Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster (New York: Villard, 1997): a thoughtful and disturbing look at what happens when the media, nature, people, and a disaster meet up together.

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death; Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (New York: Penguin Books, 1985): Postman is highly critical of television, arguing that it turns everything it touches into entertainment. It’s an interesting counterpoint to Joshua Meyrowitz’s, No Sense of Place.

W. James Potter, Media Literacy, 5th ed. (Thousand Oaks CA: Sage, 2011): Many of the ideas I present on media literacy are drawn from this book; a great, in-depth look at media literacy. This title is one for you, not for your students, most likely.

All of the Chapter 1 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog

Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964): the original work on how the media shape how we perceive the world.

Joshua Meyrowitz, No Sense of Place (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985): an examination of how television through its very existence changes the world we live in.

Arthur Asa Berger, Media Analysis Techniques, 3rd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage 2005): an excellent and readable summary of different approaches to studying the mass media.

Dennis McQuail, McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory, 5th ed. (London: Sage, 2005): This is a huge, comprehensive look at mass communication theory and was one of my primary references for this chapter. This title is one for you, not for your students, most likely.

All of the Chapter 2 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog

Chris Anderson, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More (New York: Hyperion Books, 2008): Make sure you get the revised 2008 paperback edition if you are buying this book for the first time. This is, in my mind, of the most important books about media economics to come out in the last ten years and provides one of the best explanations of the changes taking place in the media industry. This is a great book to provide as an add-on if you are teaching an honors section of your class.

Michael Schudson, The Power of News (Cambridge,: Harvard University Press, 1995); Herbert Gans, Deciding What’s News (New York: Pantheon Books, 1979): Both of these books do an excellent job of looking at how the news media behave and the influences they have on society as a whole. They examine the less obvious biases within the media that go beyond liberal and conservative labels.

Ken Auletta, The Highwaymen (San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1998): Auletta covered the media industry for the New Yorker for several years, and this book is a collection of some of his best columns. It provides a good introduction to many of the key players in the media industry. It was followed by Backstory: Inside the Business of News (New York: Penguin, 2004), which contains more recent columns. Auletta also wrote a great book about Google that was a key source for this chapter: Googled: The End of the World as We Know It (New York: Penguin Press, 2009).

You can find several good interviews with Auletta at the C-SPAN video archives. Just search for Ken Auletta at http://www.c-spanvideo.org/

Ben H. Bagdikian, The New Media Monopoly (Boston: Beacon Press, 2004): the authoritative book on consolidation within the media industry.

Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs (Simon & Schuster: New York, 2011): the definitive (and authorized) biography of Jobs.

All of the Chapter 3 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog

Simon Winchester, The Professor and the Madman (New York: Harper Collins, 1998): Is writing a dictionary sexy? One of the biggest contributors to the dictionary was a homicidal lunatic doctor who wrote all his contributions from his room in an insane asylum. You can read the complete story in The Professor and the Madman.

Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (New York: Scribner, 2000): The master of horror provides a brief memoir of childhood and his battle with drugs and alcohol, along with a discussion of good writing technique.

Brian Lamb, Booknotes: America's Finest Authors on
Reading, Writing and the Power of Ideas (New York: Times Books, 1997): an anthology of interviews from the C-SPAN book interview program of the same name.

All of the Chapter 4 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog

Patricia Okker, Our Sister Editors: Sarah J. Hale and the Tradition of Nineteenth-Century American Women Editors (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1995): Okker provides a look at Hale and the other pioneering women editors of the nineteenth century.

Sondra K. Wilson (ed.), The Crisis Reader (New York: Modern Library, 1999): a collection of the best pieces published in W. E. B. DuBois’s The Crisis.

George Lois, Covering the ‘60s: George Lois, the Esquire Era (New York: Monacelli Press, 1996): a collection of the often controversial covers of Esquire magazine from its days as a leading journalistic magazine; these covers by ad man George Lois are still among the most original ever published anywhere.

All of the Chapter 5 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog

Daniel Pearl, At Home in the World: Collected Writings from the Wall Street Journal (New York: Wall Street Journal, 2002): a collection of the best of murdered reporter Danny Pearl’s work.

Ben Bradlee, A Good Life: Newspapering and other Adventures (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995): This autobiography of the former editor of the Washington Post gives insight into Watergate, the Janet Cooke scandal, and the growth of one of the country’s great newspapers.

Michael Schudson, Discovering the News (New York: Basic Books, 1978): Schudson clearly explains the varied roles that newspapers have played in the United States from the colonial period through the twentieth century.

Brooke Kroeger, Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist (New York: Times Books, 1994). Kroger provides a fascinating look at the lives and times of stunt reporter Nellie Bly.

All of the Chapter 6 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog 

John Hockenberry, Moving Violations: A Memoir (New York: Hyperion, 1995): Hockenberry’s book tells a great story about a career in radio and about living with a disability. You can view an interview with Hockenberry from C-SPAN’s video archives: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/66079-1

Kenneth Bilby, The General: David Sarnoff and the Rise of the Communications Industry (New York: Harper & Row, 1986): David Sarnoff was the most powerful man ever in the broadcasting industry. This biography looks at Sarnoff and how he created the myths that surrounded him.

Howard Stern, Private Parts (New York: Pocket Books, 1997): Stern tells his own story of his bumpy road to radio stardom as the original shock jock.

Linda Wertheimer (ed.), Listening to America: Twenty-five Years in the Life of a Nation, as Heard on National Public Radio (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995): Read the stories that put National Public Radio’s news programs on the map.

Neil Baldwin, Edison: Inventing the Century (New York: Hyperion, 1995): This is the most recent authoritative biography of inventor Thomas Edison. You can view an interview with Baldwin from C-SPAN’s video archives: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/63449-1

Patricia Romanowski, Holly George-Warren, and Jon Pareles (eds.), The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Revised and Updated for the 21st Century), Completely revised and updated ed. (New York: Rolling Stone Press, 2001): the ultimate reference book for settling rock ‘n’ roll arguments. Just don’t pull it out when you have work to do.

James Miller, Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947–1977 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999): one of the best histories of rock ‘n’ roll covering the genre from its inception through the release of Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run.

Gerald Early, One Nation Under a Groove: Motown and American Culture (Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1995).

Lucy O’Brien, She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop and Soul (New York: Penguin Books, 1995).

All of the Chapter 7 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog

Leonard Maltin (ed.), Leonard Maltin’s Movie & Video Guide (current edition): This is the definitive annual capsule review book that has been published for more than twenty years.

Gerald Mast (ed.), The Movies in Our Midst: Documents in the Cultural History of Film in America (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982): This anthology tells the history of the movies through documents published from the cinema’s earliest days.

Pauline Kael, For Keeps: 30 Years at the Movies (New York: Plume Penguin, 1996): reviews from the New Yorker’s long-time film critic.

All of the Chapter 8 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog
 

Ken Auletta, Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way (New York: Random House, 1991), and Ken Auletta, The Highwaymen (San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1998): Through these two books, journalist Ken Auletta looks at the huge transformations that took place in television during the 1980s and 1990s.

Erik Barnouw, Tube of Plenty; The Evolution of American Television, 2nd revised edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990): an interesting look at the changing role of television in American life.

Joshua Meyrowitz, No Sense of Place (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985): an examination of how television through its very existence changes the world we live in.

All of the Chapter 9 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog

Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon, Where Wizards Stay up Late (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996) and Stephen Segaller, Nerds 2.0.1, Rev. paperback ed. (New York: TV Books, 1999): These two books give an intriguing look at the often misunderstood development of the Internet through the eyes of the people who built it.

Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web (New York: Harper Collins, 1999): The inventor of the World Wide Web discusses how the Web came to be and what in what directions he would like to see it grow.

Steven Levy, Hackers (New York: Penguin Books, 1994): Before there were personal computers that you buy and use right out of the box, there were the hackers and their home-built machines. A classic in computer history by the man who is now Newsweek’s technology correspondent. Levy’s Web site is located at http://www.stevenlevy.com/

Clifford Stoll, Silicon Snake Oil; Second Thoughts on the Information Highway (New York: Doubleday, 1995): A contrary book that questions how much time we spend online. Stoll was interviewed on C-SPAN’s Booknotes where he discussed his book The Cuckoo’s Egg, in which he catches a group of German hackers. Interestingly enough, using Levy’s definition, Stoll would probably qualify as a hacker himself.

All of the Chapter 10 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog

James B. Twitchell, AdcultUSA: The Triumph of Advertising in American Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996): Twitchell provides an excellent look at American culture of advertising. Although critical of the advertising industry at times, Twitchell avoids the temptation to blame all that is wrong with the world on advertising.

Esther Thorson (ed.), Advertising Age: The Principles of Advertising at Work (Lincolnwood, Il: NTC Business Books, 1989), 128–129: This anthology of articles from trade magazine Advertising Age provides coverage of a wide range of major issues in the advertising business through real-life examples.

David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man (New York: Atheneum, 1963): Ogilvy’s Confessions is the definitive book about working and succeeding in the advertising business.

George Lois, George, Be Careful (New York: Saturday Review Press, 1972): Lois tells the story of how he went from being the son of a Greek immigrant florist to a successful ad agency owner. Along the way he also produced some of the most memorable Esquire covers ever.

All of the Chapter 11 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog

Ray Eldon Hiebert, Courtier to the Crowd: The Story of Ivy Lee and the Development of Public Relations (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1966): An old book that you will need to track down in your college library, this title does an excellent job of describing both Ivy Lee and the growth of public relations.

Jeff and Marie Blyskal, PR: How the Public Relations Industry Writes the News (New York: William Morrow, 1985): Although critical in tone, this book does a good job of exploring the connection between the news industry and the public relations industry.

Steven Kasher, The Civil Rights Movement, a Photographic History, 1954–1968 (New York: Abbeville Press, 1996): Although not explicitly about public relations, this history of the civil rights movement clearly illustrates how Dr. King and the other civil rights leaders in the 1950s and 1960s made use of public relations techniques to further their cause. The photos from the era are both stunning and disturbing.

All of the Chapter 12 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog

Rodney A. Smolla, Jerry Falwell v. Larry Flynt (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988): Attorney Smolla gives the real story behind the events portrayed in the movie The People v. Larry Flynt.

Elliot C. Rothenberg, The Taming of the Press: Cohen v. Cowles Media Company (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999): a look at how sources and the press fought over the meaning of a promise from the point of view of Daniel Cohen’s attorney.

Francis Wilkinson, Essential Liberty: First Amendment Battles for a Free Press (New York: Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, 1992): commentaries and analysis on several of the most important media law cases.

Herbert N. Foerstel, Banned in the Media (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998): a comprehensive look at pre-September 11 censorship in the United States.

All of the Chapter 13 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog

John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, Toxic Sludge is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry (Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1995): Stauber and Rampton take a highly critical view of the public relations industry. If you take into account that the authors themselves are engaging in the very techniques they are criticizing, this is a fascinating look at one side of public relations ethics.

Sissela Bok, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978): Bok has written a comprehensive look at the ethics surrounding lying and what it means to tell the truth.

Robert M. Baird, William E. Loges, and Stuart E. Rosenbaum (eds.), The Media and Morality, (Amherst, NY: Prometheus, Books, 1999): a wide-ranging anthology that looks at media ethics from a variety of points of view.

All of the Chapter 14 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog

Fred S. Siebert, Theodore Peterson, and Wilbur Schramm, Four Theories of the Press (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1956): This is the original book that laid out the four normative theories of the press.

John C. Nerone (ed.), Last Rights: Revisiting Four Theories of the Press. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995): This is the major critique of Four Theories.

Alan Wells (ed.), World Broadcasting: A Comparative View (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1996): An excellent roundup of broadcasting around the world.

All of the Chapter 15 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog