A Critical Forum on Media and Culture
In this column, Caetlin Benson-Allott argues that the reaction to James Eagan Holmes’ 2012 shooting in an Aurora, Colorado theater was driven by white privilege and an ahistorical view on theater shootings in general.
Phoebe Bronstein discusses television’s pedagogical potential for discussing race, from Harry Belefonte’s canceled Revlon specials to the current ABC sitcom black-ish.
Susan Courtney reflects on teaching race and media studies to undergraduates, inspired in part by her fall 2015 course, “Mediating Ferguson, USA: 1915-2015.”
Shweta Khilnani examines female comedic anti-heroes through Selena Meyer’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) “performance of failure” in Veep, comparing her with Leslie Knope, the optimistic and sincere heroine of Parks and Recreation, and televisual male anti-heroes.
Anthony P. McIntyre lays the groundwork for future investigations into the cultural phenomenon that is “sonic cute.”
Myles McNutt explores HGTV’s relationship with “spatial capital” and observes how the network negotiates this spatial capital in programming that erases location and programming that explicitly frames location.
Theodore Yurevitch examines the band Gorillaz and their 2017 music video for “Hallelujah Money,” focusing on the implications of hyper-mediation and how life might still go on in an increasingly post-human world.
