The narrow definition of mass media, adopted in this essay, refers to the print media, such as newspapers and magazines, to the electronic media, such as radio and television, and to the online media on the Internet. The language of advertising is treated in a separate essay. The mass media in the narrow sense are a popular research area for many diverse disciplines, such as sociology, social psychology, semiotics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, communication studies and pragmatics. This essay concentrates on those issues and methodologies that are particularly important for pragmatic and discourse analytical research. An outline is given of the communicative situation that is common to all forms of mass media, in particular the producers, the audience and the asymmetric distribution of speaking/writing rights. Issues such as manipulation and ideology in and the diachronic potential of the mass media are briefly considered, and the essay addresses conversations and other forms of dialogue that appear within the language of the mass media, that is interviews, panel discussions, talk shows, and the like. Recent years have seen an increased interest in the history of the mass media.