Race and Media

A foundational collection of essays that demonstrate how to study race and mediaFrom graphic footage of migrant children in cages to #BlackLivesMatter and #OscarsSoWhite, portrayals and discussions of race dominate the media landscape. Race and Media adopts a wide range of methods to make sense of specific occurrences, from the corporate portrayal of mixed-race identity by 23andMe to the cosmopolitan fetishization of Marie Kondo. As a whole, this collection demonstrates that all forms of media—from the sitcoms we stream to the Twitter feeds we follow—confirm racism and reinforce its ideological frameworks, while simultaneously giving space for new modes of resistance and understanding. In each chapter, a leading media scholar elucidates a set of foundational concepts in the study of race and media—such as the burden of representation, discourses of racialization, multiculturalism, hybridity, and the visuality of race. In doing so, they offer tools for media literacy that include rigorous analysis of texts, ideologies, institutions and structures, audiences and users, and technologies. The authors then apply these concepts to a wide range of media and the diverse communities that engage with them in order to uncover new theoretical frameworks and methodologies. From advertising and music to film festivals, video games, telenovelas, and social media, these essays engage and employ contemporary dialogues and struggles for social justice by racialized communities to push media forward.Contributors include:Mary BeltránMeshell SturgisRalina L. JosephDolores Inés CasillasJennifer Lynn StoeverJason Kido LopezPeter X FengJacqueline LandMari CastañedaJun OkadaAmy VillarejoAymar Jean ChristianSarah FloriniRaven Maragh-LloydSulafa ZidaniLia WolockMeredith D. ClarkJillian M. BáezMiranda J. BradyKishonna L. GraySusan Noh

Urgently needed, there is no other book that addresses studying race and media like this one. The editor and contributors provide inclusive up-to-date analyses containing great diversity of thought, research, and methodology over a range of case studies on the topic of race and media. This book is destined to become the ‘go-to’ textbook for Race and Media courses, This is the collection I’ve been waiting for. It refutes the stereotype that race-conscious media studies is ‘just’ about representation. The articles here by new and established scholars show us how centering race in studies of production, platforms, audiences, and representation can push the entire field of media studies forward in fundamental ways., An unparalleled, inclusive, and intersectional collection of original research ... recommend it most highly.

Lori Kido Lopez is Associate Professor of Media and Cultural Studies in the Communication Arts Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of Asian American Media Activism.