Kellner’s outline and McChesney’s critique Cultural studies Kellner’s outline and McChesney’s critique

Kellner outlines a three-pronged approach to understanding media Production and political economy Textual analysis Audience reception and use of media culture

Kellner’s reason for cultural studies “Radio, television, film and the other products of media culture provide materials out of which we forge our very identities; our sense of selfhood; our notion of what it means to be male or female; our sense of class, of ethnicity and race, of nationality, of sexuality; and of “us” and “them.” “The media are a profound and often misperceived source of cultural pedagogy”

“the gaining of critical media literacy is an important resource for individuals and citizens in learning how to cope with a seductive cultural environment.” Cultural studies has an “intrinsically critical and political dimension” “Multiculturalism affirms the worth of different types of culture and cultural groups”

Production and political economy Reviews the political and economic structures of a society and their impact on the cultural artifacts produced and circulated Less (though not un-) interested in reception “study of political economy can help determine the limits and range of political and ideological discourses and effects”

Textual analysis “The products of media culture require multidimensional close textual readings to analyze their various forms of discourses, ideological positions, narrative strategies, image construction, and effects.” Semiotics Many types of study

Textual analysis “Each reading of a text is only one possible reading from one critic’s subject position, not matter how multiperspectival, and may or may not be the reading preferred by audiences.” However, limits to “polysemic nature of any text”

Audience reception and use of media culture “All texts are subject to multiple readings depending on the perspectives and subject positions of the reader.” Ethnographic research Active meaning-making by audience members Communities of interpretation

Audience reception and use of media culture Danger of “romanticizing the “active audience” A tendency to celebrate resistance per se Tendency to ignore class, political economy Madonna?