> Lights, Camera, Action. Marxism, Semiotics, Narratology.
>http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/magazine/la-tm-filmschool28jul13.story
*Shudder*. As an unemployed media theorist, I have to say, Weddle gets many of the details right. It's a little unfair to pick at one exam, to be sure, but it's true that the film theory boomlet (lots of new media jobs are popping up) has, so far, followed the script of the 1980s-1990s post-structuralist boom -- there are the elite theory-meisters, wielding arcane codes which usually relate to highly specific readings of Hollywood classics (how Lacanian, as Zizek would put it), and then there are the production people, out to learn specific skills, and there aren't enough bridges between the two. The reality is, you need a bit of theory to move the production, and a bit of production to move the theory.
The good news is, (1) media programs are only beginning to be institutionalized, which means there's still a chance to do something new and interesting, (2) lots of silicon/EU/East Asian entertainment money is looking for high-end theory-outlets, and (3) the postcolonial scholars are moving the mountain, by keeping the media explosion of the 2nd/3rd world rolling.
-- DRR