HUM3321 Midterm Study Guide Introduction Week Cultural Studies Multiculturalism and Media Culture Kellner Why Study Media Media are a profound and often misperceived source of cultural pedagogy o 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 Culuture Multicultural issues are intrinsically linked sex gender class religion and race are deeply connected 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 Suggests that minorities have their own validity and importance Graminsci and Hegemony What is Hegemony o Ruing social political and cultural forces o In our culture Middle upper class moderate white males WASP All multicultural issues are traditionally analyze in relation to the hegemonic characteristics o Is this fair Not really It can promote various forms of oppression cultural studies lends itself to a multiculturalism program that demonstrates how culture reproduces certain forms of racism sexism and biases against subordinate classes social groups or alternative lifestyles o Is it possible to have another way There are different ways Views that suggest this are conservative radicals liberals etc Media cultures tends to attempt to manipulate us which can empower us to resist and Textual Analysis criticize this occurrence Internal within the film factors that provide signals Semiotics is the study of how symbols form meaning Explain how certain elements contribute to the cultural understanding of a film o semiotics analyze how linguistics and nonlinguistic cultural signs form systems of meanings when someone is given a rose to be interpreted as a sign of love can be connected with genre criticism to reveal how the codes and forms of particular genres follow certain meanings o Stereotypes It is important to remember that each critical method focuses on certain features of a text from a specific perspective sometimes while ignoring other features Marxist focuses on class while feminist focusses on gender etc Audience reception and Use Members of distinct genders races classes nations regions sexual preferences and political ideologies are going to read texts differently Reactionary factors ethnographic cultural studies indicate various ways that audiences use and appropriate texts often to empower themselves Personal identity will necessarily impact a person s experience of media Fan culture o certain media allow fans to create cultural experience based on a TV show book film or music o people relate to others that share their interests and hobbies o think trekkies dead heads or harry potter fanatics Conclusions media studies requires 3 main areas of inquiry o external why a film is made who it is made for what historical elements contributed to its production o internal what sort of people are depicted are the portrayals fair how does MY personal identity affect my experience o reactionary how others respond to the media what other media it influences Applying this to our course belton provides the background history and generic considerations for each film we need to be aware that we all view each of these films and articles differently connections will be made with films and other media sources Representation Meaning and Language Stuart Hall Representation 2 Senses of Representation o Describe Depict something in the world to call something up in ones mind by description portrayal imagination o Symbolize something in the world e g cross flag to stand for or be a specimen of or to be a substitution for Cross stands the suffering and crucifixion of Christ in Christianity Produces meaning by linking concepts and language Allows us to refer to things in the world by putting our concepts of them into a common language of words and symbols 2 systems of Representation System 1 Conceptual Maps System by which things in the world are correlated with concepts or mental representations Concepts Chair Bottle Love War etc System because individual concepts stand in specific relations to other concepts Shared conceptual maps make communication possible We interpret the world in a roughly similar way belonging to the same culture System 2 Language More about Signs Communication requires the translation of conceptual maps into shared language of signs Signs words sounds images which represent concepts and carry meaning Language broadly understood written systems spoken systems visual images mechanical electronic digital etc are all used to convey meaning any sound word image or object that can function as a sign and is organized into a system with other signs can function as a language System Just as conceptual maps relate concepts to one another relates concepts with signs Signs must be interpreted to decipher meaning Communication of meanings is possible when members of a culture interpret the same signs in the same kinds of ways Visual signs are called iconic signs they bear resemblance to what they refer to Indexical signs are written or spoken signs They do not resemble what they refer to The word tree does not look or sound like a real tree at all Signs are ARBITRARY Any form of words or sounds in any order would do the job of representation equally as well I e the english word tree and the french word arbre both represent trees Humans Construct Meaning Meaning does exist out there in the world independently of our concepts and language Meaning of a word is not found in the word itself Instead meaning is constructed produced by human beings according to how we agree to use words in a culture system of representation Codes fix correlations between concepts and signs They stabilize meaning within different languages and cultures Make it possible for us to speak and hear intelligibly Constructionist Theory of Representation Human beings construct and fix
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