It is this industrial process that generates the potential for reaching millions (even billions) of diverse anonymous people at around the same time (say, through televising the Olympic games). This book is the product of over three decades of teaching the introductory course, talking to colleagues around the country about course trends and issues, and writing about mass media industries and issues in the scholarly and popular press. The third edition of Media Today uses this production-based approach to scrutinize the media, in order to show students how the industrial nature of the process is central to the definition of mass communication.