Here's a great book for an Intro to Mass Communications or a Journalism 101 class. It's vivid, full of great illustrations and it provides resources for further exploration.

One issue: This book's focus is Britain. The BBC is their main example for network tv, all money is in pounds and most ads they analyze come from UK media. American teachers and reader should definitely check out a copy before buying, let alone assigning it.

Altough I have not being able to go deeply into the book I had the oportunity to make a fast reading of it at my school's library. I am a mass communication student at one of Mexico's best universities and I have had the chance to go into many books about the subject. But this one is very speciall because it covers all the main topics from the subject in a profound yet comprehensible way. This book really goes from the basics (how to call the diferent shoots in a picture for example) to some other not that popular subjects (as Semiotics). If you are interested in the media and it's languajes, behaviors and ofcourse the way it is studied, this book is definitively the one you are looking for