Issues surrounding media's role in the modern world: recommendations, please

Can anybody suggest recent (or landmark) books that can give me an overview of mainstream media its effect on how we all think? I have no formal training in mass communication, and certainly don't want to go back to college, but I am interested in this topic.

I'd appreciate it if the recommendations were written specifically for the general reader, and were relatively well-received during their release. The controversial stuff can come later.

I suppose even a college textbook would qualify, perhaps written by a Pinoy professor, an Agoncillo in the MassCom field... Something that isn't too dry, though.

Thanks!

Hi Molave,
Off the top of my head, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), which also publishes its own titles related not just to investigative journalism, but to media in the Philippines as well, would be a good source.
I'd suggest From Loren to Marimar, The Philippine Media in the 1990s, edited by Sheila Coronel. I have not got a personal copy of it yet, but I do other PCIJ books.
This and other titles may be purchased from their office in Quezon City
3/F Criselda II Bldg.,
107 Scout de Guia St.
Quezon City 1104
Philippines
or online: their bookshop.
The book's overview here.
HTH :)

Yes this does help a lot, krvilla. Didn't know PCIJ had an online bookstore. Might be easier to just drop by their office, though.

Thanks and all the best!

I'm glad you find the post helpful, Molave. Do let us know what you think of the book when you get the chance to purchase a copy.

Thanks and good luck! :)

Skim the description in Amazon for Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini to see if the book would be helpful to you.

If you're looking for Western texts of a non-academic bent, two relatively recent releases have been getting a lot of hype, though I've yet to read them.

Funnily enough, both of them use past-tense verbs as their titles with long subtitles that explain their respective foci:

Mediated by Thomas de Zengotita
Consumed by Benjamin Barber

#6/eldritch00
Very interesting recommendations. The covers are good, too. I will be on the lookout for these and probably purchase when I get the chance.

@Molave, after immersing yourself with these books, you might also want to dig into the pages of a classic, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man by Marshall McLuhan
.
It's an old publication, but much of what McLuhan has written -- he deals with media and 20th century technology -- is still defnitely relevant today.

Thanks eldritch and dizzydame for your replies. Will add your suggests to my bloated, burgeoning wishlist

Yeah krv, I've heard from others that McLuhan is a good place to start.

Cheers all

Indeed, McLuhan becomes ever more and more important as the years go by. One secondary text I use in my classes, despite its being a few years old, is Paul Levinson's Digital McLuhan. Insightful and so fun to read that it qualifies as a page-turner!

McLuhan is definitely textbook Mass Communication, we studied a number of his theories back in college. One book I greatly enjoyed in college as well was Media Virus! : hidden agendas in popular culture by Douglas Rushkoff which analyzes the mass media's power of influence (esp. television) and even touches a bit on "memes". Keep in mind though that this was written before the Internet boom, so it may seem a bit dated, but I think its content is still a worthwhile read.

The Gulf War did not take place by Jean Baudrillard. If you're up to some academic reading, this is a great book to read. It talks about the effects of media on how we view the gulf war.

from wikipedia (not really a credible source but the info abt the book is alright):

One of the points that Baudrillard tries to make with this book is that what's considered real is now simply images of what is real: we see "a masquerade of information: branded faces delivered over to the prostitution of the image, the image of an unintelligible distress." (Baudrillard 2001, 40). This is a challenge to the tendency of many people to believe absolutely what they see on their screens. This point also works in with another of Baudrillard's claims that the war was so heavily edited when it was shown on television that what Americans saw wasn't even close to the real war. He arrived at this conclusion after talking with many soldiers about what really happened on the ground.