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An essential guide to the thought of a central figure in media studies .

James Carey-scholar, media critic, and teacher of journalists-almost single-handedly established the importance of defining a cultural perspective when analyzing communications. Interspersing Carey’s major essays with articles exploring his central themes and their importance, this collection provides a critical introduction to the work of this significant figure.

Long before the “interpretive turn” became the fashion in the humanities and sociology, Carey was busily studying and combining the ideas of an impressive array of philosophers, sociologists, historians, and anthropologists, including John Dewey, Clifford Geertz, Raymond Williams, Thomas Kuhn, Max Weber, C. Wright Mills, Richard Rorty, Jürgen Habermas, Harold Innis, and Lewis Mumford. In James Carey: A Critical Reader, seven scholars who have been influenced by him consider his work and how it has affected the development of media studies. Carey has demonstrated that mass communications serve a complex function in society, with one central question reflecting his concerns: How does one make democracy work in a vast country that spans a continent? In his view, symbols, language, and those who create them are reality-creating, rather than reality-reflecting. Carey has examined the roles the media and the academy have played in creating and maintaining a public sphere, as well as the ways technology helps or hinders that project. Carey’s themes range from the strains on democracy and drawbacks of technology to the critique of journalism and the politics of academe. Contributors: G. Stuart Adam, Carleton U, Canada; James Carey, Columbia U; Carolyn Marvin, U of Pennsylvania; John Pauly, St. Louis U; Jay Rosen, New York U; Michael Schudson, U of California, San Diego.

What does it mean to belong in the United States—and what does it cost? Jane the Citizen confronts one of the most urgent questions in contemporary cultural life by turning to an unlikely archive: the CW’s celebrated telenovela-inspired series Jane the Virgin (2014–2019).

Litzy Galarza argues that beneath the show’s warmth and wit lies a sustained interrogation of citizenship’s limits. Building on Hector Amaya’s framework of citizenship excess and extending it to theorize reproductive citizenship excess and deficit, the book exposes the widening gap between citizenship as formal legal status and citizenship as livable, protected belonging—a gap that Jane the Virgin maps with extraordinary precision.

Across five seasons and two presidential administrations, Galarza demonstrates how the series tracks the lived costs of immigration policy, racial hierarchy, and gendered control over reproduction. She shows how Latinx characters experience belonging differently as political conditions shift in real time.

Singer. Dancer. Movie star. Activist. Queer icon. Afrofuturist. Working class heroine. Time traveler. Prophet. Feminist. Android. Dirty Computer.
 
Janelle Monáe is all these things and more, making her one of the most fascinating artists to emerge in the twenty-first century. This provocative new study explores how Monáe’s work has connected different media platforms to strengthen and enhance new movements in art, theory, and politics. It considers not only Monáe’s groundbreaking albums The ArchAndroid, The Electric Lady, and Dirty Computer, but also Monáe’s work as an actress in such films as Hidden Figures and Antebellum, as well as her soundtrack appearances in socially-engaged projects ranging from I May Destroy You to Us. Examining Monáe as a cultural icon whose work is profoundly intersectional, this book maps how she is actively reshaping discourses around race, gender, sexuality, and capitalism. Tracing Monáe’s performances of joy, desire, pain, and hope across a wide range of media forms, it shows how she imagines Afrofuturist, posthumanist, and postcapitalist utopias, while remaining grounded in the realities of being a Black woman in a white-dominated industry. This is an exciting introduction to an audacious innovator whose work offers us fresh ways to talk about identity, desire, and power.

Once a lively presence on radio, jazz now finds itself relegated to satellite broadcasters and low-watt stations at the edge of the dial. Aaron J. Johnson examines jazz radio from the advent of Black radio in 1948 to its near extinction from the commercial dial after 1980. Even in jazz’s heyday, programmers and DJs excluded many styles and artists, and Johnson delves into how the politics of decision-making and the political uses of the medium shaped jazz radio formats. Johnson shows radio’s role in the contradictory perceptions of jazz as American’s model artistic contribution to the world, as Black classical music, and as the soundtrack of African American rebellion and resistance for much of the twentieth century.

An interwoven story of a music and a medium, Jazz Radio America answers perennial questions about why certain kinds of jazz get played and why even that music is played in so few places.

WINNER OF THE ELIZABETH AGEE PRIZE IN AMERICAN LITERATURE

When words became weapons—Steinbeck’s novel and the underground war for freedom.

In March 1942, a desperate period for the allies in World War II, John Steinbeck published his propaganda novel The Moon is Down­—the story of ruthless invaders who overrun a militarily helpless country.  Throughout the novel, Steinbeck underscored both the fatal weakness of the “invincible” unnamed aggressors and the inherent power of the human values shard by the “conquered” people.

The Moon is Down created an immediate sensation among American literary critics; fierce debate erupted over Steinbeck’s uncommonly sympathetic portrayal of the enemy and the novel’s power as a vehicle for propaganda.  Fifty years later, Coers continues the debate, relying heavily on unpublished letters and personal interviews with the lawyers, book dealers, actors, publishers, and housewives associated with the resistance movements in Western Europe. Clandestine translations of The Moon Is Down quickly appeared and were widely circulated under the noses of the Gestapo. Coers documents the fate of Steinbeck’s novel in the hands of World War II resistance fighters and deepens our appreciation of Steinbeck’s unique ability to express the feelings of oppressed peoples.

Jordan Peele’s Get Out: Political Horror is a collection of sixteen essays devoted to exploring Get Out’s roots in the horror tradition and its complex and timely commentary on twenty-first-century US race relations. The first section, “The Politics of Horror,” traces the influence of the gothic and horror tradition on Peele’s film, from Shakespeare’s Othello, through the female gothic and Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives, to the modern horror film, including the zombie, rural, suburban, and body-swap subgenres of horror. The second section, “The Horror of Politics,” takes up Get Out’s varied political interventions—notably its portrayal of the continuation of slavery and the deformation of the black body and mind in white, so-called progressive America. Contributors address Peele’s film alongside African American figures such as Nat Turner, W. E. B. Du Bois, and James Baldwin. Taken together, the essays illuminate how Get Out stands as both a groundbreaking intervention in the horror tradition as well as a devastating unmasking of racism in the contemporary United States.

The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies is the peer-reviewed, scholarly publication of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). The journal was renamed (from Cinema Journal) in October 2018.

JCMS’s basic mission is to foster engaged debate and rigorous thinking among humanities scholars of film, television, digital media, and other audiovisual technologies. We are committed to the aesthetic, political, and cultural interpretation of these media and their production, circulation, and reception.

To that end, JCMS is dedicated to intellectual diversity of all kinds. We publish critical inquiry into the global, national, and local circulation of a wide variety of media. We seek to promote a range of approaches to film and media studies and attendant fields, including (but not limited to) digital media, sound studies, visual culture, video game studies, fan studies, and avant-garde and experimental film and media practices. We do not adhere to any methodological approach to media studies, nor do we focus on particular emphases in the field. The journal is open to all areas of humanities-oriented scholarship in media studies, including digital humanities.

The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies is the peer-reviewed, scholarly publication of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). The journal was renamed (from Cinema Journal) in October 2018.

JCMS’s basic mission is to foster engaged debate and rigorous thinking among humanities scholars of film, television, digital media, and other audiovisual technologies. We are committed to the aesthetic, political, and cultural interpretation of these media and their production, circulation, and reception.

To that end, JCMS is dedicated to intellectual diversity of all kinds. We publish critical inquiry into the global, national, and local circulation of a wide variety of media. We seek to promote a range of approaches to film and media studies and attendant fields, including (but not limited to) digital media, sound studies, visual culture, video game studies, fan studies, and avant-garde and experimental film and media practices. We do not adhere to any methodological approach to media studies, nor do we focus on particular emphases in the field. The journal is open to all areas of humanities-oriented scholarship in media studies, including digital humanities.

The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies is the peer-reviewed, scholarly publication of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). The journal was renamed (from Cinema Journal) in October 2018.

JCMS’s basic mission is to foster engaged debate and rigorous thinking among humanities scholars of film, television, digital media, and other audiovisual technologies. We are committed to the aesthetic, political, and cultural interpretation of these media and their production, circulation, and reception.

To that end, JCMS is dedicated to intellectual diversity of all kinds. We publish critical inquiry into the global, national, and local circulation of a wide variety of media. We seek to promote a range of approaches to film and media studies and attendant fields, including (but not limited to) digital media, sound studies, visual culture, video game studies, fan studies, and avant-garde and experimental film and media practices. We do not adhere to any methodological approach to media studies, nor do we focus on particular emphases in the field. The journal is open to all areas of humanities-oriented scholarship in media studies, including digital humanities.

The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies is the peer-reviewed, scholarly publication of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). The journal was renamed (from Cinema Journal) in October 2018.

JCMS’s basic mission is to foster engaged debate and rigorous thinking among humanities scholars of film, television, digital media, and other audiovisual technologies. We are committed to the aesthetic, political, and cultural interpretation of these media and their production, circulation, and reception.

To that end, JCMS is dedicated to intellectual diversity of all kinds. We publish critical inquiry into the global, national, and local circulation of a wide variety of media. We seek to promote a range of approaches to film and media studies and attendant fields, including (but not limited to) digital media, sound studies, visual culture, video game studies, fan studies, and avant-garde and experimental film and media practices. We do not adhere to any methodological approach to media studies, nor do we focus on particular emphases in the field. The journal is open to all areas of humanities-oriented scholarship in media studies, including digital humanities.

The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies is the peer-reviewed, scholarly publication of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). The journal was renamed (from Cinema Journal) in October 2018.

JCMS’s basic mission is to foster engaged debate and rigorous thinking among humanities scholars of film, television, digital media, and other audiovisual technologies. We are committed to the aesthetic, political, and cultural interpretation of these media and their production, circulation, and reception.

To that end, JCMS is dedicated to intellectual diversity of all kinds. We publish critical inquiry into the global, national, and local circulation of a wide variety of media. We seek to promote a range of approaches to film and media studies and attendant fields, including (but not limited to) digital media, sound studies, visual culture, video game studies, fan studies, and avant-garde and experimental film and media practices. We do not adhere to any methodological approach to media studies, nor do we focus on particular emphases in the field. The journal is open to all areas of humanities-oriented scholarship in media studies, including digital humanities.

Advances in digital communication have affected the relationship between society, journalism, and politics within different contexts in varied ways and intensities. This volume, combining interdisciplinary academic and professional perspectives, assesses the impact of the digital media environment on citizens, journalists, and politicians in diverse sociopolitical landscapes. The first part evaluates the transformative power of media literacy in the digital age and the challenges that journalism pedagogy encounters in global and fragmented environments. The second part critically examines the methods in which social media is used by politicians and activists to communicate during political campaigns and social protests. The third part analyzes the impact of digitalization on professional journalism and news consumption strategies. The fourth part offers a range of case studies that illustrate the significant challenges facing online media regarding the framing and representation of communities in crisis and shifting contexts. The book is intended to introduce readers to the crucial dynamic and diverse challenges that affect our societies and communitive practices as a result of the interplay between digital media and political and societal structures.

Winner of the 2023 AEJMC Tankard Book Award and the ICA Journalism Studies Book Award

The idea that journalism should be independent is foundational to its contemporary understandings and its role in democracy. But from what, exactly, should journalism be independent? This book traces the genealogy of the idea of journalistic autonomy, from the press freedom debates of the 17th century up to the digital, networked world of the 21st. Using an eclectic and thought-provoking theoretical framework that draws upon Friedrich Nietzsche, feminist philosophy, and theoretical biology, the authors analyze the deeper meanings and uses of the terms independence and autonomy in journalism.
 
This work tackles, in turn, questions of journalism’s independence from the state, politics, the market, sources, the workplace, the audience, technology, and algorithms. Using broad historical strokes as well as detailed historical case studies, the authors argue that autonomy can only be meaningful if it has a purpose. Unfortunately, for large parts of journalism’s history this purpose has been the maintenance of a societal status quo and the exclusion of large groups of the population from the democratic polity. “Independence,” far from being a shining ideal to which all journalists must aspire, has instead often been used to mask the very dependencies that lie at the heart of journalism. The authors posit, however, that by learning the lessons of history and embracing a purpose fit for the needs of the 21st century world, journalism might reclaim its autonomy and redeem its exclusionary uses of independence.

 

The news industry is still dominated by men. Yet women have exercised leadership in journalism and related media professions in a variety of ways, from moral leadership to experimenting with structural and technological innovations and pioneering new formats to serve new audiences. This book offers a robust account of women’s leadership in journalism, looking at what motivated women to become media leaders, the obstacles they overcame, and the strategies they used to solve problems and handle crises.
 
This book offers profiles of inspiring women in prominent media positions from the nineteenth century to today, beginning with trailblazers like abolitionist publisher Mary Ann Shadd and Memphis Free Speech anti-lynching editor Ida B. Wells. The book takes an in-depth look at the leadership styles of well-known media moguls like Oprah Winfrey and Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. Other chapters highlight women now emerging as media leaders, such as digital media executive S. Mitra Kalita and Iman Zawahry, a Muslim hijabi filmmaker. Bringing together cases from print, broadcast, public relations, film, and digital media, this book offers useful insights into how to be an effective leader in an ever-changing industry.


 

In Just Like Us: Digital Debates on Feminism and Fame, Caitlin E. Lawson examines the rise of celebrity feminism, its intersections with digital culture, and its complicated relationships with race, sexuality, capitalism, and misogyny. Through in-depth analyses of debates across social media and news platforms, Lawson maps the processes by which celebrity culture, digital platforms, and feminism transform one another. As she analyzes celebrity-centered stories ranging from “The Fappening” and the digital attack on actress Leslie Jones to stars’ activism in response to #MeToo, Lawson demonstrates how celebrity culture functions as a hypervisible space in which networked publics confront white feminism, assert the value of productive anger in feminist politics, and seek remedies for women’s vulnerabilities in digital spaces and beyond. Just Like Us asserts that, together, celebrity culture and digital platforms form a crucial discursive arena where postfeminist logics are unsettled, opening up more public, collective modes of holding individuals and groups accountable for their actions.