Author Archives: Jason Mittell

Questions for Will Brooker

First off, as you read Brooker’s final chapters, be sure to checkout some Star Wars fan films. TheForce.net has a huge collection, and I’d particularly recommend Troops, which he discusses at length. This link has a number of “slash vids” that are more typical of the female fan community he profiles. Also, the “Chad Vader” series is great – episode #1 is below:

[youtube 4wGR4-SeuJ0]

Please post any questions you have for Will Brooker here by Monday night at midnight our time – I’ll ask him to reply Tuesday morning in the UK, so hopefully some responses will be waiting for us for class.

(Note that posting a meaningful question for him counts toward your online participation requirement, as does the discussion questions for Tuesday…)

Discussion questions for 4/9

Brooker, Press & Livingstone, and Ang outline a range of approaches to studying media audiences. Which of these issues and possibilities strike you as particularly useful for understanding consumption of popular culture? What troubles do you see arising from these methods? How might these ideas help explain or explore the consumption practices fictionally represented in Purple Rose of Cairo?

Discussion questions for 4/7

In his book, Will Brooker offers a number of ways to explore how Star Wars matters in the lives of fans. What methods did he use that struck you as particularly insightful? What theoretical models do you feel motivate his study and how? And what does this book teach us beyond the case study of Star Wars?

Discussion questions for 4/2

(First, check out this article for a parody extension of the “new masculinity” of Obama from The Onion.)

Barbie Nation, The Simpsons, Superstar, and Spigel’s article all offer examples of Barbie as a site of cultural negotiation.  What links do you see between these cultural practices and the theoretical approaches we’ve explored this semester? How do your own experiences with Barbie fit into these theoretical models?  (Everyone has a Barbie story – share it!)

Discussion questions for 3/31

One of the major influences on cultural studies has been feminist theory, foregrounding how gender operates within popular culture, especially concerning audience practices.  What key insights come from this work (as summarized by Storey and excerpted in our Reader) that strike you as particularly useful?  Choose one of the articles in the reader and highlight what arguments this article brings to the study of popular culture that might augment or shift what we’ve discussed thus far.

Discussion questions for 3/19

What insights does Bakthin’s concept of the carnivalesque provide to help better understand Animal House and its cultural functions?  What do you see as the politics of such seemingly “transgressive” examples of popular culture? How might this approach offer different perspectives than psychoanalysis?

Discussion questions for 3/12

Today’s readings apply Hall’s encoding/decoding model to popular culture texts and their viewers. How do you see these examples of “applied theory” helping explain this approach to cultural studies? How does Fiske & Dawson account of the Die Hard and its reception fit with your own take on the film?