the 3 pronged approach to media/cultural studies

The 3 Pronged Approachto Media/Cultural Studies

who benefits

What is media?

The media whos?• Who makes the stories? • Who legitimizes them? • Who distributes them? • For whom are they produced? • Who gets represented in these stories as

‘normal’? Who gets represented as “other”? and who is altogether left out of representation?

• Who consumes these stories as fact? Who consumes these stories for pleasure? Who consumes these stories critically?

Who benefits?• Who defines what the culture understands to be

“reality”? Whose “reality” is being represented?• Who/what is absent/disappeared, marginalized

or set in opposition? To whom is this being told?• What are the core assumptions? Who benefits

from this telling? What are the benefits? At what/whose expense?

• How/Could this story be told otherwise? How do the absent/disappeared/marginalized define themselves?

• How does this relate to my own experiences?• How/does this move me to change my

thinking/acting/world?

do diverse media actually exist?

Douglas Kellner: Towards a Critical Media/Cultural Studies

Media as stories

Media as spectacle

Media as pedagogy

Critical media literacy

The 3-Pronged Approach