Critical Media Studies (eBook)

Brian L. Ott is Associate Professor of Media Studies in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado Denver. He is the author of The Small Screen: How Television Equips Us to Live in the Information Age (Wiley Blackwell, 2007) and co-editor of It's Not TV: Watching HBO in the Post-Television Era (2008). Robert L. Mack is a PhD candidate in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His writing has appeared in The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts and The Journal of GLBT Family Studies.

Preface vi

1 Introducing Critical Media Studies 1

Part I Media Industries: Marxist, Organizational, and Pragmatic Perspectives 21

2 Marxist Analysis 23

3 Organizational Analysis 56

4 Pragmatic Analysis 81

Part II Media Messages: Rhetorical, Cultural, Psychoanalytic, Feminist, and Queer Perspectives 107

5 Rhetorical Analysis 109

6 Cultural Analysis 134

7 Psychoanalytic Analysis 162

8 Feminist Analysis 193

9 Queer Analysis 214

Part III Media Audiences: Reception, Sociological, Erotic, and Ecological Perspectives 243

10 Reception Analysis 245

11 Sociological Analysis 266

12 Erotic Analysis 285

13 Ecological Analysis 312

14 Conclusion: the Partial Pachyderm 335

Appendix: Sample Student Essays 351

Glossary 375

Index 382

"Two gifted media scholars, Brian L. Ott and Robert L.
Mack, here explore the role of new and developing media in
personal, social, and cultural development. They provide
clear and workable explanations of terms that are often taken for
granted, such as new media or postmodernity. This is an
invaluable book for student and professional alike. It helps
the reader not only to understand media but to take an active role
in critiquing it so as to understand what it does."
-- Barry Brummett, University of Texas at Austin,
USA

"Critical Media Studies is both theoretically
sophisticated and accessible. With examples that span the full
spectrum of contemporary media, the text is sure to engage students
while also challenging them to think through the complexities of
media and its impact on us." -- Lisa A. Flores,
University of Colorado-Boulder, USA