeting minority publics -- Advertising: "Buy nothings" discover a cure for affluenza -- Move over boomers, the "xers" are here(or are they?) -- Tuning in to generation x -- Now worse than ever! cynicism in advertising! -- Saturday morning fever: The hardsell takeover of kids tv -- Theories of communication: Shifting words of strangers: Medium theory and changes in "them" versus "us" -- Post modernism defined at last! -- Mass communication research and effects: All quiet on the feminist front -- African american images on television and film -- If liberals go marching back in -- Media regulation, freedom and ethics: Telecom -- The big telecom rip-off glides through congress -- Di dies; we follow the money -- The internet and the world wide web: Changing the paradigm: Technocracy R.I.P.: The rise and of technology signals the fall of technocracy -- How the decency fight was won -- Cable tv: A crisis looms -- The changing global village: At 75, voice of Britain has a new accent -- Europe's technology gap is getting scary -- Antidotes 1-5.