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.