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Melissa Click

Dr. Melissa Click's research interests focus on popular culture and the degree to which we are all submerged in it yet rarely take the time to examine its production, content and influence. Her work in this area is guided by audience studies, feminist theory, and media literacy. Her doctoral dissertation, entitled: It's 'A Good Thing': The Commodification of Femininity, Affluence and Whiteness in the Martha Stewart Phenomenon, examines Martha Stewart's incredible popularity in the U.S. using both textual analysis and reception studies. Other research projects involve online fans, blogs and bloggers, masculinity, and messages about work in children's television programs.

Melissa's excellence in the classroom has been recognized by the MU Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Women (Tribute to Women, 2004), the Intercollegiate Communication Association/iCom (Outstanding Professor, 2007), MU's College of Arts & Sciences (Purple Chalk Award, 2007), and Lamda Pi Eta (Honorary membership, 2008).

Frequently Taught Courses
Comm 2500 - Introduction to Communication
Comm 4618/7618 - Television Program Analysis and Criticism
Comm 4638 - New Technologies and Communication
Comm 4970 - Senior Project
Comm 4975 – Visual Literacy

Research Interests
Media audiences and fans
Gender, race, class and sexuality in media texts
Television analysis and criticism
Media literacy

Selected Publications
Aubrey, J.S., Click, M.A., Dougherty, D.S., Fine, M.A., Kramer, M.W., Meisenbach, R.J., Olson, L.N., & Smythe, M.J. (2008). “We do babies!”: The trials, tribulations, and triumphs of pregnancy and parenting in the academy. Women's Studies in Communication, 31, 186-195 .

Click, M. & Kramer, M. W. (2007, December). Reflections on a century of living: Gendered differences in popular songs. Popular Communication, 5, 241-262.

Click, M. (2007). Untidy: Fan response to the soiling of Martha Stewart's spotless image. In J. Gray, C. Sandvoss, & C. L. Harrington (Eds.), Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, pp. 301-315. New York: New York University Press.

Click, M. (2005, April 1). "Martha Stewart: Free But Still in Chains?" Flow, 2.1 Available online: http://flowtv.org/?p=513

Melissa Click

Assistant Professor
Director of Comm 1200

education: PhD, University of Massachusets (2008)
email: ClickM@missouri.edu
office: 203D Switzler Hall
phone: 573-884-4694
focus area: Mass Communication