Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Black feminist media studies is a growing body of scholarly work that looks at the intersection of media, race, and gender, with a specific focus on women of African descent. This field of research most often designates scholarship produced in the United States or Europe that explores the ways that film, television, broadcast and print news, and new media (and, less often, radio) produce messages and ideas about women of African descent and the possible ways in which these representations influence political, economic, and cultural structures in society (→  Feminist and Gender Studies ). The purview of black feminist media studies is potentially very broad because the appellation “black” refers to different groups of people in different parts of the world. Even when “black” is restricted to people of African descent, it encapsulates an entire diaspora of people who may identify as or be identified as “black” within a given culture. In addition, the “media,” at least according to their broadest definition, designate a number of channels for sending signs by means of an ordered system (→  Sign ; Woman as Sign ). Many modes of communication fall within such an expansive definition of media. Currently, “black feminist media studies” takes as its object the production of media by, for, or about women of African descent. Significantly, the characterization of these studies as “feminist” ... log in or subscribe to read full text