The Craft of Criticism: Critical Media Studies in Practice

The Craft of Media Criticism provides students and scholars a definitive overview of the main methodologies that make up critical media studies. Written by leading scholars in media studies, chapters address methods including various forms of textual analysis, as well as reception studies, production studies, and contextual, multi-method approaches. Film and television are at the heart of these methodologies, although attention is also paid to issues of medium specificity and convergence. Each chapter includes an intellectual history of the particular method in question, a discussion of why and how it emerged around 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 work. Together, the chapters in this comprehensive text provide would-be media critics with a tool box of must-know critical media studies methodologies.