Sociologist Todd Gitlin finds the dominant paradigm of mass media research problematic because it obscures significant issues especially at the structural and institutional levels of analysis. Citing many of the most respected scholars in mass communication theory and research, he asserts that the behaviorist world view, plus methodological limitations, lead to findings of limited media effects and exaggerated individual power. Further limiting the value of this research is the conflation of political and consumer decision-making. In contrast with this liberal or administrative agenda, Gitlin offers a paradigm that scrutinizes the culture industry and therefore, also, systematic and institutional processes. This alternative to the dominant paradigm acknowledges ideology and power as sites of struggle rather than relying on factors such as individual attitude for evidence of effects. In short, the alternative paradigm finds evidence of the powerful impact of mass media on the social formation by questions the existing system of ownership, control and purpose.

Abstract: a brief, i.e. 5-10 sentences, account of the articles, its thesis, research question, methods, findings. Almost an outline but written “thickly” to convey as much of the article’s content and tone but without offering an evaluation of the article.
 

An extended abstract would provide the same information but in slightly more detail, i.e. one page.
 

An annotated bibliography, bibliographic essay or evaluative abstract: each slightly different, but in these cases you also offer an evaluation and critique or even respond to particular parts of the argument. For yourself, this serves as a marker for whether and why a particular sources is useful. For another reader, it adds another layer of information or conveys a sense of your view of an area of research or how you form intellectual relationships between two or more areas of scholarship.
 

Here are some web resources that explain abstract writing, provide examples, etc.
 

http://www.languages.ait.ac.th/el21abst.htm
 

http://www.gmu.edu/departments/writingcenter/handouts/abstract.html
 

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/bizwrite/abstracts.html

And for annotated bibliography:

http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/AnnotatedBibliography.html

What is a bibliographic essay?
 

http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/h/b/hb1/550-2001/550bibass.htm