Communicating Unreality: Modern Media and the Reconstruction of Reality (Hardcover)

From interactive real-time Internet broadcasts to video game-like images of smart bombs on television our perception of reality is shaped by the mass media. Willing or not we are a mass mediated society and the electronic media especially television and computer-mediated-communication plays a vital role in our daily lives. Communicating Unreality reviews the images and meanings of our mass-mediated world. With careful attention to the integration of news and entertainment fact and fiction and event and story author Gabriel Weimann examines our symbolic environment where reality and fiction are almost inseparable. Through discussion of mass-mediated images of people cultures war love sex death community and identity we learn that there often exists a large gap between reality and reconstruction of realities as communicated by the mass media. This comprehensive and entertaining textbook can breathe life into the standard mass communication course. Students professors and everyone interested in the influence of the media will enjoy this book.