Media Reception Studies broadly surveys the past century of scholarship on the ways in which audiences make meaning out of mass media. Written for students and scholars seeking an introductory map to this body of theory and research, it synthesizes in plain language social scientific, linguistic, and cultural studies approaches to film and television as communication media. Janet Staiger tranverses a broad terrain, covering the Chicago School, early psychological approaches, Soviet theory, the Frankfurt School, mass communication research and critical theory, linguistics and semiotic theory, social-psychoanalytical research, cognitive psychology, and cultural studies. She offers these theories as a set of tools for understanding the complex relationships between films and thier audiences, TV shows and their viewers. The reader is then guided in their application to such questions as the behavior of fans, the implications of race with regard to media, the effect of violence, horror, and sexually explicit images on viewers, and the place of memory in spectatorship. Providing an organized and lucid introduction to a staggering amount of work, Media Reception Studies is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in understanding the effects of mass media. -- from back cover.