Synopses & Reviews
A Companion to Media Studies is a comprehensive collection that brings together new writings by some of the most respected canonical and contemporary media studies scholars. The result is a fascinating overview of the theories and methodologies that have produced this most interdisciplinary of fields. Leading essayists – from Denis McQuail, John Nerone, Margaret Gallagher, and Dan Schiller to Charles Whitney, James Ettema, Jennings Bryant, and Ellen Wartella – tackle a variety of concepts and controversies from qualitative and quantitative perspectives, and with specific attention to issues of globalization and difference.
The Companion showcases some of the most exciting work currently underway on feminist media, media history, the future of theory, digital capitalism, power, agency, popular culture, race, and intellectual property, and is organized into six areas of study: foundations, production, media content, media audiences, effects, and futures. A Companion to Media Studies provides an accessible and comprehensive point of entry into this expansive and interdisciplinary field.
Review
"The present volume provides an overall perspective on the subject and is thus an extremely valuable resource. ...Contributors are distinguished scholars in their fields, who in addition to providing fresh analyses include extensive notes and bibliographies.
Summing Up: Essential. The best of the best in a crowded field; upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals, including two-year technical students."
CHOICE (of the hardcover edition)“[the essays] are bright and engaging and will no doubt encourage thought, discussion, and debate amongst their readers.” Reference Reviews
“An excellent resource, with many contributions prompting insights and reflections beyond their subject matter.”Journal of Contemporary History
Synopsis
A Companion to Media Studies is a comprehensive collection that brings together new writings by an international team to provide an overview of the theories and methodologies that have produced this most interdisciplinary of fields.
- Tackles a variety of central concepts and controversies, organized into six areas of study: foundations, production, media content, media audiences, effects, and futures
- Provides an accessible point of entry into this expansive and interdisciplinary field
- Includes the writings of renowned media scholars, including McQuail, Schiller, Gallagher, Wartella, and Bryant
- Now available in paperback for the course market.
Synopsis
A Companion to Media Studies is a comprehensive collection that brings together new writings by some of the most respected canonical and contemporary media studies scholars to provide an overview of the theories and methodologies that have produced this most interdisciplinary of fields.
About the Author
Angharad N. Valdivia is Research Associate Professor of Communications at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is editor of Feminism, Multiculturalism, and the Media: Global Diversities (1995) and author of A Latina in the Land of Hollywood and Other Essays on Media Culture (2000).
Table of Contents
Notes on Contributors viiiAcknowledgments xiv
Introduction 1
Angharad N. Valdivia
Part I Foundations
1 Feminist Media Perspectives 19
Margaret Gallagher
2 New Horizons for Communication Theory in the New Media Age 40
Denis McQuail
3 From Modernization to Participation: The Past and Future of Development Communication in Media Studies 50
Robert Huesca
4 Tensions between Popular and Alternative Music: R.E.M. as an Artist-Intellectual 72
Robert Sloane
Part II Production
5 Approaches to Media History 93
John Nerone
6 Ethical Issues in Media Production 115
Sharon L. Bracci
7 Digital Capitalism: A Status Report on the Corporate Commonwealth of Information 137
Dan Schiller
8 Media Production: Individuals, Organizations, Institutions 157
D. Charles Whitney and James S. Ettema
9 From the Playboy to the Hustler: Class, Race, and the Marketing of Masculinity 188
Gail Dines and Elizabeth R. Perea
Part III Media Content
10 Selling Survivor: The Use of TV News to Promote Commercial Entertainment 209
Matthew P. McAllister
11 Constructing Youth: Media, Youth, and the Politics of Representation 227
Sharon R. Mazzarella
12 The Less Space We Take, the More Powerful We’ll Be: How Advertising Uses Gender to Invert Signs of Empowerment and Social Equality 247
Vickie Rutledge Shields
13 Constructing a New Model of Ethnic Media: Image-Saturated Latina Magazines as Touchstones 272
Melissa A. Johnson
14 Out of India: Fashion Culture and the Marketing of Ethnic Style 293
Sujata Moorti
Part IV Media Audiences
15 Resuscitating Feminist Audience Studies: Revisiting the Politics of Representation and Resistance 311
Radhika E. Parameswaran
16 The Changing Nature of Audiences: From the Mass Audience to the Interactive Media User 337
Sonia Livingstone
17 The Cultural Revolution in Audience Research 360
Virginia Nightingale
18 Practicing Embodiment: Reality, Respect, and Issues of Gender in Media Reception 382
Joke Hermes
19 Salsa as Popular Culture: Ethnic Audiences Constructing an Identity 399
Angharad N. Valdivia
Part V Effects
20 Race and Crime in the Media: Research from a Media Effects Perspective 421
Mary Beth Oliver
21 The Appeal and Impact of Media Sex and Violence 437
Jennings Bryant and Dorina Miron
22 The Role of Interactive Media in Children’s Cognitive Development 461
Ellen A. Wartella, Barbara J. O’Keefe, and Ronda M. Scantlin
23 The Impact of Stereotypical and Counter-Stereotypical News on Viewer Perceptions of Blacks and Latinos: An Exploratory Study 480
Michael C. Casas and Travis L. Dixon
Part VI Futures
24 Where We Should Go Next and Why We Probably Won’t: An Entirely Idiosyncratic, Utopian, and Unashamedly Peppery Map for the Future 495
John D. H. Downing
25 All Consuming Identities: Race, Mass Media, and the Pedagogy of Resentment in the Age of Difference 513
Cameron McCarthy
26 Expanding the Definition of Media Activism 529
Carrie A. Rentschler
27 Realpolitik and Utopias of Universal Bonds: For a Critique of Technoglobalism 548
Armand Mattelart translated from the French by Samira Hassa
28 Intellectual Property, Cultural Production, and the Location of Africa 565
Boatema Boateng
Index 578