The first edition of Media Theories and Approaches was published before the rise of platform-dominated communication and the algorithmic infrastructures that now organise everyday life. This new edition offers a critical account of these transformations, integrating political economy with cultural and social analysis to examine how digital media reshape culture, power and public knowledge in an era increasingly defined by contested truth.

Combining updated theory with contemporary case studies, the book provides critical insights into how media operate as powerful interventions across national and global contexts. It explores how information is produced, circulated and experienced within complex, data-driven environments, where credibility and influence are constantly negotiated. The text equips readers to understand not only the evolution of media, but their central role in shaping political communication, cultural life, democratic possibility and the conditions under which democratic life can be sustained. Written for undergraduate and postgraduate students, Media Theories remains an essential resource for understanding media past and present, and the forces shaping their future.

Mark Balnaves has worked in professorial roles in communication and media and is an expert on audience research. He is currently an adjunct research fellow with University of Notre Dame, Fremantle, Western Australia.

Daniel Baldino is Discipline Head of the Politics and International Relations program and an Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle, Western Australia. He specialises in violence, radicalisation and extremist studies, as well as misinformation and epistemic inquiry. He has held visiting scholar positions in Washington DC, Hawaii and Ottawa, and is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism.