This area understands various media in terms of their role in constructing and expressing meaning and identity in people's everyday lives. The broad focus is on signification, pleasure, and power within media cultures. Selected topics of study include: cultural theory and cultural studies; audiences, subcultures and ethnography; popular music as culture; audio-visual cultures; cybercultures; consumer and promotional cultures; print culture; media ethics; and approaches to media forms, conventions, and genres informed by aesthetic and historical criticism. Also germane are debates around structuralism and post-structuralism, modernity and post-modernism, and those involving issues of class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and taste in the media.
Faculty who teach and/or conduct research in the area:
Blackmore, Burkell, Burston, Campbell, Coates, Comor, Compton, Dyer-Witheford, Farber, Grzyb, Hearn, Keightley, Knabe, Leckie, McKechnie, Quan-Haase, Robinson, Ross, Sliwinski, Smith Fullerton, Sneppova, Spencer, Stahl, Torres
Students who are considering different faculty members as a potential chief supervisor should be careful to determine that the faculty member of choice has the appropriate supervisory status.
Media Cultures Reading List