“Textual analysis is the central methodology of cultural studies and yet we do not have a straightforward guide as to what it is or how it works”
Week five’s reading, written by Alan McKee, tackles the subject of textual analysis in terms of cultural or media studies.
Within the first part of the reading, he breaks down why there is no clear-cut way that Media or Cultural Studies degrees analyse texts, like there is in literature. McKee boils it down to the fact that there is an “anti disciplinary trend which refuses to think serious about our own methodologies, but rather uses transgressive methods”, which basically means we do as we please without thinking about analysis structurally. I believe the reason for this is due to the fact that Media Studies is a relatively new degree studied at universities, whereas literary analysis has been taught and refined for centuries, some of the earliest analyses dating back to 4th century BC. Another road block stems from the fact that people are applying literature analysis techniques to media texts, which brings up problems because they are fundamentally different. Due to this heavy confusion in how to analyse and even with the basics of why we analyse, McKee writes the rest of the paper from a first years perspective, which is very handy for me. He discusses the fact that we must have an idea about what out methodologies are in order to truly work with the texts.
“When we perform textual analysis on a text, we make an educated guess at some of the most likely interpretations that might be made of that text”
This very basic idea of what a text analysis is something that is very handy for a person like me, who gets their words jumbled and has a hard time articulating their thoughts. The fact that McKee has given me a very basic notion to what textual analysis is something i like very much. Textual analysis is a way of gathering and analysing academic research. McKee addresses the way in which media has fallen into a continuous circle, of asking the same questions and getting the same answers; we should ask new questions and get different answers, making the text we are analysing all the more intriguing. This told me that when analysing a text we should bring something new to the table.
McKee also discussed the idea of ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ interpretation, and to never claim a text is accurate or inaccurate. It is a tricky subject, as philosophical problems undermine the accuracy of certain interpretations. This is because there is no single representation of reality against which someone can measure how accurate a representation is. There is your truth, your friends truth, your mothers truth and your neighbours truth, in fact theres 7 billion versions of truth floating around in the world, and no one has the proper right to say which is accurate or inaccurate. “Whenever someone claims a text is accurate, it really means they agree with what the text is saying about the world” This plainly stated concept truly hit me, it made me think back on all the times I believed someone when they said a certain textual analysis was accurate, because they said it with conviction and assurance, and whilst those analyses might have been just, they were an interpretation like anything else.
Audience research can produce interesting insights onto certain subjects, however is it, as McKee put it “expensive and cumbersome”. Audience research does not find reality, it analyses and produces more texts. And whilst this is true, I somewhat disagree with McKee here. I believe that there are certain independent variable and placebos that can take place in terms of audience research, yet it gives a different perspective to the analysis if one becomes too caught up on their own interpretations.
In order to discover the likely interpretations context, according to McKee, is the most important step to take, which I agree with whole-heartedly. Context is the most important aspect of not only textual analysis but also in every day life, it provides a greater understanding and therefore a response, or in this case analysis. Another way to get a likely interpretation is the use of semiotics, as they make us stop and consider various elements of the process of making meaning from a texts. McKee discusses steps in order to create better context within analysis, they are:
1. Know the rest of the text
2. Know the genre of the text
3. Know the wider public context in which a text is circulated
In conclusion, McKees descriptive discussion on textual analysis has broken down the fundamentals of textual analysis and has given me a greater understanding on how to approach a media textual analysis, which is something i desperately needed. Thank you Alan!
