This book offers a critical approach for the study of media literacy. In Part One, the author furnishes the theoretical tools (the keys) that will enable students to identify and analyze messages conveyed through the media. In Part Two, they are given the opportunity to apply these keys to a variety of media formats: journalism, advertising, and political communications. The final section discusses important issues in media communications: media and violence, media and children, media and social change, and global communications. Ideal for college courses focusing on the topic of media literacy, this text can also be adopted as the primary text in several other media-related courses, such as media criticism; media research; Introduction to Mass Communications; Media and Society; media seminars; and education courses in communications, language arts, or social studies. A separate Instructor's Manual is available upon request.