Book Review: The Routledge Companion to Media and Gender, edited by Cynthia Carter, Linda Steiner, and Lisa McLaughlin

The Routledge Companion to Media and Gender. Cynthia Carter, Linda Steiner, and Lisa McLaughlin, eds. New York: Routledge, 2014. 668 pp. $225 hbk.Wherever the cliche "everything but the kitchen sink" may have originated, it accurately describes the fifty-nine chapters that make up The Routledge Companion to Media and Gender. Dedicated to an "extensive examination of a wide array of contemporary critical perspectives and diverse contexts," the collection is essential for libraries and for those who study children, popular culture, psychology, sexual orientation, sociology, women and gender issues, and other areas of inquiry.Part of the Taylor & Francis Group, Routledge describes the newest addition to its twenty-four-volume series accurately, touting the book for its exhaustive coverage of media and future trends. The ambitious collection is part of the Routledge Companion list, which includes informative and lengthy studies of children's literature, Christian history, critical and cultural theory, English language studies, feminism, film history, global economics, the Gothic, music and visual culture, postmodernism, race and ethnicity, Russian literature, semiotics, social theory, theater and performance, and other topics.In addition, the publisher's website celebrates the book for research that will engage readers in a "broad array of global and transnational issues and intersectional perspectives"; its emphasis on issues including cosmetic surgery, digital policy, masculinity, pornography, postfeminism, sexual violence, queer identities, social media, sports, telenovelas, video games, and other topics; and its interdisciplinary contribution to a discussion of issues as varied as audience engagement, gender in media, production and policymaking, and representation.Founding editors of Feminist Media Studies, Cynthia Carter and Lisa McLaughlin collaborated with Linda Steiner, professor of journalism at the University of Maryland, to produce the massive study. Steiner studies alternative media, citizen journalism, ethics, gendered media employment, and women and technology. Carter, a senior lecturer in media and cultural studies at the Cardiff School of Journalism, emphasizes news about children and women. McLaughlin, an associate professor in media, journalism, and film at Miami University Ohio, focuses upon the political economy, the public sphere, transnational feminism, and women, work, and information technologies around the world. The three contribute a strong knowledge base, a longtime commitment to scholarship, and a personal investment in women's issues. Carter and Steiner submitted essays to the collection as well.Part I, "Her/histories," includes essays by Margaret Gallagher ("Media and the Representations of Gender"), Lisa M. Cuklanz ("Mass Media Representation of Gendered Violence"), Tim Edwards ("Lone Wolves: Masculinity, Cinema, and the Man Alone"), Vicki Mayer ("To Communicate Is Human; to Chat Is Female: The Feminization of US Media Work"), Joke Hermes ("Rediscovering Twentieth-Century Feminist Audience Research"), Isabel Molina-Guzman and Lisa Marie Cacho ("Historically Mapping Contemporary Intersectional Feminist Media Studies"), Audrey Yue ("Sexualities/Queer Identities"), and Radha S. Hegde ("Gender, Media, and Trans/National Spaces."Part II, "Media Industries, Labor, and Policy," includes "Women and Media Control: Feminist Interrogations at the Macro-Level" (Carolyn M. Byerly), "Risk, Innovation, and Gender in Media Conglomerates" (Ben Aslinger), "Putting Gender in the Mix: Employment, Participation, and Role Expectations in the Music Industries" (Marion Leonard), "Gender Inequality in Culture Industries" (Denise D. Bielby), "Shifting Boundaries: Gender, Labor, and New Information and Communication Technology" (Ursula Huws), "Gendering the Commodity Audience in Social Media" (Tamara Shepherd), and "Youthful White Male Industry Seeks 'Fun'-Loving MiddleAged Women for Video Games-No Strings Attached" (Shira Chess). …