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COM 485

Cultural Studies in Communication

Study Guide for the Midterm

17 October 2006

Dr. Hay

Know the circuit of culture that I lectured on from Richard Johnsons work

Production = political economy

Social Practices Textual Analysis

Audience Studies

We did not read Johnson, but I want you to know that these ideas come from his model

and that it is widely used in cultural studies. You did read Kellner, Cultural Studies,

Multiculturalism and Media Culture. Kellner nearly reproduces this model in his article.

Pay attention to how he describes political economy, textual analysis and audience

studies. What cautions does he provide for each segment of the model? Using Kellner

and your notes, be able to explain how the readings on consumption, the media industries

conglomerates, mergers and the Nike article fit into the political economypart of the

model. Be prepared to explain how economics are central to this line of study.Obviously I want you to connect what he says about the other parts of the model to your

readings on textual analysis and audience studies.

The definition that I gave you supplements Kellners. Ideologies are dominant belief

systems that are produced in and through social institutions such that the political

interests of the produces are masked. The ideas appear to be normal and natural.

Ideologies also come through in other forms beyond discourse and beliefs. Ideology is a

mechanism of social control. The arrangement of space in a physical room, or in terms of

city planning can also produce dominance and power. Think about corporate space, or

large lecture classroom spaces. When they are set up so that all eyes are on the teacher,

speaker, or stockholder, an implicit power relationship is in place, particularly if the seats

are bolted to the floor!

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James Lull and Hegemony

Lull covers a lot of dense ides in a relatively short article. Through the work of AntoniaGramsci Lull explains the concept hegemony. He defines it as dominance and

subordination in the field of relations structured by power (p. 61). On the surface this

concepts seems much like ideology, and it is. However there are some key revisions that

take place between the earlier Marxist conception of ideology and Gramscis term

hegemony. Remember that in early Marxist theory the base, meaning the relations

between, capital-- mode of production + division of labor determines the political form of

the superstructure. Class is constructed through the base and so too is class-

consciousness, according to this model.

Base mode of production/capitalism

Division of labor social relations

Gramsci extends power beyond social class alone to include other categories of identity.

LinkMerchants of Coolto issues of political economy, hegemony and audience studies.

How did the video show us the two main gender caricatures? What is at stake in

representations and practices of Midriff and Mook?

Textual analysis-- Intertextuality and the flavor of love. How does Palmer-Mehtadefine and apply theories of intertextuality to the show? How does she support the claim

that this show reproduces images and practices that take us back to minstrel shows like

Sambo and Safire? Give me examples from The Flavor of Love that she points to as

she generates her arguments.

What were the main themes and issues that the author of Orgasm and Empowerment

offered in her reading of Sex in the City? What do your own responses to my audience

questions tell you about being subjects rather than individuals?

Be able to apply the main categories that the author of The Grim News presented to a

news article that I provide. It will be about war. If you would like to bring your own

article that you think fits, go ahead.

Audience Studies. Be able to explain what audience studies offer that textual analysis

does not. How does Justin Lewis, Two Empirical Studies, Janice Radway, Reading

the Romance, and Jacqueline Bobo, The Color Purple, explain their methodologies?

What surprises did Radway experience? What was the pleasure and function of reading

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for her subjects? Provide specific examples. Explain how encoding and decoding

produce preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings of texts. What is interpolation?

What examples does Bobo provide the explain the concept? What is the difference

between an individual and a subject according to Bobo? How can subjects and subject

positions explain the ways in which men and women viewers and scholars had different

readings of The Color Purple?

What do preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings tell us about ideology?

As we discussed the assigned articles in class, I pointed to important arguments, ideas

and theories within them. Go back to your notes and look at what you highlighted for a

close second reading.