Mass Media, Social Control & Social Change is the only introduction to mass communication textbook on the market to examine the social control function of the mass media in depth. In similizing terms, media produce the thread that helps hold the fabric of modern society together, often to the detriment of disadvantaged groups and people. But unlike other books, this one doesn't argue that media are always repressive institutions. Sometimes media produce content that is critical of dominant values and elites. This content, in turn, can help facilitate or legitimate social change that benefits disadvantaged and challenging groups.

While the individual elements of the propaganda system (or filters) identified by the Propaganda Model (PM) – ownership, advertising, sources, flak and anti-communism – have previously been the focus of much scholarly attention, their systematisation in a model, empirical corroboration and historicisation have made the PM a useful tool for media analysis across cultural and geographical boundaries. Despite the wealth of scholarly research Herman and Chomsky’s work has set into motion over the past decades, the PM has been subjected to marginalisation, poorly informed critiques and misrepresentations. Interestingly, while the PM enables researchers to form discerning predictions as regards corporate media performance, Herman and Chomsky had further predicted that the PM itself would meet with such marginalisation and contempt. In current theoretical and empirical studies of mass media performance, uses of the PM continue, nonetheless, to yield important insights into the workings of political and economic power in society, due in large measure to the model’s considerable explanatory power.

What is the relationship between narrative, society and the forms of control that function in society? This critical analysis examines the role of narrative in the creation of various social realities. The central theme is that narrative is a pervasive form of human communication integral to the production and shaping of social order. Each chapter provides both a theoretical framework and an examination of narratives in a range of communication contexts - interpersonal, small group, organizational and mass media - illustrating the far-reaching impact of narrative on our lives and social organizations.