Title Details

Angharad N. Valdivia is a Research Professor of Communications and Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is also the head of the Media and Cinema Studies Department, Interim Director of the Institute of Communications Research, and Editor-in-chief of Communication Theory.  Her research and teaching focuses on transnational popular culture studies, with special attention to issues of gender and ethnicity.  She has published extensively on issues of transnational Latina Studies, exploring the tension between agency and structure in media production and consumption.

Volume I: Media History and the Foundations of Media Studies: John Nerone

PART 1: Approaches

PART 2: Moments

PART 3: Foundations

Volume II: Media Production: Vicki Mayer

PART 1: Production Regimes and Infrastructures

PART 2: The Cultural Industries and the Organization of Production

PART 3: Product and Content Flows

PART 4: Production Work and Practices

PART 5: Production Cultures

PART 6: The Ethics of Production

Volume III: Content and Representation: Sharon R. Mazzarella

PART 1: Persuasion and Information

PART 2: Entertainment

PART 3: Interaction and Performance

Volume IV: Audience and Interpretation: Radhika Parameswaran

PART 1: Expanding the Horizons of Audience Studies

PART 2: Practicing Reflexivity in and out of the Field

PART 3: Finding and Engaging Global Audiences

PART 4: Comprehending Online Audiences 

PART 5: Empowering Audiences as Citizens

Volume V: Media Effects/Media Psychology: Erica Scharrer

PART 1: Theories and Processes/Processing

PART 2: Evidence of Effects

PART 3: The Young Audience

Volume VI: Media Studies Futures: Kelly Gates

PART 1: The Future Of Media Studies: Theory, Methods, Pedagogy

PART 2: Social and Mobile Media Futures

PART 3: Industry Futures

PART 4: Journalism and Media Policy Futures

PART 5: Interactivity, Affect, and the Future of Media Subjectivities

PART 6: Whose Future? Children, Youth Cultures, and Digital Media

PART 7: What Future? Or, The Unsustainable Present

“Regarding the content, I found the essays to be well written, engaging and to offer a broad insight into the different theories and methodologies that have influenced the development of media studies.”  (Reference Reviews, 1 March 2014)

“Summing Up: Recommended. Libraries serving upper-division undergraduates and above in media.”  (Choice, 1 July 2013)

“The scope, size, and price of this set make it most appropriate for academic libraries that support graduate programs in media studies, journalism, and communications.”  (Booklist, 1 March 2013)

“This set encourages the reader to approach media studies from a wide range of contexts. Students will benefit from exposure to an assortment of viewpoints in order to develop their own theories. VERDICT A strong resource, recommended for academic libraries that support media programs.”  (Library Journal, 1 January 2013)

“Encyclopedias can be dry. But Angharad Valdivia has done something remarkable: orchestrated essays from a huge number of voices into an enticing collection of volumes. A landmark publication for global media studies.”
- Nick Couldry, Professor of Media and Communications, University of London

“An extraordinary achievement for a field buffeted by multitudinous forces -- balanced, focused on past, present, possible futures; buttressed by attentions to both foundational and cutting edge research and theory.”
- Brenda L Dervin, Research, Design, and Training Consultant

"Systematic and expert thematic coverage across a wide field of knowledge, distinguished by innovation and imagination. It invites voyages of discovery for old as well as new hands as much as it serves mundane purposes of reference."
- Denis McQuail, Emeritus Professor, University of Amsterdam