ABSTRACT
With media and culture playing such important roles in contemporary life, it is obvious that we must come to understand our cultural environment if we want control over our lives. This chapter discusses media with a timeline showing the development of mass media and social media sites. It explores statistics on media use in the United States. The chapter also discusses kinds of violence, mass mediated violence, and the related topic of media ethics. It also explores a summary of some of the more important theories of mass-mediated communication. The chapter further discusses the ideas of Tony Schwartz, a well known advertising executive and media consultant described by Marshall McLuhan as "the guru of the electronic age". Schwartz developed what is known as the "responsive chord" theory of communication. He describes most theories of communication as involving the transportation of messages from one person to another or too many others.
