After completing this module you should be able to:

• identify specific methods employed in using the different critical approaches employed in analyzing media texts: rhetorical/audience, semiotic, poststructuralist, critical discourse analysis, feminist, postmodern, postcolonial.

• contrast the differences between these approaches in terms of their assumptions about the meaning of media texts.

• apply these specific critical approaches to analysis of a media text.

One of the basic goals of media literacy is to help students adopt a critical stance in responding to media texts. As noted in Module 2, there are a number of different assumptions about teaching media, resulting in the uses of different critical approaches. For example, critical pedagogy advocates often promote a focus on ideological or economic aspects of media. In this module, you will learn about a number of different critical approaches or lenses for responding critically to media texts.

You will be using these different approaches throughout this course to respond to and analyze media texts. For example, in the module on analyzing media representations, you need to know how to apply critical discourse analysis to analyze the underlying beliefs and attitudes inherent in how, for example, gender, race, class, or age is represented in the media. Or, in the module on media ethnography, you need to know how to apply rhetorical analysis in order to examine how audiences respond to media texts.

You will also be considering ways of teaching students to using these approaches. For some grade levels, these approaches may be too sophisticated, requiring that you to clarify or simplify an approach, or simply not employing that approach.

There is no easy distinction between these different approaches. In some cases, you will combine the different approaches and in other cases, you may use only one approach. These activities in this module are designed to help you learn to apply these approaches to different media texts.

This module only scratches the surface in terms of describing different critical theories. For more in-depth discussion of these different approaches see Julian Wolfreys, Introducing Literary Theories (Edinburgh University Press, 2001), and as used in secondary classrooms, see Deborah Appleman, Critical Encounters In High School English: Teaching Literary Theory To Adolescents (New York: Teachers College Press, 2000); Alan Carey-Webb, Literature & Lives: A Response-Based, Cultural Studies Approach To Teaching English (NCTE, 2001). For the application of different critical approaches in media, see Arthur Berger, Media Analysis Techniques (Sage, 1998).

For a very useful, readable introduction to a lot of concepts employed in critical analysis of the media, as well as examples of classroom applications of these concepts, see Jeffrey Nealon and Suan Giroux, The Theory Toolbox: Critical Concepts for the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (Rowland and Littlefield, 2003).

For other applications of critical approaches to media:

Altheide, D. (1996). Qualitative Media Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Bignell, J. (2003). An introduction to television studies. New York: Routledge.

Couldry, N. (2003). Media Rituals: A Critical Approach. New York: Routledge.

Elsaesser, T., & Buckland, W. (2002). Studying Contemporary American Films: A Guide to Movie Analysis. London: Arnold.

Everett, A., & Caldwell, J. (Eds.). (2003). New media: Theories and practices of digitextuality. New York: Routledge.

Fuery, P., & Fuery, K. (2003). Visual Cultures and Critical Theory. London: Arnold.

Hill, J., & Gibson, P. C. (Eds.) (2000). Film studies: Critical approaches. London: Oxford University Press.

Miller, T., & Stam, R. (Eds.). (2003). A Companion to Film Theory. London: Blackwell.

Simpson, P., Utterson, A., & Shepherdson, K. (Eds.). (2003). Film theory: Critical concepts in media and cultural studies. New York: Routledge.

Strinati, D. (2004). An introduction to theories of popular culture. New York:
Routledge.

Abstracts of the following books on critical theories

Macey, D. (2001). The penguin dictionary of critical theory. New York: Penguin.

Brooker, P. (1999). A concise glossary of cultural theory. London: Arnold.

Cashmore, E., & Rojek, C. (Eds). (1999). Dictionary of cultural theorists. London: Arnold

Natoli, J. (1997). A primer to postmodernity. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Baldwin, E., et al. (1999). Introducing cultural studies. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Barry, P. (1995). Beginning theory: An introduction to literary and cultural theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press

Strinati, D. (1995). An introduction to theories of popular culture. New York: Routledge.

Green, K., & Bihan, J. (1995). Critical theory and practice: A coursebook. New York: Routledge.

www.theory.org.uk [an excellent site with lots of links to different critical theorist and applications to media]

Illuminations: The Critical Theory Website

Popcultures.com

Learning Theory Through Pop Culture [a college course taught by Dino Felluga applying different critical theories to popular culture]

Journals applying critical theory perspectives to media and film:

Alt-X

CTheory [on-line journal]

Bright Lights Film Journal

Enculturation

Images: a Journal of Film and Popular Culture

Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media

Pop Matters

Module 4: Word document

Applying Critical Perspectives to an Ad

Rhetorical/Audience Analysis

Semiotic Theory

Poststructuralist/ Deconstructivist Theory: Interrogating Language Codes/Categories

Critical Discourse Analysis

Psychoanalytic Theories

Feminist Criticism

Postmodern Theory

Postcolonial Theory

References