Critical Media Literacy and Cultural Autonomy in a Mediated World

We live in mediated worlds. Every waking hour of our lives finds us close, physically and mentally, to some sort of media content: Television, radio, movies, magazines, billboards, blogs, YouTube videos, websites, and social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, and Pinterest. Media scholars have been researching the ubiquitous role that media play in our lives for decades, but the current media environment is unlike any seen in history, as developments in digital technologies have produced a veritable onslaught of words, images, and sounds that can be accessed anywhere, at any time; all from a device that most of us carry around in our pockets. While no one would imagine that a flood rushing through one’s home would not have any impact on one’s life, it is just as misguided to think that this flood of media does not affect us significantly

Challenging the Media-Incarceration Complex Through Media Education

Focusing on prime-time dramatic television as the most prevalent source of fictional images of violence, crime, and incarceration, in this chapter I address the distorted narratives and images that saturate popular television dramas. I also draw upon interviews I conducted with ex-prisoners to show how media representations of imprisonment, though inaccurate and misleading, shape the perceptions even of those who have themselves been incarcerated

“Something nasty down below”: Stuart Hall and the contradictions of “so-called Cultural Studies” in the multi-crisis era

An earlier version of this commentary was presented at the 2021 Union for Democratic Communications conference (held virtually, June 23-25) during the closing plenary, “A Return to Sut Jhally’s 2018 Dallas Smythe Keynote Address: Stuart Hall’s Legacy for Media Studies: Conjunctures, Critique, and Political Projects.

The Fire This Time: Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “Between the World and Me”

In 1963, James Baldwin published his seminal The Fire Next Time. The first half of this foundational work was a letter to his nephew regarding America and race. In 2015 the journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates published a letter to his son, also about America and race. The literary device employed is no coincidence. Toni Morrison has anointed Coates as the successor to James Baldwin, and while that is a heavy burden for any 40 year old to bear, it is one that he just might manage to handle with grace

Oz: Exeunt Omnes

In 1997, the US prison and jail population had reached a previously unimagined high of 1.7 million. The United States was in the midst of a decades-long boom in incarceration. The year 1997 was also the year Oz (1997-2003) debuted on HBO

[In]Justice Rolls Down Like Water... Challenging White Supremacy in Media Constructions of Crime and Punishment

Since the earliest days of American mass culture, newspapers, films, then television shows, and now blogs and social media have vilified Blacks, Asians, Latino/as, Arabs, and indigenous people, painting them as violent, criminal, savage threats to the White social order (Stabile, 2006). In this chapter I explore the intertwined nature of the cultural and criminal justice industries, arguing for analysis of the connections among media representations, the public imagination, public opinion, and public policy. Media images and narratives play a crucial role in shaping our perceptions of key social issues, including race, crime, policing, and incarceration. These beliefs inflect public opinion about the proper state responses to crime, often leading to a fearful and punitive mindset that is easily exploited for political purposes. While a comprehensive historical overview of the relationship between racial representation in media and racial bias in the criminal justice system is beyond the scope of this chapter, I will focus on several key trends in the last decade, a time when the media and cultural environment has paradoxically experienced both tremendous change and a remarkable level of consistency

The Spike Lee Enigma: Challenges and Incorporation in Media Culture

The Spike Lee Enigma is an exploration of ideology and political economy in the films and career of one of America\u27s most controversial filmmakers. Since the 1980s Spike Lee has created numerous films that are socially challenging, some would even say radical, while simultaneously maintaining a collaborative relationship with mainstream Hollywood and the global advertising industry. Lee, thus, seemingly represents an enigma – operating on the margins of both hegemonic and counter-hegemonic cultural production. This book incorporates multiple perspectives, ranging from media effects theories, critical cultural studies, and the political economy of media, to semiotics and ideological, auteurist, and feminist approaches to film theory and analysis. Early chapters provide a clear explanation of these theoretical and methodological approaches while later chapters explore several of Lee’s films in great depth. In a social environment where popular culture has supplanted education and religion as a primary force of socialization and enculturation, this book demonstrates why a popular filmmaker such as Spike Lee must be taken seriously, while introducing readers to ways of viewing, reading, and listening that will allow them to achieve a new understanding of the mediated texts they encounter on a daily basis

Prime Time Prisons on U.S. TV: Representation of Incarceration

This book breaks down the distorted and sensationalistic version of imprisonment found on U.S. television. Examining local and national television news, broadcast network crime dramas, and the cable television prison drama Oz, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of the stories and images of incarceration most widely seen by viewers in the U.S. and around the world. The textual analysis is augmented by interviews with individuals who have spent time in U.S. prisons and jails; their insights provide important context while encouraging readers to critically reflect on their own responses to television images of imprisonment. Appropriate for both undergraduates and postgraduates, Prime Time Prisons on U.S. TV is useful for courses in media criticism, media literacy, popular culture, television studies, and criminology

BLM and CML: Is There A Connection?

In 2012, the murderer of African American teenager Trayvon Martin, was found not guilty by a Florida jury. In the wake of this acquittal the organization #BlackLivesMatter was formed, initially on social media. While Black Lives Matter is a peaceful protest movement, many voices on the political right and in the corporate media have framed it as a violent, even terrorist, organization. In this paper, I explore the connections between critical pedagogy, critical media literacy, and the Black Lives Matter movement. And I question whether critical movements in education and media studies may be organically related to social justice movements outside of academic settings, or whether there is a false articulation between theory and practice suggested by the argument that #BlackLivesMatter may be considered a critical media literacy intervention

“Walk It Off”: Feminism, Critical Media Literacy, and My Long Journey Away From Hypermasculinity

Inspired by the feminist adage that the personal is political, and by feminism\u27s challenge to conventional forms of research, in this essay I explore my personal struggle with hypermasculinity and the ways cultural studies, feminist media studies, and critical media literacy have allowed me to explore the limitations of hegemonic masculine conventions in both my academic and personal life. This essay, therefore, is composed as a blend of personal reflection and academic analysis