Explorations in Critical Studies of Advertising

This volume provides a thoughtful and wide-ranging exploration of approaches to the critical study of advertising. Current and impending practices of advertising have in many ways exceeded the grasp of traditional modes of critique, due at least in part to their being formulated in very different historical conditions. To begin to address this lag, this edited collection explores through critical discussion and application a variety of critical approaches to advertising. Authors address a variety of concrete examples in their chapters, drawing on existing research while presenting new findings where relevant. In order to maintain the relevance of this collection past this particular historical moment, however, chapters do not simply report on empirical work, but develop a theoretical argument.

James F. Hamilton is the James Kennedy Professor of New Media, Head of the Department of Entertainment and Media Studies, and Director of the New Media Institute at the University of Georgia, USA. Among his published work is Democratic Communications; Formations, Projects, Possibilities (2009) and Alternative Journalism (2009), co-written with Chris Atton. Robert Bodle is an Associate Professor of Communication and New Media Studies at Mount St. Joseph University and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Media, Journalism, and Film at Miami University, USA. He served as Co-Chair of the Internet Rights and Principles Dynamic Coalition at the UN Internet Governance Forum, and as a steering committee member of the IRP coalition since 2010. Ezequiel Korin is a PhD student in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, USA.