This reader is intended to introduce undergraduates to the richness, sophistication, and diversity that characterize contemporary media scholarship. Another goal is to take the mystery out of the idea of media culture by examining its production, construction, and the meaning-making processes through which media imagery and messages help shape our personal, social, and political worlds. Part 1, "A Cultural Studies Approach to Gender, Race, and Class in the Media," introduces the issues through nine selections. Later sections refer to particular media forms, as follows: (1) Part II: "Advertising" (11 selections); (2) Part III: "Modes of Sexual Representation--Romance Novels and Slasher Films" (6 selections); (3) Part IV: "Modes of Sexual Representation 2--Pornography" (10 selections); (4) Part V: "TV by Day" (9 selections); (5) Part VI: "TV by Night" (9 selections); and (6) Part VII: "Music Videos and Rap Music: Cultural Conflict and Control in the Age of the Image" (7 selections). (Contains over 1,000 references.) (SLD)