The essays collected here reflect upon various aspects of the roles and functions of visual
media in (and outside of) contemporary US-American culture. By exercising close readings of the
visual cultural texts or of visual media in context we are presented with examples that
illustrate the validity and significance of specific critical theories while other essays
point out ambivalences and subversions in the texts' functions or meanings or present texts
that may be regarded as models for diverging conceptual approaches. Amongst the texts discussed
are popular television shows like The West Wing Buffy the Vampire Slayer CSI and Nip Tuck
films like The Big Lebowski Bamboozled and Traffic as well as photographs surrounding 9 11
and questions of identity and globalized culture.
