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Preface
As Chapter 1 of Media & Culture explains, we need to develop an informed critical perspective
to participate in a debate over media culture as a force that influences both democracy and
consumerism. Part of this perspective entails a concrete understanding of media history, the
structure of media industries, and their major players. Another part aims to encourage students to
think beyond the dry facts and consider how the media influence and are influenced by culture.
Other media-communication texts ask students to become only savvier consumers of media.
Media & Culture asks students to become cultural critics of media, connecting their own
consumption of media to the larger issues of citizenship and democracy.
This Instructor’s Resource Manual is designed to give instructors resources and suggestions that
will assist them in lectures, discussions, and exercises in media culture. The textbook already
provides a good start in this direction. At the end of each textbook chapter, the Common Threads
section makes connections between individual chapters and the larger themes of the book,
challenging students to critically analyze content. Review Questions then help students focus on
major concepts. Finally, the Questioning the Media section provides provocative, open-ended
questions for launching classroom discussions and writing exercises. An instructor can also build
on the Extended Case Study at the end of the textbook as well as the Media Literacy and the
Critical Process boxes in each chapter as examples of critical, rather than cynical, inquiry. This
Instructor’s Resource Manual also includes sample answers and feedback related to the open-
ended discussion questions that accompany Media & Culture’s integrated video program.
An instructor can never be too prepared, however, particularly in drawing analytical connections
about the intricate web of media and culture. In addition, instructors in courses about media and
culture may be lecturing to class sizes ranging from a dozen to several hundred students.