Media Matters
Edition: 2
Copyright: 2025
Pages: 424
Edition: 2
Copyright: 2026
Pages: 384
Choose Your Format
Choose Your Platform | Help Me Choose
Ebook
$50.00 USD
Media Matters presents undergraduate students with the essential information and tools needed to become media literate and more critical in their media consumption. Spanning traditional print books to modern mass-media systems, Media Matters utilizes an engaging opening narrative to each medium followed by an easily accessible, informative text.
Designed for introductory mass communication courses, Media Matters:
- Offers Day-in-the-Life and Job Definition vignettes to give readers the chance to see what a career in a particular medium might be like.
- Presents a brief history of the technology for each medium, the development of the content, the current structure, a brief discussion on the interaction between medium and culture.
- Is Interactive! Activities include a wide range of links and downloadable media artifacts from classic and contemporary radio/television shows and film, blog discussion prompts, practice tests, and more!
Chapter 1 Being a Critical Consumer
To Become a Critical Consumer of Media
Theories
Speaker-Centered Theories
Persuasive Theories Focused on the Medium
Audience-Centered Theories
Psychology Theories
Applying Theory to a Text
A Note on Artificial Intelligence
Chapter 2 Media Effects
Goals of Media Effects Research
Prediction
Explanation
Understanding
Control
Media Effects Methods
Content Analysis
Surveys
Causal Relationships
Experimental Method
Archival Research
Interviews
Applying Methods
Chapter 3 Book Publishing
A Short History of Storytelling From Rock Walls to the Cloud
Electronic Books (or E-books)
Print-on-Demand
An Interview With Pamela Kelley, USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author
An Interview With Therese Anne Fowler, New York Times and USA Today Best-Selling Author
An Interview With Samantha M. Clark, The Award-Winning Author of The Boy, The Boat, and the Beast and Arrow
What Kinds of Book Are There?
The Emergence of Novels
Robinson Crusoe
First American Novelists
Novels Become a Mass Medium
Dime Novels
Penny Dreadfuls
The Emergence of Major Publishing Houses
Twentieth-Century Fiction
Twenty-First Century Fiction
How the Book-Publishing Industry Is Organized
Books in Trade
Textbooks
Religious/Business Books
The Future Is Now: Artificial Intelligence and an Uncertain Future for Writers
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 4 Newspapers and Magazines: The Print Legacy and Digital Future
A Short History of the Technology of Newspapers and Magazines
Printing Press and Typesetting Technology
Changes in Newsgathering
The First Reporters
The Telegraph
The Telephone
The Tape Recorder and Transcription
Smart Phones for Both Recording and Photography
A Short History of the Content of Newspapers and Magazines
European Beginnings
In the American Colonies
Trouble With the King
In the New United States of America
A Growing Population Needs Growing Media
The Penny Press Is Born
The Telegraph
Civil War Press
Yellow Press
The Muckrakers
Twentieth-Century Newspapers and Magazines
Competition From Other Media
Wartime Newspapers
Post-War Newspapers and Magazines
Newspapers in Decline
The Staffing and Business Structure of Newspapers and Magazines
An Interview With Nicholas Johnston, Publisher at Axios
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 5 Radio
A History of Radio Technology and Regulation
In the Beginning
Early Implications
Two-Part System
. . . And The World Changed
AM v. FM v. Digital
An Interview With Jason “Pottsy” Potter, Program Director
A History of Radio Content
How Music Saved a Business
Radio Pirates Emerge
The Rise of Talk Radio
Job Opportunities
On Air
Behind the Scenes
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 6 Music and Recording
A History of Sound Recording’s Technology
Edison and Batchelor
Bell and Tainter
Emile Berliner
Record Players and Radio
Finding a Standard Speed
Success and Struggle
World War II
Polyvinyl Progress
V-Discs
The Speed War
Tape Recording
In-Dash Players
Cassettes and Eight-Tracks
The Digital Revolution
Napster
iPods
Mobile Phones
Digital Rights Management
Interview with Champagne Sunday
A History of American Music
A Note on Musical Genres
Brass Bands/Orchestra/Choir/Spoken Word/Comedy
Gospel/Blues/Jazz/R&B/Rock n’ Roll/ Rap/Hip-Hop
Chuck Berry to Taylor Swift
Folk/Country
International
The Business of Sound Recording
Today’s Revenue Streams
Sell Music, Not Plastic
The Big Three
Technology Impacts Content
Music and AI
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 7 Movies
A History of Movie Technology
To Begin, Projecting an Image
Capturing the Image
Persistence of Vision
Niepce, Daguerre, and Talbot
Muybridge and Marey
Edison and Dickson
Eastman
The Lumière Brothers
Georges Méliès
Edison’s Newest Invention
Edwin Porter and D.W. Griffith
Color Movies
Carl Laemmle
1908 Edison and the Motion Picture Patent Company (MPPC)
Warner Brothers and Sound
Special Effects
Pressure from Television
1970’s IMAX
Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) and The Move to Digital
An Interview With Greg Bossert, Supervising Artist in the Layout Department at Industrial Light & Magic
A History of Movie’s Content
Introduction
Types of Movies
Nonfictional Movies
Pare Lorentz
Fictional Movies
How the Movie Industry Is Organized
Movie Production, Distribution, and Exhibition
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 8 Television
A History of Television
If You Build It, They Will Watch
The First Golden Age
The FCC Freeze
The Broadcast Era
Cable and Satellite Systems
Streaming Catches On
A Short History of Television’s Technology
Four Phases of Television Technology
The Mechanical Phase
The Nipkow Disk
John Logie Baird
The Electronic Phase
Philo Farnsworth
Vladimir Zworykin
Now Available in Color
Digital Phase
High-Definition
Streaming
A Short History and Description of Television Content
Sight From Sound
Lucy Makes Changes
“Pat” Weaver Makes Changes
Types of Entertainment Programs
Situation Comedies (Sitcoms)
Westerns
Detective Dramas
Cop Shows
Spy Shows
Variety Shows
Emcee Shows
Participant Shows
Reality Shows
Talk Shows
Soap Operas
Science Fiction
Game and Quiz Shows
Sports and Sports Talk Shows
Local Broadcast News
Network News
Cable News
The Future of Content
How U.S. Television is Organized
Syndication and How It Works
Getting on the Air
Global Television Systems
An Interview With Television and Film Writer and Director J.S. Mayank
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 9 Advertising
A History of Advertising
To Begin, Let’s Sell Something
The Beginnings of Advertising in America
The Birth of the Advertising Agency
The Business of Advertising is Booming
Edward Bernays Part One
Advertising in New Mediums
Advertising Becomes More Standardized
The Science of Advertising
Ethical Issues in Advertising
Ethical Issues in Advertising
Children as an Advertising Audience
Offensive Advertising
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 10 Public Relations
What is Public Relations?
Public Relations Defined
Public Relations vs. Advertising
A Unique Element of Public Relations
A History of Public Relations
Early Forms of Public Relations
Religious Uses
Earliest American History
Settlement of the United States
The World Wars and Propaganda
Edward Bernays Part Two
Public Relations Today
Big Data
Four Models of Public Relations
The Public Relations Process
Situation
Objectives
Audience
Strategy
Tactics
Timetable and Budget
Evaluation
RACE and ROPE
Types of Public Relations
1) Employer/Member Relations
2) Community Relations
3) Fundraising
4) Investor Relations
5) Marketing Public Relations
6) Government Relations/Lobbying
7) Corporate Social Responsibility
8) Entertainment PR
9) Sports PR
10) Event Planning
11) Travel/Tourism Public Relations
12) Crisis Management
Ethical Standards, Professional Groups, and Academic Groups
PRSA Members Statement of Professional Values
Advocacy
Honesty
Expertise
Independence
Loyalty
Fairness
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 11 Journalism
What Does Journalism Do?
What Is Journalism and News?
What Makes Something News?
Other Journalistic Principles
What Was Journalism? Your Parents’ News Media
Yesterday’s News Gathering Process
Today’s News Gathering Process
Journalism’s Ethical Challenges
Tomorrow’s Journalism
An Interview With Del Quentin Wilber, The Washington Investigations Editor for the Associated Press
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 12 Social Media
Social Media Defined
Key Developments in the History of Social Media
The 1990s
1997: AOL Instant Messenger and SixDegrees.com
1999: Blogs
The Early 2000s
2001: Wikipedia
2002: Friendster, LinkedIn
2003: MySpace, Second Life
2004: Podcasting, Flickr, Digg, Facebook
2005: YouTube, Bebo, Reddit
2006: X (Twitter)
2007: Zynga, Tumblr
iPhone Brings Changes
2009: FourSquare, WhatsApp
The 2010s
2010: Pinterest, Instagram
2011: Google+, Snapchat
2013: Vine
2017: TikTok
2020: Zoom
Social Media Uses and Abuses
Future Directions for Social Media Sites
Social Media’s Impact on Public Relations
Social Media Platforms and Campaigns
Community Management
Monitoring
Pitching
Influencer Outreach and Brand Advocacy
Creating Content
Social Media Crises
Social Media’s Impact on Advertising
Social Media Advertising Formats
Social Media’s Impact on Entertainment Media
Second Screen Experience
Prosumers
Social Media Entertainment Content
Celebrities on Social Media
Entertainment Blogs
A Pew Research Center’s Study of Social Media Use by Teens
Social Media and Political Campaigning
Privacy Issues with Social Media
Teens and Social Media
Conclusion
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 13 The First Amendment and Media
Major Terms
Defamation
Slander
Libel
Right to Privacy
Appropriation
Copyright
Fair Use
Publication
Censorship
Damages
Supreme Court Cases
1956 Alberts v. California
1961 New York Times v. Sullivan
1969 Brandenburg v. Ohio
1971 Cohen v. California
1988 Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell
2003 United States, et al. v. American Library Association, Inc. et al.
2011 Synder v. Phelps
2019 Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com
2023 Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith
2024 Lindke v. Freed
What Does All of This Mean?
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 14 User Experience / User Interface (UX /UI)
A History of UX—Computers, Internet, and Economics
Earliest Interfacing
The Role of Computers
The Move to Digital Interfaces
Technology and Computers in the New Millennium
Where is UX Today
Making It Work
Ideas Behind How UX/UI Works
Reinforcing Behavior
How is UX/UI Done
Why Do Consumers Do What They Do?
The Effect on Society
Errors and Biases
Help Us Help You
Questions to Consider about UX/UI
Conclusion: The Future of UX
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 15 Video Games
The Impact of Video Games as Mass Media
A History of Video Games
Before the Console: Booting Up the Computer Game
The 1970s: Laying the Groundwork
The 1980s: The Golden Age of Arcade Games, Early Consoles, and the Rise of Home Computers
The 1990s: Expansion and Technological Advancements
The 2000s: Explosive Growth and Mainstream Acceptance
The 2010s: Mobile Gaming and the Rise of eSports
The 2020s: Continued Innovation and Cultural Integration
The Rise of Video Games in Popular Culture and the Road Ahead
An Interview With Wes Platt, Editor and Publisher of Southpoint Access News
Applying Theory to Texts
Index
Rick Wilber is an award-winning writer, editor and teacher who has edited two anthologies and published five college textbooks on writing and the mass media, along with more than forty short stories, several novels, and two short-story collections.
Wilber is also notable as a well-published writer and editor of science fiction and fantasy stories and novels, many of them concerned with the future of the mass media. His Future Media anthology (Tachyon, 2011) brought together reprinted works of non-fiction and fiction from scholars and writers like Marshall Mcluhn, Henry Jenkins, Nicholas Carr, Judy Wajcman, Allucquére Rosanne Stone, Rafael Lozano-Hemme and Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Nicholas Carr, Gregory Benford, Pat Cadigan, Kate Wilhelm, Kit Reed, Robert Sheckley, Ray Bradbury, Norman Spinrad, James Patrick Kelly, and more. The book was named one of top non-fiction books of 2011 by Popmatters.com. Wilber’s recent novel, Alien Morning (Tor, 2016) follows a struggling future journalist whose immersive form of journalism is used to promote the arrival of seemingly benign alien merchants. The sequel, Alien Day (Tor, forthcoming) follows the journalist to the alien’s home world.
Wilber lives on the West Coast of Florida. He is married ana has two adult children.
John H. Saunders is an award-winning teacher and scholar having won multiple awards at the state, regional, and national levels for his teaching, scholarship, and service. Dr. Saunders also has an award named after him by the Alabama Communication Association, of which he is a co-founder. The John H. Saunders Award is given annually to individuals who have worked to provide platforms for other people to use their voice to present their scholarship and teaching ideas.
Dr. Saunders’ scholarship has covered three major areas. First, he has given numerous conference presentations on rhetoric and children’s literature, and edited a volume of critical essays titled The Rhetorical Power of Children’s Literature (Lexington Press, 2016). Second, he has been on over thirty conference panels concerning the functioning of academic state associations, and plans to publish the collective wisdom in a book titled How to Build, Maintain, and Grow Academic State Associations in 2026. Finally, he has published several articles on the rhetorical power of public memory. He will be editing a new volume titled The Economics of Mnemonics: The Selling of America’s Public Memory in 2026.
Dr. Saunders lives in Huntsville, Alabama, is single, and teaches at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. He received his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from the University of Memphis, and his Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. All of his degrees were in Speech Communication with a concentration on rhetorical criticism.
Media Matters presents undergraduate students with the essential information and tools needed to become media literate and more critical in their media consumption. Spanning traditional print books to modern mass-media systems, Media Matters utilizes an engaging opening narrative to each medium followed by an easily accessible, informative text.
Designed for introductory mass communication courses, Media Matters:
- Offers Day-in-the-Life and Job Definition vignettes to give readers the chance to see what a career in a particular medium might be like.
- Presents a brief history of the technology for each medium, the development of the content, the current structure, a brief discussion on the interaction between medium and culture.
- Is Interactive! Activities include a wide range of links and downloadable media artifacts from classic and contemporary radio/television shows and film, blog discussion prompts, practice tests, and more!
Chapter 1 Being a Critical Consumer
To Become a Critical Consumer of Media
Theories
Speaker-Centered Theories
Persuasive Theories Focused on the Medium
Audience-Centered Theories
Psychology Theories
Applying Theory to a Text
A Note on Artificial Intelligence
Chapter 2 Media Effects
Goals of Media Effects Research
Prediction
Explanation
Understanding
Control
Media Effects Methods
Content Analysis
Surveys
Causal Relationships
Experimental Method
Archival Research
Interviews
Applying Methods
Chapter 3 Book Publishing
A Short History of Storytelling From Rock Walls to the Cloud
Electronic Books (or E-books)
Print-on-Demand
An Interview With Pamela Kelley, USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author
An Interview With Therese Anne Fowler, New York Times and USA Today Best-Selling Author
An Interview With Samantha M. Clark, The Award-Winning Author of The Boy, The Boat, and the Beast and Arrow
What Kinds of Book Are There?
The Emergence of Novels
Robinson Crusoe
First American Novelists
Novels Become a Mass Medium
Dime Novels
Penny Dreadfuls
The Emergence of Major Publishing Houses
Twentieth-Century Fiction
Twenty-First Century Fiction
How the Book-Publishing Industry Is Organized
Books in Trade
Textbooks
Religious/Business Books
The Future Is Now: Artificial Intelligence and an Uncertain Future for Writers
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 4 Newspapers and Magazines: The Print Legacy and Digital Future
A Short History of the Technology of Newspapers and Magazines
Printing Press and Typesetting Technology
Changes in Newsgathering
The First Reporters
The Telegraph
The Telephone
The Tape Recorder and Transcription
Smart Phones for Both Recording and Photography
A Short History of the Content of Newspapers and Magazines
European Beginnings
In the American Colonies
Trouble With the King
In the New United States of America
A Growing Population Needs Growing Media
The Penny Press Is Born
The Telegraph
Civil War Press
Yellow Press
The Muckrakers
Twentieth-Century Newspapers and Magazines
Competition From Other Media
Wartime Newspapers
Post-War Newspapers and Magazines
Newspapers in Decline
The Staffing and Business Structure of Newspapers and Magazines
An Interview With Nicholas Johnston, Publisher at Axios
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 5 Radio
A History of Radio Technology and Regulation
In the Beginning
Early Implications
Two-Part System
. . . And The World Changed
AM v. FM v. Digital
An Interview With Jason “Pottsy” Potter, Program Director
A History of Radio Content
How Music Saved a Business
Radio Pirates Emerge
The Rise of Talk Radio
Job Opportunities
On Air
Behind the Scenes
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 6 Music and Recording
A History of Sound Recording’s Technology
Edison and Batchelor
Bell and Tainter
Emile Berliner
Record Players and Radio
Finding a Standard Speed
Success and Struggle
World War II
Polyvinyl Progress
V-Discs
The Speed War
Tape Recording
In-Dash Players
Cassettes and Eight-Tracks
The Digital Revolution
Napster
iPods
Mobile Phones
Digital Rights Management
Interview with Champagne Sunday
A History of American Music
A Note on Musical Genres
Brass Bands/Orchestra/Choir/Spoken Word/Comedy
Gospel/Blues/Jazz/R&B/Rock n’ Roll/ Rap/Hip-Hop
Chuck Berry to Taylor Swift
Folk/Country
International
The Business of Sound Recording
Today’s Revenue Streams
Sell Music, Not Plastic
The Big Three
Technology Impacts Content
Music and AI
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 7 Movies
A History of Movie Technology
To Begin, Projecting an Image
Capturing the Image
Persistence of Vision
Niepce, Daguerre, and Talbot
Muybridge and Marey
Edison and Dickson
Eastman
The Lumière Brothers
Georges Méliès
Edison’s Newest Invention
Edwin Porter and D.W. Griffith
Color Movies
Carl Laemmle
1908 Edison and the Motion Picture Patent Company (MPPC)
Warner Brothers and Sound
Special Effects
Pressure from Television
1970’s IMAX
Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) and The Move to Digital
An Interview With Greg Bossert, Supervising Artist in the Layout Department at Industrial Light & Magic
A History of Movie’s Content
Introduction
Types of Movies
Nonfictional Movies
Pare Lorentz
Fictional Movies
How the Movie Industry Is Organized
Movie Production, Distribution, and Exhibition
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 8 Television
A History of Television
If You Build It, They Will Watch
The First Golden Age
The FCC Freeze
The Broadcast Era
Cable and Satellite Systems
Streaming Catches On
A Short History of Television’s Technology
Four Phases of Television Technology
The Mechanical Phase
The Nipkow Disk
John Logie Baird
The Electronic Phase
Philo Farnsworth
Vladimir Zworykin
Now Available in Color
Digital Phase
High-Definition
Streaming
A Short History and Description of Television Content
Sight From Sound
Lucy Makes Changes
“Pat” Weaver Makes Changes
Types of Entertainment Programs
Situation Comedies (Sitcoms)
Westerns
Detective Dramas
Cop Shows
Spy Shows
Variety Shows
Emcee Shows
Participant Shows
Reality Shows
Talk Shows
Soap Operas
Science Fiction
Game and Quiz Shows
Sports and Sports Talk Shows
Local Broadcast News
Network News
Cable News
The Future of Content
How U.S. Television is Organized
Syndication and How It Works
Getting on the Air
Global Television Systems
An Interview With Television and Film Writer and Director J.S. Mayank
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 9 Advertising
A History of Advertising
To Begin, Let’s Sell Something
The Beginnings of Advertising in America
The Birth of the Advertising Agency
The Business of Advertising is Booming
Edward Bernays Part One
Advertising in New Mediums
Advertising Becomes More Standardized
The Science of Advertising
Ethical Issues in Advertising
Ethical Issues in Advertising
Children as an Advertising Audience
Offensive Advertising
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 10 Public Relations
What is Public Relations?
Public Relations Defined
Public Relations vs. Advertising
A Unique Element of Public Relations
A History of Public Relations
Early Forms of Public Relations
Religious Uses
Earliest American History
Settlement of the United States
The World Wars and Propaganda
Edward Bernays Part Two
Public Relations Today
Big Data
Four Models of Public Relations
The Public Relations Process
Situation
Objectives
Audience
Strategy
Tactics
Timetable and Budget
Evaluation
RACE and ROPE
Types of Public Relations
1) Employer/Member Relations
2) Community Relations
3) Fundraising
4) Investor Relations
5) Marketing Public Relations
6) Government Relations/Lobbying
7) Corporate Social Responsibility
8) Entertainment PR
9) Sports PR
10) Event Planning
11) Travel/Tourism Public Relations
12) Crisis Management
Ethical Standards, Professional Groups, and Academic Groups
PRSA Members Statement of Professional Values
Advocacy
Honesty
Expertise
Independence
Loyalty
Fairness
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 11 Journalism
What Does Journalism Do?
What Is Journalism and News?
What Makes Something News?
Other Journalistic Principles
What Was Journalism? Your Parents’ News Media
Yesterday’s News Gathering Process
Today’s News Gathering Process
Journalism’s Ethical Challenges
Tomorrow’s Journalism
An Interview With Del Quentin Wilber, The Washington Investigations Editor for the Associated Press
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 12 Social Media
Social Media Defined
Key Developments in the History of Social Media
The 1990s
1997: AOL Instant Messenger and SixDegrees.com
1999: Blogs
The Early 2000s
2001: Wikipedia
2002: Friendster, LinkedIn
2003: MySpace, Second Life
2004: Podcasting, Flickr, Digg, Facebook
2005: YouTube, Bebo, Reddit
2006: X (Twitter)
2007: Zynga, Tumblr
iPhone Brings Changes
2009: FourSquare, WhatsApp
The 2010s
2010: Pinterest, Instagram
2011: Google+, Snapchat
2013: Vine
2017: TikTok
2020: Zoom
Social Media Uses and Abuses
Future Directions for Social Media Sites
Social Media’s Impact on Public Relations
Social Media Platforms and Campaigns
Community Management
Monitoring
Pitching
Influencer Outreach and Brand Advocacy
Creating Content
Social Media Crises
Social Media’s Impact on Advertising
Social Media Advertising Formats
Social Media’s Impact on Entertainment Media
Second Screen Experience
Prosumers
Social Media Entertainment Content
Celebrities on Social Media
Entertainment Blogs
A Pew Research Center’s Study of Social Media Use by Teens
Social Media and Political Campaigning
Privacy Issues with Social Media
Teens and Social Media
Conclusion
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 13 The First Amendment and Media
Major Terms
Defamation
Slander
Libel
Right to Privacy
Appropriation
Copyright
Fair Use
Publication
Censorship
Damages
Supreme Court Cases
1956 Alberts v. California
1961 New York Times v. Sullivan
1969 Brandenburg v. Ohio
1971 Cohen v. California
1988 Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell
2003 United States, et al. v. American Library Association, Inc. et al.
2011 Synder v. Phelps
2019 Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com
2023 Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith
2024 Lindke v. Freed
What Does All of This Mean?
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 14 User Experience / User Interface (UX /UI)
A History of UX—Computers, Internet, and Economics
Earliest Interfacing
The Role of Computers
The Move to Digital Interfaces
Technology and Computers in the New Millennium
Where is UX Today
Making It Work
Ideas Behind How UX/UI Works
Reinforcing Behavior
How is UX/UI Done
Why Do Consumers Do What They Do?
The Effect on Society
Errors and Biases
Help Us Help You
Questions to Consider about UX/UI
Conclusion: The Future of UX
Applying Theory to Texts
Chapter 15 Video Games
The Impact of Video Games as Mass Media
A History of Video Games
Before the Console: Booting Up the Computer Game
The 1970s: Laying the Groundwork
The 1980s: The Golden Age of Arcade Games, Early Consoles, and the Rise of Home Computers
The 1990s: Expansion and Technological Advancements
The 2000s: Explosive Growth and Mainstream Acceptance
The 2010s: Mobile Gaming and the Rise of eSports
The 2020s: Continued Innovation and Cultural Integration
The Rise of Video Games in Popular Culture and the Road Ahead
An Interview With Wes Platt, Editor and Publisher of Southpoint Access News
Applying Theory to Texts
Index
Rick Wilber is an award-winning writer, editor and teacher who has edited two anthologies and published five college textbooks on writing and the mass media, along with more than forty short stories, several novels, and two short-story collections.
Wilber is also notable as a well-published writer and editor of science fiction and fantasy stories and novels, many of them concerned with the future of the mass media. His Future Media anthology (Tachyon, 2011) brought together reprinted works of non-fiction and fiction from scholars and writers like Marshall Mcluhn, Henry Jenkins, Nicholas Carr, Judy Wajcman, Allucquére Rosanne Stone, Rafael Lozano-Hemme and Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Nicholas Carr, Gregory Benford, Pat Cadigan, Kate Wilhelm, Kit Reed, Robert Sheckley, Ray Bradbury, Norman Spinrad, James Patrick Kelly, and more. The book was named one of top non-fiction books of 2011 by Popmatters.com. Wilber’s recent novel, Alien Morning (Tor, 2016) follows a struggling future journalist whose immersive form of journalism is used to promote the arrival of seemingly benign alien merchants. The sequel, Alien Day (Tor, forthcoming) follows the journalist to the alien’s home world.
Wilber lives on the West Coast of Florida. He is married ana has two adult children.
John H. Saunders is an award-winning teacher and scholar having won multiple awards at the state, regional, and national levels for his teaching, scholarship, and service. Dr. Saunders also has an award named after him by the Alabama Communication Association, of which he is a co-founder. The John H. Saunders Award is given annually to individuals who have worked to provide platforms for other people to use their voice to present their scholarship and teaching ideas.
Dr. Saunders’ scholarship has covered three major areas. First, he has given numerous conference presentations on rhetoric and children’s literature, and edited a volume of critical essays titled The Rhetorical Power of Children’s Literature (Lexington Press, 2016). Second, he has been on over thirty conference panels concerning the functioning of academic state associations, and plans to publish the collective wisdom in a book titled How to Build, Maintain, and Grow Academic State Associations in 2026. Finally, he has published several articles on the rhetorical power of public memory. He will be editing a new volume titled The Economics of Mnemonics: The Selling of America’s Public Memory in 2026.
Dr. Saunders lives in Huntsville, Alabama, is single, and teaches at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. He received his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from the University of Memphis, and his Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. All of his degrees were in Speech Communication with a concentration on rhetorical criticism.