Argues that morality is a form of reality construction requiring a socially negotiated sensibility. Notes that this view is harmonious with the essential interpretive task of journalism. Stresses the importance of moral imagination as an aspect of moral reasoning, and claims that ethical action depends on an ethics of vision, a "seeing"…

Argues that the symbolic annihilation of gay and lesbian youth exhibited by network television contributes to a dysfunctional isolation supported by the mutually reinforcing invisibility of homosexual adolescents on television and in the real world. Suggests that the spiral of silence also partially accounts for the inefficacy of oppositional…

Focuses on the implications of participatory democratic theory, as compared to elite democratic theory, for political communication theorists. Discusses how reciprocity provides political communication researchers with a tool for gauging the successes of various communication systems in enhancing participatory democracy. Suggests how mass-mediated…

Argues that the current popular negative critique of television, if examined carefully, reveals fundamental confusions concerning how print and television communicate information. Discusses the syntax of motion which distinguishes television from print, based on movement in space--a space that is both visual and acoustic. (SR)

Discusses the significance to media studies of queer theory. Examines (1) the commodification of "witness testimony" relating to the question of sexual innocence in the case of child molestation; (2) the effeminization of Jackson as a homophobic containment of him by the press; and (3) interpretive excess in the media's focus of an…

Uses Kantian logic to analyze the statement of Libertarian press theory "Truth beats falsehood in a free marketplace of ideas" as a definition, an observation, and a universal truth. Notes three corresponding moral universes, with differing ethical obligations. Discusses strengths and weaknesses of each. Cautions media ethics analysts…

Identifies the major insights concerning contemporary communication and media practices associated with the postmodern condition and evaluates their contribution to critical media studies. Suggests that postmodern media studies are themselves a symptom of the very postmodern culture they seek to analyze. (RS)

Probes the contradictory philosophical reception of mass communication in the social thought of Charles Horton Cooley, John Dewey, Walter Lippmann, Robert Park, and Josiah Royce. Shows how these progressive intellectuals conceived of mass media as an integral part of a social order whose scale and mass require systematic means of…

Identifies the movie, "Rambo," and "Soldier of Fortune" magazine as artifacts of "paramilitary culture." Contends that they are a social phenomenon which helps legitimate the United States government's rapid escalation of military forces. (MS)

Notes that the paradigm of resistance has enjoyed widespread popularity in the field of media studies. Argues for understanding media studies as a field in Pierre Bourdieu's sense of the term. Explores the analytical and political limits of this paradigm, and by extension, the intellectual vision that proceeds from it. (SR)

Examines three news stories to illustrate how journalists can use irony to undercut and even reverse the literal or ostensible meaning of what is being reported. Argues that, by issuing its judgment quietly, irony renders morality a private matter, which is arguably dysfunctional in a society where the role of the press is to foster public debate…

Finds that "PM Magazine" emphasized and promoted a dominant personal success value system revolving around recognition, achievement, financial success, excitement, and physical attributes. Argues that this value system existed because it appealed to a particular demographic, making the program highly marketable to national advertisers,…

Reviews critically the dominant discourse on science and the media. Finds that the dominant concern has conceptual and methodological problems. Argues that the dominant discourse has promoted a science coverage dutiful to scientific interests and has inhibited a truly critical appraisal of popular science communication. (RS)

Locates and elaborates a postwar disassociation between films and the domestic audience in changing finance and marketing practices. Suggests that preselling unproduced films to worldwide territories (begun in the 1970s) eroded Hollywood's emphasis on American viewers. Suggests that this is why American films contribute so little to the social…

Examines articulations of "egalitarian" courtship in romantic comedy films of the 1930s and 1940s and recent television series resurrecting their conventions. Gauges the extent to which such texts are open to a negotiated reading that recontextualizes heterosexual monogamy in anarchic rather than patriarchal terms. Suggests that the…