The field of cultural and media studies is one of the most important and rapidly developing areas in the social sciences and humanities today. This new text provides an overview of some of the key issues and debates in the field. The book is designed in such a way that it can be used either as a supplement to other texts or as an integral volume in itself.

Among the topics covered are: theories of media, communication and ideology; the influence of electronic communication; popular and high culture; the interpretation of art and literature; the impact of feminism in cultural studies; advertising and the consumer culture; and theories of modernism and postmodernism. The contributors include many of the major figures involved in current debates, including Jean Baudrillard, Pierre Bourdieu, Peter Burger, Mary-Ann Caws, Joanne Finkelstein, Jürgen Habermas, Stuart Hall, J. F. Lyotard, John B. Thompson, Janet Wolff and others.

Polity is the editor of The Polity Reader in Cultural Theory, published by Wiley.