Pierre Bourdieus ideas have had a major impact on a number of fields of inquiry. As scholars of media and communication begin to think more frequently and more carefully with Bourdieus ideas, this book offers a wealth of points of contact between Bourdieus ideas and research topics concerning media and communication. This book addresses how Bourdieus ideas can be used to raise questions concerning: media production, media audiences, symbolic authority, and the history of communication study. The result is a compact but comprehensive volume that gives the reader a sense of the scope and relevance of Bourdieus ideas to a wide range of domains of study in communication research.

Contents: Pierre Bourdieu’s Legacy and the Study of Communication – The Field of Media Production – The Media Audience: Fluency, Strategy, and Le Sens Practique – Symbolic Power and Authority: The Power/Communication Nexus – Reflexivity and the History of the Field of Communication – Conclusion: Communication as Practical, Relational, Historical, and Reflexive.