Media Realities by Markus Heidingsfelder

Media Realities by Markus Heidingsfelder

Media Realities is an intellectual intervention into today’s most urgent debates about truth, perception, and power.

Including essays by journalists, artists, philosophers, and theorists, this interdisciplinary volume exposes how mass media—old and new—shape not just what we know, but what we believe to be real. From Ukraine to China to Africa, from journalism to art to propaganda, this book asks: Who gets to define reality—and who gets left out?

Edited by scholars based in China, it challenges dominant Western portrayals of global politics and gives voice to perspectives too often dismissed or discredited. Contributions from the Global South, China, Germany, and beyond confront a simple truth: we don't all see the same world, and the media don't just reflect society—they perform it. Media Realities is not just a book about media. It is a book about reality itself—and how it is made, sold, and believed.

With contributors from across the fields of media, sociology, journalism, philosophy, political theory, and art, this volume will appeal to scholars and upper-level students with interests in the sociology of media and global political dynamics.

“Carefully curated and culturally sensitive, this interdisciplinary collection of essays offers new perspectives on the contemporary realities of our globalized media world”
Daya Thussu, Professor of International Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University

“Media Realities is a surprisingly fresh and thoroughly intriguing mosaic of insights into the peculiar differences and samenesses of Eastern and Western media realities—probably the realities most of us today spend most of our time with in one way or another. Quite unlikely for an academic book, it’s almost a page turner, due to its kaleidoscopic and sometimes experimental approach.”
Hans-Georg Moeller, Professor of Philosophy, University of Macau

"Media Realities rethinks the mass media in sweeping theoretical terms—opening a space for a reevaluation of the relationship between universities, social scientists, and the media."
Emily Erikson, Professor of Sociology, Yale University

Markus Heidingsfelder is an Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University.

Yan Bo is an Assistant Professor of Applied Translation Studies at Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University.

Holger Briel is a Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University.