Published in association with the New Internationalist magazine, The No-Nonsense Guide to Global Media is the 15th in a series of pocketbooks designed for students studying socio-political issues. Concept-wise, these slim titles work like “Current Issues for Dummies,” condensing contentious subjects (terrorism, sexual diversity, globalization, HIV/AIDS, etc.) down to key issues, all in easy-to-understand writing. Each book includes lots of subheads and sidebars, theoretically making the search for facts as simple as flipping through the Yellow Pages.

Except when the facts are hard to find, or are made obscure by poor presentation. One of the main aims of this edition is to describe how media have expanded their reach and made information accessible to everyone, while at the same time allowing big business to seriously politicize and restrict information. But the book’s oddly uninformative headers make it tricky to find the whys and wherefores of this big topic. For example, the section on “Human Rights” could have held quite a lot of useful information, but is brief and meandering.

Steven’s timelines are rather vague, with many events and trends described as being “recent” or “in the ’90s.” Also, the constant insertion of Steven’s own viewpoint is distracting, making it hard to tell if this book reflects the general consensus, or merely his interpretation of it.

Where Steven’s research and information shine is in the chapter titled “Media Art and Audiences,” an area he is clearly more versed and confident in (his previous two books dealt with documentary film and politics, Hollywood, and something he calls “counter-cinema”).

This is not a bad book, but it’s not terribly good either. More informative subheads would have helped, as would have a glossary of other must-read books on the topic of global media. A less subjective, more precise approach wouldn’t have hurt, either.