Synopsis The media of mass communication have long placed a fundamental role in people’s lives. The media inform, persuade, entertain, and even sell. Media can provide companionship. They can shape perception. They are fundamental to an informed and educated public. Until the late twentieth century, mass communication followed some basic principles that did not change even with the invention of new forms of media, such as film, radio and television. Digital networked media, however, are turning many of these rules on their head. The basic functions of mass communication; surveillance, correlation; cultural transmission, and entertainment, are undergoing drastic transformations with digital media. This book examines the nature of mass communication and how it is transforming in the so-called digital age, the age of computerization of the media. It will be an ideal reference tool for students, journalists, public relations professionals, advertising practitioners, digital programmes, content creators and media consumers, who are facing a new world of media symbols, processes and effects.