Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Legacy of Mystery Science Theater 3000 : Text, Textual Production, Paracinema, and Media Literacy

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 40; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01956051.2011.636395

1930-6458

Beth E. Bonnstetter,

Media, Gender, and Advertising

Abstract Paracinema, as proposed by Jeffrey Sconce, an activity in which audiences seek out marginalized films and both celebrate and ridicule them (535), is a practice that offers lessons in media literacy and textual production. Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) is an important cultural artifact that offers these lessons to mainstream audiences. Using Brian Ott's theory of textual production, and Ott and Cameron Walter's theory of intertextuality as textual strategies, this article demonstrates MST3K is an enactment of paracinematic practice. MST3K is a text that teaches paracinema's media literacy, particularly in a world where interactivity is conflated with a truly active audience.