Critical Media Studies, 3rd Edition

Preface

To our millions of readers, welcome to the third edition of Critical Media Studies: An Introduction! We want to begin by thanking all of you for the seemingly endless submission of fan letters. We apologize that we are not able to respond to every letter, but given their sheer number, it is simply not feasible. That is what we would be saying if this was a New York Times best‐selling book. But, alas, it is a college textbook. So, perhaps it would be more appropriate for us to simply say, “Hey, Ian, Cara, and crazy Uncle Jeb, thanks for reading our book. Now, please stop emailing us fake negative reviews from Amazon.” Truth be told, it’s hard to know how many people have actually read the book. By “hard,” we mean we’d have to email our publisher and ask for sales data, and that just seems like a lot of work. So, instead, we’re just going to assume that the book is a big hit, especially in Wakanda (hello, fellow fans of Black Panther!).

When we began work on the first edition of the book nearly 10 years ago, it was tentatively titled Critical Media Studies: An Interstellar Guide to Fabulous Dinner Conversation. In the ensuing time, the book has undergone numerous changes, not least of which was a rethinking of its title. Apparently, “some” (who shall remain nameless, Elizabeth Swayze!) thought that the reference to dinner conversation might be confusing and misleading. We remain convinced, however, that it would have been an effective way to target the fans of food‐themed ...