Harriet:
Point well taken on the need to browse communication as well as film
studies, and I will certainly track down the Press reference. A recent
media studies collection (1991) that deals often with this issue is _Critical
Perspectives on Media and Society_, in particular Michael Schudson's essay
on "The New Validation of Popular Culture: Sense and Sentimentality in
Academia." Here too, the mode seems to be one of bewildered impasse -- for
the moment, I'm more than happy to occupy that impasse myself.
--James Schamus