Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity, and Politics in the Contemporary Moment

Description

In this thorough update of one of the classic texts of media and cultural studies, Douglas Kellner argues that media culture is now the dominant form of culture that socializes us and provides and plays major roles in the economy, polity, and social and cultural life. The book includes a series of lively studies that both illuminate contemporary culture and society, while providing methods of analysis, interpretation, and critique to engage contemporary U.S. culture. Many people today talk about cultural studies, but Kellner actually does it, carrying through a unique mixture of theoretical analysis and concrete discussions of some of the most popular and influential forms of contemporary media culture. Studies cover a wide range of topics including: Reagan and Rambo; horror and youth films; women’s films, the TV series Orange is the New Black and Hulu’s TV series based on Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale; the films of Spike Lee and African American culture; Latino films and cinematic narratives on migration; female pop icons Madonna, Beyoncé, and Lady Gaga; fashion and celebrity; television news, documentary films, and the recent work of Michael Moore; fantasy and science fiction, with focus on the cinematic version of Lord of the Rings, Philip K. Dick and the Blade Runner films, and the work of David Cronenberg. Situating the works of media culture in their social context, within political struggles, and the system of cultural production and reception, Kellner develops a multidimensional approach to cultural studies that broadens the field and opens it to a variety of disciplines. He also provides new approaches to the vexed question of the effects of culture and offers new perspectives for cultural studies. Anyone interested in the nature and effects of contemporary society and culture should read this book. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Introduction to Media Culture 2020 Media culture and society Batman and social corruption Media/cultural studies, social theory, and critical media literacy 1. Theory wars, ideology critique, and media/cultural studies Theory wars Ideology and media culture: critical methods Rambo as global media spectacle Approaches to media/cultural studies The Frankfurt School British cultural studies and its legacy Components of a critical media/cultural studies Notes 2. For a critical media/cultural studies For a critical intersectional multiculturalism Toward a multiperspectival cultural studies The Handmaid’s Tale as dystopia and ecological/political critique Superheroes from Wonder Woman to Black Panther Notes 3. Social anxiety, horror, and American nightmares Hollywood and horror Poltergeist, the occult, and anxieties of the middle class American Horror Story and the crisis of the family and patriarchy Extreme horror, violence, and American nightmares Halloween, slasher films, and the last girl standing Racial and class angst in the Trump Era: Get Out, Us, and Sorry to Bother You Notes 4. Race, resistance, and representation The films of Spike Lee Do the Right Thing as a Brechtian morality tale From Malcolm X to BlacKkKlansman Ava DuVernay and female empowerment Latino, immigration, and the American dream Immigration to the promised land Notes 5. Gender and sexuality wars Women’s films, female resistance, and empowerment Epic of intersectionality: Orange Is the New Black Men’s films and crises of masculinity and patriarchy Dude flicks and the renegotiation of masculinity The LGBTQ+ movement and Hollywood’s exploration of gays, lesbians, transsexuals, and multiple forms of queer identity Notes 6. Youth, identities, and fashion Youth films from Alan Freed to Slacker Richard Linklater: auteur of youth The Slacker effect Social anxiety and class: Mike Judge from Beavis and Butt-Head to Silicon Valley Buffy the Vampire Slayer as spectacular allegory: a diagnostic critique Fashion and identity Pop culture icons from Madonna to Beyoncé and Lady Gaga Notes 7. News, entertainment, and documentary as political spectacle Presidential politics: the movie News and infotainment as contested terrain The Barack Obama media spectacle The Donald Trump reality show presidency Political documentary: Michael Moore vs. Corporate America and the conservative political establishment Notes 8. Fantasy, technoculture, and dystopia Fantasy entertainment as political allegory: reading LOTR David Cronenberg, the technoculture, and the new flesh Blade runners, dystopia, and social apocalypse The apocalyptic vision of Philip K. Dick Androids, humans, and entropy in the Blade Runner films Notes Conclusion: technologies, literacies, and the future of media culture From the future back to the present Critical media pedagogy Media and cultural activism Media, cultural policy,and cultural politics Notes Bibliography Index