This student text and activity book provides information on and suggests ways to examine seven of the mass media: movies, television, advertising, magazines, comics, radio, and newspapers. Much of the learning takes place by actual examination of actual products to learn characteristics common to them. The first section investigates the process of producing some of these movies, radio shows, magazines, etc. The section discusses the images of people and society beamed through the media and asks students to compare these images with their own picture of reality. A typical part of this section examines best sellers from the 1920's through the 1960's to see what themes dominated popular fiction in each decade. These themes are related to political and social events of the decade. The third section has two topics: alternative views of society which come from the underground media and an explanation of how media like films and photography work. The text appears suitable for the secondary grades. (JK)