Mediated Identities is an empirical examination of how youth identity is negotiated in urban and rural spaces where cultural, economic, and political forces compete for the allegiance of the young consumer and worker. Rich with fieldwork on teens and television in India, Germany, South Africa, and the United States, the book provides a new direction for the critical discussion of youth agency. It questions young people as autonomous consumers and examines the interpellatory forces of media and market. The application of postcolonial theory produces an incisive analysis of television and other media consumption as part of a process that bolsters the neocolonial imperatives of globalization. Simultaneously, the book focuses on the opportunism on both sides of the equation, on youth particularly in developing economies and the industries that need their cheap labor. In such opportunistic contexts, Mediated Identities addresses ethical dilemmas and transformative possibilities.

The Author: Divya C. McMillin is Associate Professor of International Communication and Cultural Studies at the University of Washington Tacoma. She is author of International Media Studies (2007). Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Communication, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Popular Communication, Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, and other journals, and in a variety of anthologies on media globalization and reception.