Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
1
CULTURAL STUDIES,
MULTICULTURALISM,
AND MEDIA CULTURE
Douglas Kellner
9
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popular against elite. Such distinctions are domination and resistance in order to aid
difficult to maintain and generally serve as the process of political struggle and emanci-
a front for normative aesthetic valuations pation from oppression and domination.
and, often, a political program (i.e., either For cultural studies, the concept of ideo-
dismissing mass culture for high culture, or logy is of central importance, for dominant
celebrating what is deemed popular ideologies serve to reproduce social rela-
while scorning elitist high culture). tions of domination and subordination.2
Cultural studies allows us to examine Ideologies of class, for instance, celebrate
and critically scrutinize the whole range of upper-class life and denigrate the working
culture without prior prejudices toward one class. Ideologies of gender promote sexist
or another sort of cultural text, institution, representations of women and ideologies of
or practice. It also opens the way toward race utilize racist representations of people
more differentiated political, rather than of color and various minority groups.
aesthetic, valuations of cultural artifacts in Ideologies make inequalities and subordi-
which one attempts to distinguish critical nation appear natural and just, and thus
and oppositional from conformist and con- induce consent to relations of domination.
servative moments in a cultural artifact. For Contemporary societies are structured by
instance, studies of Hollywood film show opposing groups who have different politi-
how key 1960s films promoted the views of cal ideologies (liberal, conservative, radical,
radicals and the counterculture and how etc.) and cultural studies specifies what, if
film in the 1970s was a battleground any, ideologies are operative in a given cul-
between liberal and conservative positions; tural artifact (which could involve, of
late 1970s films, however, tended toward course, the specification of ideological con-
conservative positions that helped elect tradictions). In the course of this study, I
Ronald Reagan as president (see Kellner & will provide some examples of how differ-
Ryan, 1988). ent ideologies are operative in media cul-
There is an intrinsically critical and polit- tural texts and will accordingly provide
ical dimension to the project of cultural examples of ideological analysis and
studies that distinguishes it from objectivist critique.
and apolitical academic approaches to the Because of its focus on representations
study of culture and society. British cultural of race, gender, and class, and its critique of
studies, for example, analyzed culture ideologies that promote various forms of
historically in the context of its societal ori- oppression, cultural studies lends itself to a
gins and effects. It situated culture within a multiculturalist program that demonstrates
theory of social production and reproduc- how culture reproduces certain forms of
tion, specifying the ways that cultural forms racism, sexism, and biases against members
served either to further social domination of subordinate classes, social groups, or
or to enable people to resist and struggle alternative lifestyles. Multiculturalism
against domination. It analyzed society as a affirms the worth of different types of cul-
hierarchical and antagonistic set of social ture and cultural groups, claiming, for
relations characterized by the oppression of instance, that black, Latino, Asian, Native
subordinate class, gender, race, ethnic, and American, gay and lesbian, and other
national strata. Employing Gramscis oppressed and marginal voices have their
(1971) model of hegemony and counter- own validity and importance. An insurgent
hegemony, it sought to analyze hege- multiculturalism attempts to show how
monic, or ruling, social and cultural forces various peoples voices and experiences are
of domination and to seek counterhege- silenced and omitted from mainstream cul-
monic forces of resistance and struggle. ture and struggles to aid in the articulation
The project was aimed at social transfor- of diverse views, experiences, and cultural
mation and attempted to specify forces of forms, from groups excluded from the
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specific genres such as talk and game corporations helps explain mainstream
shows, soap operas, situation comedies, media support of the Bush administration
action/adventure series, reality TV, and so and their policies, such as the 2000 U.S.
on. This economic factor explains why presidential election (Kellner, 2001).
there are cycles of certain genres and sub- Looking toward entertainment, one can-
genres, sequelmania in the film industry, not fully grasp the Madonna phenomenon
crossovers of popular films into television without analyzing her marketing strategies,
series, and a certain homogeneity in prod- her political environment, her cultural arti-
ucts constituted within systems of produc- facts, and their effects (Kellner, 1995). In a
tion marked by rigid generic codes, similar fashion, younger female pop music
formulaic conventions, and well-defined stars and groups such as Mariah Carey,
ideological boundaries. Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, or NSync
Likewise, study of political economy can also deploy the tools of the glamour indus-
help determine the limits and range of polit- try and media spectacle to make certain
ical and ideological discourses and effects. stars the icons of fashion, beauty, style, and
My study of television in the United States, sexuality, as well as purveyors of music.
for instance, disclosed that takeover of the And in appraising the full social impact of
television networks by major transnational pornography, one needs to be aware of the
corporations and communications con- sex industry and the production process of,
glomerates was part of a right turn say, pornographic films, and not just dwell
within U.S. society in the 1980s whereby on the texts themselves and their effects on
powerful corporate groups won control of audiences.
the state and the mainstream media Furthermore, in an era of globalization,
(Kellner, 1990). For example, during the one must be aware of the global networks
1980s all three networks were taken over that produce and distribute media culture in
by major corporate conglomerates: ABC the interests of profit and corporate hege-
was bought out in 1985 by Capital Cities, mony. Yet political economy alone does not
NBC was absorbed by GE, and CBS was hold the key to cultural studies and impor-
purchased by the Tisch Financial Group. tant as it is, it has limitations as a single
Both ABC and NBC sought corporate approach. Some political economy analyses
mergers and this motivation, along with reduce the meanings and effects of texts to
other benefits derived from Reaganism, rather circumscribed and reductive ideologi-
might well have influenced them to down- cal functions, arguing that media culture
play criticisms of Reagan and to generally merely reflects the ideology of the ruling eco-
support his conservative programs, military nomic elite that controls the culture indus-
adventures, and simulated presidency. tries and is nothing more than a vehicle for
Corporate conglomeratization has inten- capitalist ideology. It is true that media cul-
sified further and today AOL and Time ture overwhelmingly supports capitalist val-
Warner, Disney, and other global media ues, but it is also a site of intense struggle
conglomerates control ever more domains between different races, classes, gender, and
of the production and distribution of cul- social groups. Thus, in order to fully grasp
ture (McChesney, 2000). In this global con- the nature and effects of media culture, one
text, one cannot really analyze the role of needs to develop methods to analyze the full
the media in the Gulf war, for instance, range of its meanings and effects.
without analyzing the production and polit-
ical economy of news and information, as
well as the actual text of the Gulf war and TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
its reception by its audience (see Kellner,
1992). Likewise, the ownership by conserv- The products of media culture require
ative corporations of dominant media multidimensional close textual readings to
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analyze their various forms of discourses, generating positive and negative models of
ideological positions, narrative strategies, social behavior. And advertising shows
image construction, and effects. There have how commodity solutions solve problems
been a wide range of types of textual criti- of popularity, acceptance, success, and the
cism of media culture, ranging from quanti- like.
tative content analysis that dissects the A semiotic and genre analysis of the film
number of, say, episodes of violence in a Rambo (1982) for instance, would show
text, to qualitative study that examines how it follows the conventions of the
images of women, blacks, or other groups, Hollywood genre of the war film that dra-
or that applies various critical theories to matizes conflicts between the United States
unpack the meanings of the texts or to and its enemies (see Kellner, 1995).
explicate how texts function to produce Semiotics describes how the images of
meaning. Traditionally, the qualitative the villains are constructed according to the
analysis of texts has been the task of for- codes of World War II movies and how the
malist literary criticism, which explicates resolution of the conflict and happy ending
the central meanings, values, symbols, and follows the traditional Hollywood classical
ideologies in cultural artifacts by attending cinema, which portrays the victory of good
to the formal properties of imaginative over evil. Semiotic analysis would also
literature textssuch as style, verbal include study of the strictly cinematic and
imagery, characterization, narrative struc- formal elements of a film like Rambo, dis-
ture and point of view, and other formal secting the ways that camera angles present
elements of the artifact. From the 1960s on, Rambo as a god, or slow-motion images of
however, literary-formalist textual analysis him gliding through the jungle code him as
has been enhanced by methods derived a force of nature. Semiotic analysis of the
from semiotics, a critical approach for 2001 film Vanilla Sky could engage how
investigating the creation of meaning not Cameron Crowes film presents a remake
only in written languages but also in other, of a 1997 Spanish film, and how the use of
nonverbal codes, such as the visual and celebrity stars Tom Cruise and Penelope
auditory languages of film and TV. Cruz, involved in a real-life romance, pro-
Semiotics analyzes how linguistic and vides a spectacle of modern icons of beauty,
nonlinguistic cultural signs form systems desire, sexuality, and power. The science
of meanings, as when giving someone a fiction theme and images present semiotic
rose is interpreted as a sign of love, or get- depictions of a future in which techno-
ting an A on a college paper is a sign science can make everyone beautiful and
of mastery of the rules of the specific assign- we can live out our cultures dreams and
ment. Semiotic analysis can be connected nightmares.
with genre criticism (the study of conven- The textual analysis of cultural studies
tions governing established types of cultural thus combines formalist analysis with cri-
forms, such as soap operas) to reveal how tique of how cultural meanings convey spe-
the codes and forms of particular genres cific ideologies of gender, race, class,
follow certain meanings. Situation come- sexuality, nation, and other ideological
dies, for instance, classically follow a con- dimensions. Ideological textual analysis
flict/resolution model that demonstrates should deploy a wide range of methods to
how to solve certain social problems by cor- fully explicate each dimension and to show
rect actions and values, and thus provide how they fit into textual systems. Each criti-
morality tales of proper and improper cal method focuses on certain features of a
behavior. Soap operas, by contrast, prolif- text from a specific perspective: The per-
erate problems and provide messages con- spective spotlights some features of a text
cerning the endurance and suffering needed while ignoring others. Marxist methods
to get through lifes endless miseries, while tend to focus on class, for instance, while
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feminist approaches will highlight gender, the parameters of possible readings and
critical race theory spotlights race and eth- delineate perspectives that aim at illuminat-
nicity, and gay and lesbian theories expli- ing the text and its cultural and ideological
cate sexuality. effects. Such analysis also provides the mate-
More sophisticated critical Marxism, rials for criticizing misreadings, or readings
feminisms, or semiotics articulate their that are one-sided and incomplete. Yet to
own method with the other approaches to further carry through a cultural studies
develop multiperspectivist positions. Yet analysis, one must also examine how diverse
each critical methods on its own has audiences actually read media texts, and
its particular strengths and limitations, attempt to determine what effects they have
with specific optics and blindspots. on audience thought and behavior.
Traditionally, Marxian ideology critiques
have been strong on class and historical
contextualization and weak on formal
analysis, while some versions are highly Audience Reception
reductionist, reducing textual analysis and Use of Media Culture
to denunciation of ruling class ideology.
Feminism excels in gender analysis and in
some versions is formally sophisticated, All texts are subject to multiple readings
drawing on such methods as psychoanaly- depending on the perspectives and subject
sis and semiotics, although some versions positions of the reader. Members of distinct
are reductive and early feminism often genders, classes, races, nations, regions,
limited itself to analysis of images of gen- sexual preferences, and political ideologies
der. Psychoanalysis in turn calls for the are going to read texts differently, and cul-
interpretation of unconscious contents tural studies can illuminate why diverse
and meaning, which can articulate latent audiences interpret texts in various, some-
meanings in a text, as when Alfred times conflicting, ways. It is indeed one of
Hitchcocks dream sequences in films like the merits of cultural studies to have
Spellbound (1945) or Vertigo (1958) focused on audience reception in recent
project cinematic symbols that illuminate years and this focus provides one of its
his characters dilemmas, or when the major contributions, though there are also
image of the female character in Bonnie some limitations and problems with the
and Clyde (1967) framed against the bars standard cultural studies approaches to the
of her bed suggests her sexual frustration, audience.5
imprisonment in lower-middle-class family A standard way to discover how
life, and need for revolt. audiences read texts is to engage in ethno-
Of course, each reading of a text is only graphic research, in an attempt to deter-
one possible reading from one critics sub- mine how texts affect audiences and shape
ject position, no matter how multiperspecti- their beliefs and behavior. Ethnographic
val, and may or may not be the reading cultural studies have indicated some of the
preferred by audiences (which themselves various ways that audiences use and
will be significantly different according to appropriate texts, often to empower them-
their class, race, gender, ethnicity, ideolo- selves. Radways (1983; see also her
gies, and so on). Because there is a split chapter in this volume) study of womens
between textual encoding and audience use of Harlequin novels, for example,
decoding, there is always the possibility of a shows how these books provide escapism
multiplicity of readings of any text of media for women and could be understood as
culture (Hall, 1980b). There are limits to the reproducing traditional womens roles,
openness or polysemic nature of any text, of behavior, and attitudes. Yet they can also
course, and textual analysis can explicate empower women by promoting fantasies of
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a different life and may thus inspire revolt qualitative research, new reception studies,
against male domination. Or they may including some of the essays in this reader,
enforce, in other audiences, female submis- are providing important contributions into
sion to male domination and trap women how audiences actually interact with cul-
in ideologies of romance, in which sub- tural texts (see the studies in Lewis, 1992,
mission to Prince Charming is seen as the and Ang, 1996, and Lee and Cho in this
alpha and omega of happiness for women. volume for further elaboration of decoding
Media culture provides materials for and audience reception).
individuals to create identities and mean- Yet there are several problems that I see
ings and cultural studies detects specific with reception studies as they have been
ways that individuals use cultural forms. constituted within cultural studies, particu-
Teenagers use video games and music tele- larly in the United States. First, there is a
vision as an escape from the demands of a danger that class will be downplayed as a
disciplinary society. Males use sports as a significant variable that structures audience
terrain of fantasy identification, in which decoding and use of cultural texts. Cultural
they feel empowered as their team or star studies in England were particularly sensi-
triumphs. Such sports events also generate a tive to class differencesas well as subcul-
form of community, currently being lost in tural differencesin the use and reception
the privatized media and consumer culture of cultural texts, but I have noted many dis-
of our time. Indeed, fandoms of all sorts, sertations, books, and articles in cultural
ranging from Star Trek fans (Trekkies) to studies in the United States where attention
devotees of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or to class has been downplayed or is missing
various soap operas, also form communi- altogether. This is not surprising as a neglect
ties that enable people to relate to others of class as a constitutive feature of culture
who share their interests and hobbies. Some and society is an endemic deficiency in the
fans, in fact, actively recreate their favorite American academy in most disciplines.
cultural forms, such as rewriting the scripts There is also the reverse danger, how-
of preferred shows, sometimes in the forms ever, of exaggerating the constitutive force
of slash, which redefine characters sexu- of class, and downplaying, or ignoring,
ality, or in the forms of music poaching or such other variables as gender or ethnicity.
remaking such as filking (see examples in Staiger (1992) notes that Fiske (1989a,
Lewis, 1992, and Jenkins, 1992). 1989b), building on Hartley, lists seven
This emphasis on audience reception and subjectivity positions that are important
appropriation helps cultural studies over- in cultural reception, self, gender, age-
come the previous one-sided textualist ori- group, family, class, nation, ethnicity, and
entations to culture. It also directs focus on proposes adding sexual orientation. All of
the actual political effects that texts have these factors, and no doubt more, interact
and how audiences use texts. In fact, some- in shaping how audiences receive and use
times audiences subvert the intentions of texts and must be taken into account
the producers or managers of the cultural in studying cultural reception, for audiences
industries that supply them, as when astute decode and use texts according to the
young media users laugh at obvious specific constituents of their class, race or
attempts to hype certain characters, shows, ethnicity, gender, sexual preferences, and
or products (see de Certeau, 1984, for more so on.
examples of audiences constructing meaning Furthermore, I would warn against a ten-
and engaging in practices in critical and sub- dency to romanticize the active audience,
versive ways). Audience research can reveal by claiming that all audiences produce their
how people are actually using cultural texts own meanings and denying that media cul-
and what sort of effects they are having on ture may have powerful manipulative
everyday life. Combining quantitative and effects. Some individuals who do cultural
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throughout the globe. Examples include of the 1980s (Material Girl). She also
groups of kids and adults who imitated appeared in a time of dramatic image pro-
Rambo in various forms of asocial behav- liferation, associated with MTV, fashion
ior, or fans of Beavis and Butt-Head who fever, and intense marketing of products.
started fires or tortured animals in the Madonna was one of the first MTV music
modes practiced by the popular MTV video superstars who consciously crafted
cartoon characters. Media effects are com- images to attract a mass audience. Her early
plex and controversial and it is the merit of music videos were aimed at teenage girls
cultural studies to make their study an (the Madonna wanna-bes), but she soon
important part of its agenda. incorporated black, Hispanic, and minority
audiences with her images of interracial sex
and multicultural family in her concerts.
Toward a Cultural Madonna also appealed to gay and lesbian
Studies Approach That audiences, as well as to feminist and aca-
demic audiences, as her videos became
Is Critical, Multicultural, more complex and political (i.e., Like a
and Multiperspectival Prayer, Express Yourself, Vogue, and
so on).
Thus, Madonnas popularity was in
To avoid the one-sidedness of textual large part a function of her marketing
analysis approaches, or audience and recep- strategies and her production of music
tion studies, I propose that cultural studies videos and images that appealed to diverse
itself be multiperspectival, getting at culture audiences. To conceptualize the meanings
from the perspectives of political economy, and effects in her music, films, concerts,
text analysis, and audience reception, as and public relations stunts requires that her
outlined above. Textual analysis should uti- artifacts be interpreted within the context
lize a multiplicity of perspectives and criti- of their production and reception, which
cal methods, and audience reception involves discussion of MTV, the music
studies should delineate the wide range of industry, concerts, marketing, and the pro-
subject positions, or perspectives, through duction of images (see Kellner, 1995).
which audiences appropriate culture. This Understanding Madonnas popularity also
requires a multicultural approach that sees requires focus on audiences, not just as
the importance of analyzing the dimensions individuals but as members of specific
of class, race and ethnicity, and gender and groups, such as teenage girls, who were
sexual preference within the texts of media empowered in their struggles for individual
culture, while studying as well their impact identity by Madonna, or gays, who were
on how audiences read and interpret media also empowered by her incorporation of
culture. alternative images of sexuality within pop-
In addition, a critical cultural studies ular mainstream cultural artifacts. Yet
attacks sexism, racism, or bias against spe- appraising the politics and effects of
cific social groups (i.e., gays, intellectuals, Madonna also requires analysis of how her
and so on), and criticizes texts that promote work might merely reproduce a consumer
any kind of domination or oppression. As culture that defines identity in terms of
an example of how considerations of pro- images and consumption. It would make an
duction, textual analysis, and audience interesting project to examine how former
readings can fruitfully intersect in cultural Madonna fans view the evolution and
studies, let us reflect on the Madonna phe- recent incarnations of the superstar, such as
nomenon. Madonna first appeared in the her second marriage and 2001 Drowned
moment of Reaganism and embodied the World tour, as well as to examine how con-
materialistic and consumer-oriented ethos temporary fans view Madonna in an age
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that embraces younger teen pop singers like 3. This model was adumbrated in Hall
Britney Spears or Mariah Carey. (1980a) and Johnson (1986/1987) and guided
In short, a cultural studies that is critical much of the early Birmingham work. Around
and multicultural provides comprehen- the mid-1980s, however, the Birmingham group
sive approaches to culture that can be began to increasingly neglect the production and
applied to a wide variety of artifacts from political economy of culture (some believe that
pornography to Madonna, from MTV to this was always a problem with their work) and
TV news, or to specific events like the much of their studies became more academic,
2000 U.S. presidential election (Kellner, cut off from political struggle. I am thus trying
2001), or media representations of the to recapture the spirit of the early Birmingham
2001 terrorist attacks on the United States project, reconstructed for our contemporary
and the U.S. response. Its comprehensive moment. For a fuller development of my con-
perspectives encompass political economy, ception of cultural studies, see Kellner (1992,
textual analysis, and audience research 1995, 2001).
and provide critical and political perspec- 4. The term political economy calls atten-
tives that enable individuals to dissect the tion to the fact that the production and distribu-
meanings, messages, and effects of domi- tion of culture take place within a specific
nant cultural forms. Cultural studies is economic system, constituted by relations
thus part of a critical media pedagogy that between the state and economy. For instance, in
enables individuals to resist media mani- the United States a capitalist economy dictates
pulation and to increase their freedom and that cultural production is governed by laws of
individuality. It can empower people to the market, but the democratic imperatives of
gain sovereignty over their culture and to be the system mean that there is some regulation
able to struggle for alternative cultures and of culture by the state. There are often tensions
political change. Cultural studies is thus not within a given society concerning how many
just another academic fad, but can be part activities should be governed by the imperatives
of a struggle for a better society and a of the market, or economics, alone and how
better life. much state regulation or intervention is desir-
able, to assure a wider diversity of broadcast
programming, for instance, or the prohibition of
Notes phenomena agreed to be harmful, such as ciga-
rette advertising or pornography (see Kellner,
1990).
1. For more information on British cultural 5. Cultural studies that have focused on
studies, see Hall (1980b), Hall et al. (1980), audience reception include Brunsdon and
Johnson (1986/1987), Fiske (1986), OConner Morley (1978), Radway (1983), Ang (1985,
(1989), Turner (1990), Grossberg (1989), Agger 1996), Morley (1986), Fiske (1989a, 1989b),
(1992), and the articles collected in Grossberg, Jenkins (1992), and Lewis (1992).
Nelson, and Triechler (1992), During (1992,
1998), and Durham and Kellner (2000). I might
note that the Frankfurt school also provided References
much material for a critical cultural studies in
their works on mass culture from the 1930s
through the present; on the relation between the Agger, B. (1992). Cultural studies. London:
Frankfurt school and British cultural studies, see Falmer.
Kellner (1997). Ang, I. (1985). Watching Dallas. New York:
2. On the concept of ideology, see Kellner Methuen.
(1978, 1979), Centre for Contemporary Ang, I. (1996). Living room wars: Rethinking
Cultural Studies (1980), Kellner and Ryan media audiences for a postmodern world.
(1988), and Thompson (1990). London and New York: Routledge.
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