Bücher von Erika Engstrom

Gramsci and Media Literacy: Critically Thinking about TV and the Movies offers a series of contemporary media analyses that use Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony to explore how dominant ideologies in media delivery, historical storytelling, and gender in today's mass media environment become the commonsense viewpoints that maintain power structures in civil society. Through a media literacy approach, case studies of ideological delivery through television and film illustrate why Gramscian media theory serves as a valuable tool for revealing the many ways hegemonic thought operates in the media sphere and in everyday life, and they offer hope for counterhegemonic understandings.

Widely hailed as one of the best feminist-oriented series on television, NBC's Parks and Recreation (2009-2015) presents a multifaceted text for examining the incorporation of feminist ideology into its storylines. This book analyzes the various ways the series presented feminism as a positive force, such as the satirical portrayal of patriarchy.

In response to the growing scope and popularity of wedding-related offerings and the media attention given to celebrity and royal weddings, this book critically examines various bridal media outlets, artifacts, and the messages they convey about women today. It discusses the portrayal of women as brides in media coverage throughout history.

Offering more than a discussion of the show itself, this book offers historical insight for thinking about serious issues that "modern" working women continue to face today: balancing their work and personal lives, competing with other women, and controlling their own bodies and reproductive choices.

This book examines the text of the CW network television series Supernatural, a program based in the horror genre that offers viewers myriad religious-based antagonists, through the portrayals of monsters which its two main characters ';hunt' and destroy, as well as storylines based in the Bible. Even as the series' producers claim a non-religious perspective, we contend that story arcs and outcomes of episodes actually forward a hegemonic portrayal of Christianity that portrays a good-versus-evil motif regarding the superiority of Christianity. The depiction of its protagonist brothers, Dean and Sam Winchester of Lawrence, Kansas, forwards a pro-American perspective to a more generalized fight against evil in contemporary times.