The Craft of Criticism

With contributions from thirty-five leading media scholars, this collection provides a comprehensive overview of the main methodologies of critical media studies.

Fully revised and updated throughout, the chapters in this second edition address various methods of textual analysis, as well as reception studies, policy studies, production studies, and contextual, multi-method approaches, like intertextuality and cultural geography. Film and television are at the heart of the collection, which also addresses digital technologies and new research tools in such areas as software studies, gaming, and social media. Each chapter includes an intellectual history of a particular method or approach, a discussion of why and how it was used to study 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 research.

Together, the chapters in this collection give media scholars and critics a complete toolbox of essential critical media studies methodologies.