“Welcome to Media Studies”
A super-brief overview of a few of the
key ideas and theories in cultural
studies
JC Clapp, North Seattle College
Standard Critical Approaches
• Content Analysis
• Semiotics
• Ideological Critique
Additional Approaches . . .
• Discourse Analysis/Theory
• Social Science Empirical Data
• Postmodernism
• Post-colonialism
• Queer Theory
Approach: Content Analysis
• Quantitative
(counting!)
technique
measuring specific
frequency of
various occurrences
• Produces raw data
Approach: Semiotics
Sign = Signifier + Signified
Signifier = the word or
speech sound (rain)
Signified = mental concept
(the concept of water
droplets falling from the
sky)
Semiotics: Types of Signs
Iconic
Indexical
Symbolic
Semiotics: Levels of Signification
Denotation = Literal Meaning
(1st level of signification) -that ring is literally
compressed carbon
encased in platinum.
Connotation = Cultural
Meaning (2nd level of
signification) – that ring
represents love,
engagement, commitment
Semiotics: Culture Bound
• Signs are arbitrary
cultural
contructions
• Myth =
transformation of
historical into
natural
Semiotics: How Ads Work
Ads construct myths
about who we are
and who we aspire to
become
Interpellation =
consumers are in the
subject position and
are “hailed” by the ad
Ask yourself “Who does
this ad think I am?”
Approach: Ideological Critique
Ideology = a system of
ideas and ideals
Ideological Critique looks
at cultural power and
is focused on how
meaning maintains the
social order
Ideological Critique: Marx
Social relationships are
based on domination
and injustice and
these are seen as
natural and inevitable
by those who benefit
least.
Ideological Critique: Gramsci
Hegemony = process
through which a
group is able to
claim, through
consent, leadership
or power throughout
a society – it is not
domination.
Ideological Critique: Gramsci
Articulation = non-determinist
approach (just because you’re
in the military, doesn’t mean
you’re politically conservative)
Discursive Phenomenon =
ideology is fragmented and
contradictory and in flux
Constructed Subjects = ideology
creates new identities for us to
occupy
Approach: Discourse Analysis
Discourse = all forms of talk and texts
Discourse analysis interested in texts themselves,
rather than seeing texts as a way of “getting at”
some reality behind the discourse
Approach: Discourse Analysis
(Social Psychology )
Four Main Themes:
1. Concern with discourse itself
2. View of language as constructive and
constructed
3. Emphasis upon discourse as a form of action
4. Conviction in the rhetorical organization of
discourse (all language is persuasive)
Approach: Discourse Analysis
(Michel Foucault)
• Power is panoptic
• Ideology is a power/knowledge
nexus (representations aren’t
true or false, they just show
power relations)
• Disciplinary Power (selfmonitoring and self-surveillance)
• Gender is a discipline and is
constructed
Postmoderism
• Artistic movement
• Cultural trend (mix of
high/low culture,
irony)
• Historical epoch (time
period since the
1960s)
• Epistemological crisis
(there is no universal
knowing)
Postcolonialism
Tied to political
reform, nation
building, global
economics,
marginalization –
refuses a binary
reading of texts.
Queer Theory
Questions the
heteronormative order
as “natural” – points
out complexity in sex,
gender, and sexual
orientation. Opposes a
binary reading of
sexuality.