A Critical Introduction to Media and Communication Theory

The study of the media has led scholars to apply a humbling array of theories in their efforts to analyze messages, media systems, audiences and media themselves. One of the strengths of media studies has been its flexibility as it incorporates humanist and social scientific ideas in our work. This series is focused on theories, methods, schools of thought, domains of intellectual struggle, and individual thinkers whose importance to the study of the media can be reconfigured, reinvented, and refocused. Each of the specially commissioned books in the series shares a concern for the heritage of thought in the field of communication. These books provide sophisticated discussions of the relevance of particular theorists or theories, with an emphasis on reinventing communication and media studies, whether by incorporating ideas thought by some to be 'outside' the field, or by providing fresh analyses of ideas that have long been considered central to media studies. Though theoretical in focus, the books are at all times concerned with the applicability of theory to empirical research and experience, and are designed to be accessible, yet critical, for students -undergraduates and postgraduates - and scholars.

17 publications

Minding the Media

This series is designed for those engaged in pedagogy and pedagogy and media. Using a critical perspective, authors will be invited to contribute volumes of approximately 85,000 words to this series. The editors anticipate acquiring between 5 and 8 volumes per year. Around the world today, there are blatant and insidious uses and effects of media in a hyperreal society. As educators we watch the media curriculum which pervades childhood and youth and understand that it would be impossible for young citizens to escape this curriculum. We recognize that teachers and administrators are often unequipped and/or unwilling to address their students’ embedded media curricula. Students walk into schools with the expectations that they must shirk their knowledge (and often obsessions) of media to drink the weakened Kool-Aid of public school curriculum. Minding the Media is the first book series specifically designed to address the needs of both students and teachers in watching, comprehending, using, and reading the media. We will acquire books from a wide range of authors in theoretical, technical and practitioner media disciplines.

30 publications

Critical Studies of Latinxs in the Americas

ISSN: 2372-6830

The Latinx presence continues to grow and intersect with every aspect of life in the 21st century. This is evident when one considers the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor as Associate Justice to the United States Supreme Court. As well as the prominence of distinct Latinx individuals in various spheres of social, cultural, and political life such as Mario J. Molina, Nobel Prize winner and recipient of the Medal of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013; and Jorge Maria Bergoglio (Pope Francis) who has revolutionized the Catholic church since he became the highest ecclesiastical authority of the Catholic world in 2013. Latino Studies, as an academic field of inquiry, began to emerge during the early 1990s surfacing from the more recognized field of Chicano Studies. As such, the major contributions to the field first emerged from Mexican/Chicano scholarship—publications such as Aztlán, the most important journal in the field of Chicano Studies since 1970; Gloria Anzaldúa’’s groundbreaking memoir/essay, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987); George J. Sanchez’s historical account, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945 (1995); and the two volumes of The Chicano Studies Reader: An Anthology of Aztlan, 1970-2010. These are a few examples of the consolidation and the continuing development of Chicano Studies in the United States. In the past two decades, Latino Studies have grown and expanded significantly. There have been a large number of publications about Latinxs in the Midwest and North East; in addition, due to the fast-growing population of Latinxs in the area, new scholarship has emerged about the Latinxs in the New South. Some examples of the emerging field of Latino Studies are the Latinos on the East Coast (2015) edited by Yolanda Medina and Ángeles Donoso Macaya, Global Cities and Immigrants (2015) by Francisco Velasco Caballero and María de los Angeles Torres; the Handbook of Latinos and Education (2010) edited by Enrique Murillo, et al.; Angela Anselmo’s and Alma Rubal-Lopez’s 2004 On Becoming Nuyoricans; David Carey Jr. and Robert Atkinson (2009) Latino Voices in New England; Yolanda Prieto’s case study entitled, The Cubans of Union City: Immigrants and Exiles in a New Jersey Community (2009); and Lawrence La Fontaine-Stokes’ Queer Ricans Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora (2009). Critical Studies of Latinxs in the Americas will become the counterpart of the aforementioned research about the Latinx diaspora that deserve equal scholarly attention and will add to the academic field of inquiry that highlights the lived experience, consequential progress and contributions, as well as the issues and concerns that all Latinxs face in present times. This provocative series will offer a critical space for reflection and questioning of what it means to be Latinx living in the Americas, extending the dialogue to include the North and South hemispheric relations that are prevalent in other fields of global studies such as Post-Colonial Theory, Post-Colonial Feminism, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Critical Race Theory, and others. This broader scope can contribute to prolific interdisciplinary research and can also promote changes in policies and practices that will enable today’s leaders to deal with the overall issues that affect us all. Topics that explore contemporary inequalities and social exclusions associated with processes of racialization, economic exploitation, health, education, transnationalism, immigration, identity politics, and abilities that are not commonly highlighted in the current literature as well as the multitude of socio-economic, and cultural commonalities and differences among the Latinxs in the Americas will be at the center of the series. As the Latinx population continues to grow and change, and universities enhance their Latino Studies programs to be inclusive of all types of Latinx identities, a series dedicated to the lived experience of Latinxs in the Americas and a consideration of their progress and concerns in the social, cultural, political, economic, and artistic arenas is of incredible value in the quest for pedagogical practices and understandings that apply a critical perspective to the issues facing scholars in this area of study. Scholars, faculties, and students alike will benefit from this series. Expressions of interest for authored or edited books will be considered on a first come basis. A Book Proposal Guideline is available on request. For individual or group inquiries please contact the Series Editors at ymedina@bmcc.cuny.edu & Margarita.MachadoCasas@UTSA.edu.

49 publications

Media and Culture

This series will be publishing works in media and culture, focusing on research embracing a variety of critical perspectives. The editors are particularly interested in promoting theoretically informed empirical work using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Although the focus is on scholarly research, works published in the series will appeal to readers beyond a narrow, specialized audience. This series will be publishing works in media and culture, focusing on research embracing a variety of critical perspectives. The editors are particularly interested in promoting theoretically informed empirical work using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Although the focus is on scholarly research, works published in the series will appeal to readers beyond a narrow, specialized audience. This series will be publishing works in media and culture, focusing on research embracing a variety of critical perspectives. The editors are particularly interested in promoting theoretically informed empirical work using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Although the focus is on scholarly research, works published in the series will appeal to readers beyond a narrow, specialized audience.

14 publications