American Mass Media and Popular Culture addresses the impact mass media have on American popular culture, and exposes the reader to a range of voices and perspectives on media issues and effects. The anthology helps students examine popular culture from both critical and empirical perspectives. In particular, students explore the persuasive effects of various new media.

The 26 essays are organized into three parts. The first part of the text provides guiding principles, theories and perspectives that can be used to examine the power of American mass media. The second section covers topics in popular culture such as romance, love, and sex, and examines how the socialization effects of television shape viewers' attitudes, values, and ideals towards these topics. The third part of the book focuses on new media and their impacts, which range from teen emancipation to romantic communication through social media such as MySpace and Facebook.

American Mass Media and Popular Culture effectively supplements main texts in mass media and mass communication courses. The material empowers readers to become more than passive users and consumers of mass media, and helps them gain true awareness of how they as individuals, and society as a whole, are influenced by these important social forces.