This textbook considers the critical relationship between gender, race, and class and the political economy of media, providing an accessible introduction for students.

Carolyn M. Byerly integrates gender, race, and class analysis in posing an intersectional political economy (IPE) of media theory, and demonstrates how that theory applies in examining communication laws, policies, technology, and other aspects of media today. By synthesizing feminist and critical race theories with more traditional class analysis, this book offers a unified approach to examining the media. Individual chapters delve into communication policy, ownership, governance, labor, and technology issues, with a concluding chapter that explores future research. The book situates citizen challenges to the media’s control by a small power elite within a dialectic of struggle and highlights specific campaigns that have pursued successful policy and media reform. Several short case studies by other authors illustrate how an IPE investigation can be undertaken.

This is a key text for undergraduate and graduate media and communication courses such as Media and Society, Political Economy of Media, Gender, Race and Media, Research Methods, and more. It will also appeal to social science classes such as Media Sociology, Labor Studies, and Political Economy Research.