Examines what people do with media. Shifts attention from questions of media effects and intrinsic meaning to the question of media uses and pleasures. Explores the ways in which people construct cultural and social identities through their consumption of media texts. Working through various approaches to the study of popular culture, it focuses on how audiences, publics, users and/or consumers use media texts in complex and diverse ways. Looks at forms of appropriation found in different audiences from fan cultures to diasporic communities to more familiar groups like children.