Ten Great Paperbacks for Prospective Journalism Majors -- And Others

• Adatto, Kiku (1993). Picture perfect. The art and artifice of public image making. Basic Books.
  An insightful look at visual communication technology and how image- making manipulates feelings and ideas.

• Ansolabehere, Stephen, Behr, Roy & Iyengar (1993). The media game. American politics in the television age. Macmillan (Prentice-Hall).
  This short book, despite being intended as textbook, is a highly readable introduction to media's role in politics.

• Barnouw, Erik (1975). Tube of plenty. The evolution of American television. Oxford.
  A breezy history of the development of the new medium.

• Mitroff, Ian & Bennis, Warren (1989). The unreality industry. The deliberate manufacturing of falsehood and what it is doing to our lives. New York: Carol Publishing.
  A critical look at how social actors and media distort reality.

• Gilder, George (1992). Life after television. The coming transformation of media and American life. Norton.
  A look to the future impact as computers become a primary medium of communication.

• Negroponte, Nicholas (1995). Being digital. New York: Alfred Knopf.
  The convergence of technologies and the emergence of two-way computer-based technology.

• Postman, Neil (1985). Amusing ourselves to death. Public discourse in the age of show business. New York: Penguin.
  Laments the demise of print culture and its consequences on public discussion in an era dominated by television.

• Rheingold, Victor (1995). The virtual community. New York: HarperPerennial.
  One of the first critical examinations of the emergence of the Internet and the creation of computer-based relationships.

• Schudson, Michael (1978). Discovering the news: A social history of American newspapers. New York: Basic Books.
  Traces the evolution of modern newspapers, including the idea of objectivity.

• Schudson, Michael (1984). Advertising: The uneasy persuasion: Its dubious impact on American society. Basic Books.
  The evolution of modern advertising and its consequences on the quality of life.

Updated August 1996