Table Of ContentTHE CRAFT OF CRITICISM
With contributions from thirty leading media scholars, this collection provides a comprehensive overview of the
main methodologies of critical media studies. Chapters address various methods of textual analysis, as well as
reception studies, policy studies, production studies, and contextual, multi-method approaches, like intertextual-
ity and cultural geography. Film and television are at the heart of the collection, which also addresses emergent
technologies and new research tools in such areas as software studies, gaming, and digital humanities. Each
chapter includes an intellectual history of a particular method or approach, a discussion of why and how it was
used to study a particular medium or media, relevant examples of influential work in the area, and an in-depth
review of a case study drawn from the author’s own research. Together, the chapters in this collection give
media critics a complete toolbox of essential critical media studies methodologies.
Contributors: Cynthia Baron, Ron Becker, Mary Beltrán, Patrick Burkart, Jeremy G. Butler, Cynthia Chris,
Norma Coates, Eric Freedman, Rosalind Gill, Jonathan Gray, Mary L. Gray, Timothy Havens, Matt Hills,
Michele Hilmes, Nina B. Huntemann, Victoria E. Johnson, Michael Kackman, Mary Celeste Kearney, Bill
Kirkpatrick, Amanda Ann Klein, Shanti Kumar, Suzanne Leonard, Jessa Lingel, Madhavi Mallapragada, Daniel
Marcus, Todd McGowan, Jason Mittell, Ted Nannicelli, Diane Negra, Matthew Thomas Payne, Miriam Posner,
Jacob Smith
Michael Kackman is Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the
University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, where he teaches courses in the history and criticism of U.S. television,
Cold War cultural history, nationhood and political culture, and history and memory practices in everyday life.
He is the author of Citizen Spy: Television, Espionage, and Cold War Culture (University of Minnesota Press, 2005),
and co-editor of Flow TV: Television in the Age of Media Convergence (Routledge, 2010).
Mary Celeste Kearney is Director of Gender Studies and Associate Professor of Film, Television, and Theatre
at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. She is author of Girls Make Media (Routledge, 2006) and Gender
and Rock (Oxford University Press, 2017). She is editor of The Gender and Media Reader (Routledge, 2011) and
Mediated Girlhoods: New Explorations of Girls’ Media Culture (Peter Lang, 2011), as well as co-editor (with Morgan
Blue) of Mediated Girlhoods’ second volume (Peter Lang, 2018). She is academic editor of the book series
Routledge Research in Gender, Sexuality, and Media, and serves on the boards of several academic journals.
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T H E C R A F T
O F C R I T I C I S M
C R I T I C A L M E D I A
S T U D I E S I N P R A C T I C E
EDITED BY
MICHAEL KACKMAN AND MARY CELESTE KEARNEY
First published 2018
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2018 Taylor & Francis
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-415-71629-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-71630-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-87997-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Amasis
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CONTENTS
List of Figures viii
List of Tables x
Acknowledgments xi
Foreword by Michele Hilmes xii
Introduction, or How to Cook an Artichoke 1
Mary Celeste Kearney
PART I
PRIMARY METHODS 9
1. Ideology 11
Ron Becker
2. Discourse 23
Rosalind Gill
3. Narrative 35
Jason Mittell
4. Non-Fiction Media 47
Daniel Marcus
5. Visual Style 59
Jeremy G. Butler
6. Sound 72
Jacob Smith
7. Acting and Performance 84
Cynthia Baron
8. Representation 97
Mary Beltrán
vi Contents
9. Authorship and Auteurism 109
Cynthia Chris
10. Political Economy 122
Patrick Burkart
11. Media Policy 134
Bill Kirkpatrick
12. Psychoanalytic Criticism 146
Todd McGowan
13. Cognitivism 157
Ted Nannicelli
14. Ethnography 169
Jessa Lingel and Mary L. Gray
PART II
SYNTHETIC/MULTIPERSPECTIVAL APPROACHES 181
15. Audiences 183
Matt Hills
16. Genre 195
Amanda Ann Klein
17. Intertexts and Paratexts 207
Jonathan Gray
18. Stardom and Celebrity 219
Suzanne Leonard and Diane Negra
19. Cultural Geography 231
Victoria E. Johnson
20. National/Transnational/Global 242
Shanti Kumar
21. History and Historiography 254
Michael Kackman
22. Production 268
Timothy Havens
PART III
EMERGENT AND CHALLENGING OBJECTS 279
23. Popular Music 281
Norma Coates
24. New Media 293
Madhavi Mallapragada
Contents vii
25. Games and Gaming 305
Matthew Thomas Payne and Nina B. Huntemann
26. Software 318
Eric Freedman
27. Digital Humanities 331
Miriam Posner
Contributors’ Biographies 347
Index 352
FIGURES
1.1 Chart of ideological assumptions 16
1.2 Chart of an ideological formation 17
3.1 Veronica Mars 44
3.2 Veronica Mars 44
5.1 Boardwalk Empire 61
5.2 Moonrise Kingdom 62
5.3 Mad Men 63
5.4 The Office 64
5.5 Out of the Past 65
5.6 The Best Years of Our Lives 67
7.1 The Killer 93
7.2 The Killer 93
8.1 Get Out 99
8.2 The Big Bang Theory 101
8.3 Out of Sight 105
9.1 Inextinguishable Fire 114
9.2 What Farocki Taught 114
9.3 “Whale” from Green Porno 117
13.1 Curb Your Enthusiasm 165
13.2 Arrested Development 166
16.1 Oklahoma! 200
16.2 The Philadelphia Inquirer 203
17.1 Six Degrees 215
17.2 Six Degrees 216
21.1 Hopalong Cassidy 262
21.2 Hopalong Cassidy 263
25.1 Spec Ops 310
25.2 Spec Ops 313
25.3 Spec Ops 314
26.1 Apple Developer 320
26.2 NASA’s Eyes on the Earth 327
List of Figures ix
27.1 Network diagram of Micheaux films 338
27.2 Network diagram of Micheaux films based on actor participation 340
27.3 Network diagram of actors in Micheaux films 341
27.4 Network diagram of Evelyn Preer and A.B. De Comathiere in Micheaux films 342
27.5 Network diagram of actors appearing in at least four Micheaux films 342
27.6 Network diagram of two sets of actors appearing in Micheaux films 343
