John Fiske (September 12, 1939 – July 12, 2021)[1] was a media scholar and cultural theorist who taught around the world. His primary areas of intellectual interest included cultural studies, critical analysis of popular culture, media semiotics, and television studies.[2]
He was the author of eight academic books, including Power Plays, Power Works (1993), Understanding Popular Culture (1989), Reading the Popular (1989), and the influential Television Culture (1987). Fiske was also a media critic, examining how cultural meaning has been created in American society, and how debates over issues such as race have been handled in different media.