The Media Studies Reader Laurie Ouellette 9780415801256

Designed for the critical media studies curriculum, The Media Studies Reader is an entry point into the major theories and debates that have shaped critical media studies from the 1940s to the present. Combining foundational essays with influential new writings, this collection provides a tool box for understanding old and new media as objects of critical inquiry. It is comprised of over 40 readings that are organized into seven sections representing key concepts and themes covered in an introductory media studies course: culture, technology, representation, industry, identity, audience and citizenship. Critical introductions frame each section to help students place each reading in context and within a broader scholarly dialogue. Rather than relegating the issue of difference to just one section, each section includes scholarship that foregrounds the politics of gender, ethnicity, race, class, sexuality, and geopolitics. Longer readings were selectively edited for conciseness and accessibility, and to maximize breath of coverage. A map of a rapidly growing---and changing---field, The Media Studies Reader is an invaluable resource to students as well as established scholars.

Laurie Ouellette is Associate Professor in Communication Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where she teaches Critical Media Studies. She is also affiliated with the American Studies Department and the Graduate Minor in Moving Image Studies.

"A one-stop shop, this superb collection is chock-full of seminal essays. A wonderful service to the field of Media Studies." -Jonathan Gray, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"Situating the study of media in cultural, technological, industrial, political and reception contexts, The Media Studies Reader unifies pieces of canonical scholarship with a well-chosen selection of newer work. This collection has a real sense of scale, scope and timeliness, and it will be an indispensable guide to the evolution of thought in Media Studies." -Diane Negra, Professor of Film Studies and Screen Culture and Head of Film Studies, University College Dublin