Cultural studies multiculturalism and media culture kellner

Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture

Douglas Kellner

Learning objectives

Understand and recall Kellner’s main arguments

Identify and describe the three components of Critical Cultural Studies

Explain how and why we might use these ideas in this course

Why study Media?

Why study Media?

Media are a profound and often misperceived source of cultural pedagogy

They teach us how to behave, think, feel, fear and desire

Critical literacy helps individuals cope with a media-rich culture and understand how media articulates the dominant values, political ideologies, and social developments of the era

The concept of ideology is of central importance, for dominant ideologies serve to reproduce social relations of domination and subordination.

Why study culture?

Why study culture?

Multicultural issues are intrinsically linked— gender, class, race, ability, and sexual orientation

“Because of its focus on representations of race, gender, and class, and its critique of ideologies that promote various forms of oppression, cultural studies lends itself to a mutliculturalist program that demonstrates how culture reproduces certain forms of racism, sexism, and biases against other members of subordinate classes, social groups, or alternative lifestyles.” (3)

Multiculturalism affirms the worth of different types of culture and cultural groups.

Why study culture?

It helps us understand ourselves.

It helps us understand others

It is a social project

It is political and can, but does not need to lead to activism.

Important theory relevant to Kellner’s ideas

Gramsci

What is hegemony?

Ruling social, political, and cultural forces

In our culture?

Middle/upper class, moderate, white males (WASP)

All multicultural issues are traditionally analyzed in relation to the hegemonic characteristics

Is this fair?

Is it possible to have another way?

Gramsci and Hegemony

This really does not happen, but it is humorous.

Define what makes good cultural studies scholarship?

Define:

Textual analysis

Audience Reception

Political economy of production

Textual Analysis

Textual Analysis

Internal (within the film) factors that provide signals

Semiotics is the study of how symbols form meaning.

Explains how certain elements contribute to the cultural understanding of a film

It is important to remember that each critical method focuses on certain features of a “text” from a specific perspective, sometimes ignoring other features: Marxist focuses on class, while feminist focuses on gender, etc. It is your task to find balance in your use of theory to support your conclusions

In other words

We use theories to help support our positions about culture and media.

We will primarily use critical race theory and gender theory in the course

Kellner says focusing on a single thread or cluster of theories to the exclusion of other should be avoided.

This is encouraged but not required at the undergraduate level.

In other words II

We also combine genre analysis with textual analysis.

We will do some of this during the semester.

We need to use the language of the media studied. We will learn how to read and analyze film.

Audience Reception and Use

Audience Reception and Use

Reactionary factors

Personal identity will necessarily impact a person’s experience of media

Fan culture

Certain media allow fans to create a cultural experience based on a TV show, book, film, or music

Think “trekkies”, “Dead-Heads”, or Harry Potter fanatics

Political Economy

Political Economy

Media conglomerates

Who gets to say what films are made?

What about Indie film?

How does all of this impact the distribution and marketing of film?

There is a connection to this and who gets to see the films.

Thus, the political economy established the limits of the ideological and political impact any film has on a people and its culture.

What other ways do people use media? In their own lives?

How can we use Kellner’s idea in this class?

Conclusions:

Kellner defines Cultural Studies as:

Kellner defines good cultural studies scholarship as:

Conclusions:

Kellner defines Cultural Studies as: page 3, second to last paragraph.

Kellner defines good cultural studies scholarship as: top page 4, and first paragraph page 9.

Filking

Kellner brought up filking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 5ayH8WQkA30

Works Cited

Kellner, Douglas, “Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture” in Gender, Race, Class, and the Media. Jean M. Hunez and Gail Dines eds. 2nd edition. Sage Publications, 2002.