International Media Research offers a rigorous and critical review of key approaches and concerns that have recently defined the field of media research. The contributors to this volume analyse and reflect upon dominant themes and debates that have made media research an increasingly important element of political, social and cultural enquiry. The book opens with an introduction which surveys the current state of the field, and continues with a critical evaluation of the work of the leading media scholar, Elihu Katz. It goes on to explore the relationship between media studies and adjacent fields: cultural studies and new work on gender and sexuality. Contributors drawn from the UK, USA, Canada and Belgium consider the relationships between media research and media policy in different national and international contexts. Focusing on the European Union, East-Central Europe, North America and Latin America, these chapters assess the impact of social, economic and political circumstances on policy debates and the shaping of a research agenda. The final chapter adopts a transatlantic perspective in tracing and analysing the history of the media's role in reporting war. This major survey firmly places media research in the wider context of political and social change and its analysis, and provides a defining but also questioning perspective on its achievements.