What is critical media studies? (Sept 4th)

Critical media studies

“A broadly international and interdisciplinary field that encompasses research related to film, television, radio, games, popular music, and the internet” - Kearney

CMS: media texts, media production, and media consumption in relation to

Sociopolitical moment

CMS focuses on issues of

Power and more specifically the relationship between media, society, and power (and unequal power)

Critical media studies might ask questions about

Media representations and how they may relate to social inequalities and power

Examples of media representations and social power

Women’s roles throughout the decades on TV (Cleaver, Mary Tyler Moore, Olivia Pope)

Importance of indigenous media studies speech was made by

Lily Gladstone

In order to study the relationship between pwoer, media and society we use

Critical theory

Theory is a process that deals with

“Big thinking” questions (ex: the social role of the media, political and historical implications of media) beyond specific media texts

Theory serves as a

“lens” to study particular media phenomena

Critical theory deals with

Problematizing (being critical of) power, critiquing existing social systems and proposing alternatives/solutions to the status quo (political implications)

Critical theory might ask questions about

The relationship between concentrated media ownership and the kinds of mediated messages we get about capitalism

Media concentration, corporate capitalism and politics Ex:

The Apprentice (2004-2015, NBC)

Critical theory is not always

Negative, but instead demands that we question what we believe to be true, deal with uncomfortable or troubling topics and keep an open minds when engaging in media theory

Our goal is to move beyond

Your opinion to instead construct critical arguments that are supported by academic theory and well-researched facts

Stokes on the problem of opinions:

• “I am entitled to my opinion” used to shelter beliefs that should have been abandoned

• Shorthand for “I can say or think whatever I like (disrespectful)

• feeds into the false equivalence between experts and non-experts that is an increasingly pernicious feature of our public discourse