Matthew McAllister

Professor
Interim Head, Department of Film Production and Media Studies

209 Carnegie Building

Areas of Expertise

Critical Advertising Studies
Popular Culture
Political Economy of the Mass Media
Superheroes on Film

Education

Bachelor's: Purdue University
Master's: Purdue University
Ph.D.: University of Illinois

Matt McAllister's research interests include advertising criticism, popular culture and the political economy of the mass media. He is the author of "The Commercialization of American Culture: New Advertising, Control and Democracy" (1996, Sage), and the co-editor of "Comics and Ideology" (2001, Peter Lang), "The Advertising and Consumer Culture Reader" (2009, Routledge), and "The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture" (2013, Routledge).

He has also published in such journals as Advertising & Society Quarterly, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media and Journal of Communication. He teaches mass media and society, cultural aspects of the mass media, social and cultural aspects of advertising, and the spring semester of the Ph.D. proseminar.

He has an affiliate appointment in the Department of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. In 2010 he was selected as a Penn State Alumni Teaching Fellow, in 2011 he received the Mass Communication Division Teaching Award from the National Communication Association, in 2014 the Penn State Graduate Faculty Teaching Award, and in 2025 was elected as a Fellow in the International Communication Association.

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