How Media Theory is Dissimiliar to Wine
No really, I’ve got this.
You know how when you’ve got two bottles of wine you kind of look at them to see if you can figure out which one might be better? And then, of course, you drink the better one first because by the time you get to the second (and let’s hope you’re not alone here) you won’t notice/care about the quality as much.
Dissimilarly, presented with two books on media theory - let’s say one is a 1990s study of female spectatorship and stardom and the other is a 1970s flagrantly Marxist advertising deconstruction - go for the one you think is bad first. Don’t put it off. Don’t read the theory that debunks the other first. If you do, you’ll only wind up writing a blog at 12:45 in the morning because it’s the only way to keep from talking to yourself in your bedroom.
Here are some things you might say, if you fail to follow this sage advice:
- Yes, yes. No one has any agency. We are but cogs in the great wheel of capitalism, and read everything similarly and without any contestation.
- I bet you peed yourself when Manufacturing Consent came out.
- Shut up, you crazy, commie biznitch! I wish I had wine.
And that’s just not a nice way to end up. You know, I should rename this blog, Life Lessons. Pearls wrapped in diamonds of wisdom here. Or ‘perlmonds’, as I believe they’re called.
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