This updated Second Edition of Media Literacy introduces the fascinating world that operates behind visible media messages. This accessible edition includes updated figures and information about computers and the Internet. Media Literacy helps the reader to establish knowledge structures from which they can consciously filter out negative media effects, while acknowledging the positive instructional and entertainment value of media. The author provides the details necessary to facilitate media literacy, rather than merely surveying why it is needed; integrates theory with practice; includes exercises to help readers improve media literacy; emphasizes examples and exercises that support the key ideas of any media studies; and invites students to think like a psychologist, an economist, an advertiser, a journalist, a media critic, a producer, and a policy maker.