Critical Perspectives Summery and Approach
In many ways I believe that studying media is a bit like being a detective; one must look for clues within the writing and derive meanings and motives to the pieces. The critical perspectives suggested by the Beach text offer tools to better break down media and to consider many angles of a given piece.
AUDIENCE- Thinking critically about how the creator of the media positions the work in conjunction with the audience will help to determine the purpose of the piece. Knowing this will allow students to consider what assumptions the media has about its audience as well as what the audience may project back upon the media. The examples of the text citing advertisements are perfect candidates for using this lens in the classroom and are catalysts for discussions about responsible consumerism as well as the propagation of stereotypes.
SEMIOTIC - Semiotic analysis delves into symbols, including words, their meanings and cultural relativity. This kind of analysis asks students to draw conclusions about the media using the cultural coding system. What I especially like about this lens is that it opens up an opportunity to discuss how symbols and words are not set in stone when it comes to their meaning. A dragon in the western ideology usually symbolizes something that is both greedy and dangerous, while in China, for example, it comes to have a figure of strength and fortune. I might do an exercise that would show that we, in our imaginary community, have a cultural code, and then show that other people around the world have differing viewpoints.
POST STRUCTURALIST- This approach challenges simplistic representations and stereotypes. Students can, like in the Beach text, identify binary systems and then proceed to contradict them.
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS- I think that Discourse Analysis would be an interesting way to consider a character's actions and thoughts. A Discourse seems to be something that people wrap themselves around, becoming very much part of their identity and shaping how they move and think. This would be a very helpful lens in helping students better identify with extreme characters, as it would provide some perspective into why they think and act like they do.
PSYCHOANALYTIC- Applying different psychological theories to media. I especially like the idea of talking about the subconscious and how certain elements of repressed desires can be seen expressed in media.
FEMINIST- A lens that helps to explore the limitations of gender roles as well as the exploitation of women in media. I would like to talk about gender as a social construct, and then proceed to analyze media and how they conform to or break the status quo.
POSTMODERN- I would like to use media to support a lesson on postmodern poetry. The rejection of conventional thinking and conventional forms can be found in many films, and I think that talking about how shifts in thinking about life, and purpose, would create some complexity when going back to more traditional and conventional works.
POST COLONIAL- A lens that brings to the table the imperialist influences in texts. A great opportunity to put media in a historical context and discuss ideologies such as 'the white man's burden'. I would enjoy reading a text or watching a movie from an imperialist perspective that represents the colonized as an exotic prize to be conquered and tamed. I would then like to look at a piece from the same region from the colonized perspective and have my students discuss the implications of the disparities.