A Critical Forum on Media and Culture
A Critical Forum on Media and Culture
Wendy Peters argues that the contemporary and decentralized context of music production, distribution, and social media promotion diversified and transformed pop music by enabling Lil Nas X—a Black and openly gay star—to rise.
Read moreRiziki Millanzi assesses the Snowpiercer television series depiction of intersectional politics, arguing the show ignores the nuances and varied experiences of marginalized peoples to oppression.
Read moreMoa Eriksson Krutrök explores the ways social media like TikTok can offer individuals social support to process grief and trauma. Unfortunately, meme culture can radically recontextualize the personal and exploit already vulnerable people.
Read moreKelly Coyne addresses “cruel optimism” in The Chair and The Bold Type, critiquing how American capitalism motivates its workers with the mantra that advancement, and the power that comes with it, leads to satisfaction.
Read moreVincent L. Stephens discusses the timely reboot of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman in relation to the recent resurgence of white supremacist organizing in the United States symbolized by the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
Read moreStephanie Melissa Perez explores how On My Block’s Monse experiences her own objectification and challenges stereotypes of ingenues and Black and Latinx girls.
Read morePeter Arne Johnson examines the broader industrial and sociopolitical reverberations of the recent market shortening of Game Stock stock by a community of retail investors from the subreddit r/wallstreetbets.
Read moreIn tracing a variety of fan reactions to the critically acclaimed shows Watchmen and Lovecraft Country, Tia Alphonse illustrates how the representational and historiographic work of these programs offer exciting new directions for Black content as not only profitable to Black producers and actors, but as culturally transformative forces for a generation starved of authentic Black portrayals.
Read moreCáel Keegan revisits Sleepaway Camp in his final installment of “In Praise of the Bad Transgender Object” to reveal its sympathetic trans masculine subtext.
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 moreRoderik Smits considers how online streaming and transactional platforms have responded to the mass closure of movie theaters during the Covid-19 health crisis.
Read moreDavid Church considers how a renewed interest in drive-in theaters as movie exhibition spaces, as well as spaces for religious services during the Covid-19 health crisis, brings further attention to politicization of public space.
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