Critical Media Studies

?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

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