Critical and Cultural Media Studies
Media and culture are inextricably intertwined, and many faculty and graduate students in the College study the cultural production, distribution and consumption of media and the impact on society. Cultural approaches to understanding the media are widely varied and include studying media texts as cultural products; representations of different social groups including by race and gender; globalization; reception theory, and technology and culture. Critical approaches also engage the degree to which media systems perpetuate, challenge, or otherwise complicate inequities in social power.
Many recent graduate students have examined the role of the media in the allocation of wealth and information resources on topics ranging from media ownership, coverage of terrorism and foreign affairs, sports industries and Hollywood films.