A Critical Forum on Media and Culture
A Critical Forum on Media and Culture
Aidan Moir examines how the seemingly non-commercial platform BeReal has been utilized by beauty brands to interpolate users as authentic consuming citizens within their larger brand communities.
Read moreZizi Li explores what influencer Imma’s virtual images convey about digital and physical realities.
Read moreCynthia Meyers theorizes the “family brand,” discussing examples from The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet to Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Read moreEleanor Patterson analyzes Hulu’s initial aim of adapting broadcast distribution logics into streaming distribution and the service’s contemporary shift to an “Adult Disney” service.
Read moreLily Kunda examines the recent trend of public statements denouncing racism. She questions what role corporations have in dismantling white supremacy.
Read moreMelissa Morton explores how the UK’s public broadcasting channels have adapted their branding in response to the Covid-19 health crisis and discusses the implications of new viewing habits for the future of the UK’s public service broadcasters.
Read moreLane Mann looks into SVOD audience constructions, brand strategies, and definitions of success in order to understand the industry’s ever-changing views of audiences.
Read moreRating the Runway: Project Runway and New York Fashion Week
by: Moya Luckett / New York University
Project Runway is an example of how recent reality television shows rely on viewer responses to help construct the narrative. the show maintains a distinct textual presence while they advocate viewer participation, play with the idea of permeable and non-permeable textual boundaries and highlight the different ways in which we can access ‘the real world.’
Desperate Citizens
by: John McMurria / DePaul University
Extreme Makeover Home Edition contestants are portrayed as good and deserving citizens who are the victims of misfortunes beyond their control. However, while EMHE helps these deserving citizens, the corporate sponsored show fails to recognize the irony inherent in the fact that it is these very corporations that contribute to these problems in the first place.
Soap in the Chocolate Bar
by: Tom McCourt / Fordham University
Does Apple’s new iPod Nano represent greater freedom for digital music users?
Who Wants to be a Crorepati?: Global Television and Local Genres in India
by: Shanti Kumar / University of Texas-Austin
In 2000, when Star Plus Channel launched Kaun Banega Crorepati? (KBC), the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, the show quickly became the biggest hit on Indian television.
At Last, TV for People Just Like Me
by: Christopher Anderson / Indiana University
I hate your favorite television show. Honestly. I loathe it. You love it, I know. But it’s a stinking pile of shit.