Regulardless of what an individual course is called Introduction to Mass Communication, Introduction to Mass Media, Media and Society, Media and Culture media literacy has been a part of unigersity media education for more than four decades. The course has long been designed to fulfill the follwing goals:
- To increase students' knowledge and understanding of the mass communication process and the mass media industries
- To increase students' awareness of how they interact with those industries and with media content to create meaning
- and to help students become more skilled and knowledgeable consumers of media contet.

These are all aspects of media literacy as it is now understood. This text makes explicit what has been implicit for so long: that media literacy skills can and should be taught directly and that, as we travel through the 21st century, media literacy is an essential survival skill for everyone in our society.

Part One Laying the Groundwork
Part Two Media, Media industries, and Media Audiences
Part Three Supporting industries
Part Four Mass-Emdiated culture in the information age