This book, built on the foundation of the earlier volume Perspectives on Media Effects, serves not only as a reference volume for scholars interested in the topic, but also receives widespread use as a textbook for classes in media effects. Media effects research is regularly reshaped by critics from "the outside," whose provocative critiques cause researchers to rethink their assumptions, reexamine their findings, and recast their theories. The contributors to this volume represent some of the finest scholars in the media effects tradition who have weathered both the private storms from within and the public storms from the outside.