Our lives are more mediated than ever before. Adults in economically advanced countries spend on average over eight hours per day interacting with the media. The world now has more than 5 billion internet users, and big tech continues to amass more and more money and power. Are we living through a media revolution? Understanding Media addresses this question by drawing on decades of research investigating how the news, television, film and technology are intertwined with power and social change.

Changes in the media are related to wider changes in society. The media have supported dictatorship in some places, social liberalism in others and reflect the spread of neoliberal orthodoxy and inequality around much of the globe.

Tracing overarching trends while attending to crucial local context, from the United States to China, Norway to Malaysia, and Brazil to Britain, this book arms the reader with the facts and perspectives needed to navigate the reality of the media and the world we live in.