Rick --
Perhaps I am still not understanding your question on Chomsky. As a media
theorist, I don't find him particularly original. It seems to me that he fits
within a large tradition of political economists of the media. He does what he
does well, but he doesn't seem to be saying much that others haven't said
 before. I get the feeling that he gets a lot of attention because he is
 Chomsky, the
guru of Chomskyian linguistics, rather than because he represents a particularly
 original voice on media. I, therefore, don't know of much work in media
studies that is directly influenced by his writing; but I could point to many
writers who do work in a similar vein.
 
Henry