This is an introduction to the media industries, a topic that sometimes has its own course but is also incorporated into courses on media criticism, media literacy, and even a basic mass media course where the instructor wishes to teach from topical paperbacks as opposed to a big textbook. The book[...]

"Television Studies" provides an overview of the origins, central ideas, and intellectual traditions of television studies. The book charts the establishment of the field, and examines its various approaches and objects of study.What have been the primary areas of inquiry in television studies? Why [...]

From the meth-dealing but devoted family man Walter White of AMC's Breaking Bad, to the part-time basketball coach, part-time gigolo Ray Drecker of HBO's Hung, depictions of male characters perplexed by societal expectations of men and anxious about changing American masculinity have become standard[...]