This book brings together an impressive collection of essays that explore the growing complexity, range, and reach of media commercialism in today's world. From the corporate conglomeration of today's media giants to the effects of advertising on politics, society, and the individual, this collection provides a comprehensive and insightful critique of both the impact and the limits of media commercialism.

• Part One: Human Need and the Commercial Imperative


• Section Introduction


• 1: Sut Jhally: Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse


• 2: Marshall McLuhan: American Advertising


• 3: Neil Postman: The Media Ecology of the Free Market


• Part Two: Conglomeration, Synergy and Global Media


• Section Introduction


• 4: Robert McChesney: The Global Media Giants


• 5: Anthony Smith: Global Ethics in the Age of Behemoths


• 6: Craig Allen: Sold American: US News Consultants and News Issues Abroad


• 7: Matthew McAllister: From Flick to Flack: The Increased Emphasis on Marketing by Media Entertainment Corporations


• Part Three: Advertising and Culture


• Section Introduction


• 8: Nancy Morris: US voices on UK Radio


• 9: Lance Strate: Intoxicating Consumptions: The Case of Beer Commercials


• 10: Robin Andersen: Road to Ruin: The Cultural Mythology of SUV's


• 11: Katherine Fry: Starbucks Coffee: Cultivating and Selling the Postmodern Brew


• 12: Dan Weisberg: Scalable Hype: Old Persuasions for New Technology


• Part Four: Commercial 'Diversity'?


• Section Introduction


• 13: Delicia Harvey and Lance Strate: Image Culture and the Supermodel


• 14: Robert M. Entman and Constance L. Book: Light Makes Right: Skin Colour and Racial Hierarchy in Televison Advertising


• 15: Lauren Tucker: Talking Back to Calvin Klein: Youthful 'Targets' Confront their Commercial Image


• Part Five: Politics, Citizenship, and Fragmentation


• Section Introduction


• 16: Joseph Turow: Segmenting, Signalling, and Tailoring: Probing the Dark Side of Target Marketing


• 17: Robin Andersen: The Commercial Politics of the 1996 Presidential Election Campaign


• 18: Margaret Cassidy: Commercial Media and Corporate Presence in the K-12 Classroom


• 19: Paul Lippert: Commodity Fetishism: Symbolic Form, Social Class, and the Division of Knowledge in Society


• Part Six: Resisting Persuasions


• Section Introduction


• 20: Melissa Wall: KFC into India: A Case Study of Resistance to Globalization Discourse


• 21: Norman Cowie: Media Literacy and the Commercialization of Culture


• 22: Everett Parker: The Public Interest in the Twenty-first Century

Robin Andersen is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies and Director of the Peace and Justice Program at Fordham University. She is the author of Consumer Culture and TV Programming, and her numerous articles appear in books and scholarly journals such as The Media Reader, Journalism and Popular Culture, and The Humanist. Her current research is focused on the environmental impact of consumer culture.
Lance Strate is Associate Professor and Chair of Fordham University's Department of Communication and Media Studies. He is the editor (with Ron Jacobson and Stephanie B. Gibson) of Communication and Cyberspace and is currently working on a books entitled Understanding Media Ecology and The Legacy of McLuhan (with Edward Wachtel). He is Supervisory Editor of the Media Ecology Book Series and founding President of the Media Ecology Association.