Digital Media Criticism

Book excerpt: Digital Media Criticism is an introductory text about media criticism - the act of interpreting and making sense of a range of new media texts that we use (and create) on a daily basis - offering a critical language and a methodological template for interrogating and analyzing the complex texts of digital media. Individual chapters connect key methods of media criticism - genre, auteur, cultural/ideological, and ethnographic - with digital culture. Case studies of social media, user generated content, cell phones, and video games are provided, which include everything from downloading ring tones and making new (Facebook) friends, to creating an avatar, texting, and opening a window on RL (real-life). Insightful and accessible, the book looks at the possibilities and limits of the digital age for us - as creators, consumers, and distributors of content. It will be useful to undergraduates studying media criticism, digital culture and communication, and media literacy, and is written to invite them into a conversation about the culture of the digital age.