ABSTRACT
This chapter comprises a miscellany of short pieces representing different and diverse strands of media studies. Some are descriptive summaries of theoretical approaches, others offer case study analysis and a few take a rather more polemical approach to media issues. Collectively, these readings demonstrate the principle that study of the mass media is a practice rather than a body of knowledge; something to be done rather than something to be learned by heart. The readings in this chapter include essays on music video as art or advertising, ‘anti-narrative’ in television drama and theories of identity (including those of David Gauntlett), introductions to structuralism and poststructuralism, considerations of children’s television, advertising in context, new directions in film funding and a case study of the ubiquitous television box set.
