Enriched by critical theory and the insights of cultural studies, and rooted in the power of historical explanation, this collection of classic and new essays contributes to the theory and practice of critical studies in communication, media, and journalism. The volume helps develop alternative ways of thinking about communication and media practices at a time when the conditions of communication, participation, and democracy are threatened by commercial and political interests. It is grounded in a critical theory of the media that addresses the potential of liberating individuals_consumers as well as newsworkers_by challenging their traditional roles in the hegemonic relationship of media and society. With its interdisciplinary vision, Interactions may be read as a critical intellectual history of the 20th century through the lens of media, communication, and popular culture and in relation to the role of the individual on the cusp of a new millennium.

Chapter 1 Introduction Part 2 Part I: Historical Considerations Chapter 3 Contemplating Marxism-and Other Theoretical Challenges Chapter 4 Looking for the Working Class: Class Relations in Communication Studies Chapter 5 Communication in the Media Age: An Existential Dilemma Chapter 6 The Decline of Authenticity: Modernity, Communication, and Critical Theory Chapter 7 Communication and Economic Thought: Cultural Imagination in German and American Scholarship Part 8 Part II: Critical Applications Chapter 9 The Making of the Public Sphere: Class, Culture, and Media Practices Chapter 10 The World According to America: Ideology and Comparative Media Studies Chapter 11 Alien Culture, Immigrant Voices: The Foreign-Language Press in Journalism History Chapter 12 Against the Rank and File: Newsworkers,Technology, and the Construction of History Chapter 13 The End of Journalism: Media and Newswork at the Close of the Century