Exploring Media Culture : A Guide

by Michael R. Real

• ISBN13: 9780803958777
• ISBN10: 0803958773
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-09-26
• Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc

Summary

This unique textbook provides a fresh interpretation of media analysis and cultural studies. Each chapter focuses on a particular aspect of American popular culture - including Hollywood cinema, presidential elections and the Super Bowl - to demystify complex concepts such as ritual, postmodernism and political economy. This use of popular culture texts, narratives and interpretations will enable readers to understand more about this important yet esoteric debate.Exploring Media Culture synthesizes a wealth of information and research and presents this in an engaging and accessible format.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction: A Guidebook for Media Study	xiii
Understanding Media: Getting Inside Our Culture	xiii
Media Culture, Identity, and Difference	xvii
Critical Analysis and Co-Authorship of Media Culture	xvii
Chapter Sequence: A Guide to Exploring Media Culture	xix
The ``Mystery'' of Media Culture	xxiv
Culture, Media, and Identity: My Music	1	(40)
Experiencing ``CULTURE'': Music as Expression and Social Bond	1	(5)
Experiencing ``MEDIA'': How Music Reaches Us	6	(5)
Developing ``Identity'' and ``Consciousness'': What Music Means	11	(3)
Popular Music and Oral Cultural Identity	14	(4)
``Cultural Studies'' and the Exploration of Media Culture	18	(2)
The Case-Study Method of ``Cultural Exegesis''	20	(3)
Clues to the Study of Media Culture	23	(2)
How Free Is the Individual Within Modern Media Culture	25	(10)
Summary of Media, Culture, Identity, and Cultural Debates	35	(3)
Exercises	38	(3)
Ritual Participation: Toward an Ethnography of Fans, Hackers, and Jumpers	41	(51)
Beyond Reading: The Active Media User	41	(4)
Ritual Participation: The Human/Other Interface	45	(4)
Ritual Interaction With Media Texts and Technology	49	(2)
Mediated Sports and the ``Deep Fan''	51	(10)
At the Gym---With Aerobic Movement, Music, and Mirrors	61	(16)
Electronic Participation in Video Games and Cyberculture	77	(11)
Summary: Ritual Theory and Participation in Media Sports, Aerobics, and Video Games	88	(3)
Exercises	91	(1)
Reception Theory: Sex, Violence, and (Ms.)Interpreting Madonna	92	(26)
The Many Madonnas	93	(1)
What's It to You? The Purpose and Focus of Reception Studies	94	(4)
Pornography and Violence in Media Culture	98	(5)
Reading Media: Text, Reader, Context, and ``Meaning''	103	(4)
Who Wins? Preferred, Negotiated, and Oppositional Readings	107	(2)
Which are the Preferred Readings of Violence, Sex, or Madonna	109	(2)
The Power of ``Interpretive Communities'' in Media Reception	111	(3)
Summary	114	(3)
Exercises	117	(1)
Textual Analysis: Light Against Darkness in Disney and Film Noir	118	(30)
Textual Analysis in Media Culture	118	(2)
The Disney Text: Utopian Brightness of the Magic (Corporate) Kingdom	120	(2)
The Film Noir Text: Darkness in Content, Style, and Worldview	122	(1)
Narrative Structure in Media Texts: Storytelling	123	(6)
Genre as a Narrative Convention in Media Texts	129	(4)
Signs and Formulas in Media Culture	133	(3)
Intertextuality in the Media Text	136	(2)
Are Visual Media Read as a ``Language''?	138	(3)
Context and Hegemony in the Encoding and Decoding of Disney Texts	141	(2)
Summary	143	(2)
Exercises	145	(3)
Production/Hegemony: ``And the Winner Is ... Hollywood''	148	(23)
Production, Hegemony, and Consciousness	148	(4)
Hegemony in the Global Film Industry: A European View	152	(5)
Hollywood's Academy Awards Telecast: The World's Longest Commercial	157	(2)
Who Produces the Oscar Text? Gatekeepers and Hegemony	159	(3)
The Resulting Text: Does It Reflect Its Producers	162	(3)
Hegemony Over Audience Reception, Interpretation, and Participation	165	(2)
Summary	167	(2)
Exercises	169	(2)
Gender Analysis: Patriarchy, Film Women, and The Piano	171	(37)
Developing Feminist Film Theory	172	(5)
Documenting Women's Absence in Film	177	(4)
Patriarchal Culture in the Film Industry: Old Hollywood	181	(4)
Patriarchal Attitudes and the Male Gaze: Film Psychology	185	(4)
Gender, Domestic Technology, and the Television Gaze	189	(3)
If Women Ran Hollywood	192	(2)
Successful Female Directors: Exceptions to Patriarchal Exclusion	194	(3)
Female Muteness and Solidarity in A Question of Silence	197	(4)
Summary	201	(4)
Exercises	205	(3)
Historical/Ethical Interpretation: Reconstructing the Quiz Show Scandal	208	(29)
Deception in Media Culture: How the Quiz Shows Did It	210	(3)
Policing Media Culture: Uncovering and Covering Up the Quiz Scandal	213	(3)
Conflicting Media Versions of the Scandal: How They Compare	216	(11)
The Dramatic Center of the Quiz Scandal: Van Doren Versus Stempel	227	(3)
Historical Analysis and the Lessons for Media Culture	230	(5)
Summary	235	(1)
Exercises	236	(1)
Postmodern Aesthetics: MTV, David Lynch, and the Olympics	237	(30)
Defining Postmodernism: The Elusive Present	238	(1)
Pastiche as The Style of Postmodernism	239	(3)
Postmodernism and the Breakdown of the ``Grand Narratives'' of Modernist Ideology	242	(5)
Postmodernism and Communication Technologies	247	(2)
Postmodernism and the Consumer Culture of Late Capitalism	249	(4)
Postmodern Fragmentation and Relativism	253	(6)
Sources of Renewal Against Postmodern Negations	259	(4)
Summary	263	(2)
Exercises	265	(2)
Conclusions: Navajos and ``Co-Authoring'' Media Culture	267	(14)
Co-Authorship of Media Culture	268	(2)
Navajo Co-Authorship of Cheyenne Autumn	270	(8)
The Great Whatsit	278	(2)
Exercises	280	(1)
References	281	(20)
Index	301	(10)
About the Author	311