Book excerpt: When societies worry about media effects, why do they focus so much on young people? Is advertising to blame for binge drinking? Do films and video games inspire school shootings? Tackling these kinds of questions, Youth and Media explains why young people are at the centre of how we understand the media. Exploring key issues in politics, technology, celebrity, advertising, gender and globalization, Andy Ruddock offers a fascinating introduction to how media define the identities and social imaginations of young people. The result is a systematic guide to how the notion of media influence ′works′ when daily life compels young people to act out their relationships through media content and technologies. Complete with helpful chapter guides, summaries and lively case studies drawn from a truly global context, Youth and Media is an engaging and accessible introduction to how the media shape our lives. This book is ideal for students of media studies, communication studies and sociology.