| About Robin Andersen |
Robin Andersen came to Fordham University in 1986 after
receiving her Ph.D. from the University of California at Irvine. As a graduate
student at UCI she worked with Stanley Aronowitz exploring questions of
political economy and culture. Hebert Schiller, teaching at the U.C. San Diego
campus, was her dissertation advisor, and under his mentorship she continued to
examine the political economy of the media and combine that interest with the
exciting questions being raised by the emerging interdisciplinary field of
cultural studies.
The combination of these interests resulted in her first
book Consumer Culture and TV Programming, published by Westview
Press. The book evaluates the creative designs, social values and political
messages of TV’s changing formats and hybrid genres. The book explains how talk
shows, cops shows and situation comedies are molded by the demands of TV’s
economic geography of ratings, profits and corporate conglomeration. Andersen
documents the acceleration of advertising and marketing influences and the
resulting loss of a diverse and democratic media.
She was primary editor of the Oxford anthology, Critical
Studies in Media Commercialism, a book that helped define the sub-field
of Media Commercialism within the broader scope of Media Studies. In the book’s
introduction, Andersen offers a comprehensive overview of the topic. The book
traces the influence of advertising and media marketing on popular culture and
politics. Chapters written by Andersen include the changing relationship between
media and politics during Presidential Campaigns, and a critique of the
advertising strategies and environmental impact of Sport Utility Vehicles.
Currently the Director of Peace and Justice Studies
at Fordham University, she served as the Chair of the Department of
Communication and Media Studies from 1995 to 1998, and was the Associate Chair
from 1988 to 1991.
Andersen helped establish the chapter of Women in
Communication (WIC) at Fordham in 1994, and has served as the faculty
advisor to the student organization since then.
Robin Andersen addresses college,
community, legislative and media audiences on a variety of issues including:
Press Restrictions and the history
of War Rhetoric
Labor Practices and Environmental
Justice
The Death Penalty and the War on
Drugs
Advertising, Social Values, and Market
Censorship
Social and Political Influence of
Television; Race and Gender
Her articles appear in the following books:
Reclaiming The Environmental Debate: The Politics of Health
in a Toxic Culture
Censored 2000: The News That Didn’t Make The News
Mediaocracy: How the Media “Stole” the 2000 Election
Exploring Diversity: Readings in Sociology
Journalism: Stories from the Real World
Communications Ethics and Universal Values
Journalism and Popular Culture
The Phantom Public Sphere
The Media Reader
Media Culture and Society
Latin American Perspectives
Social Text
EXTRA!
The Humanist.
Media Development
Journal of Communication
Political Science Quarterly