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

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 of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Popular Film & Television Vol. 40; no. 2; pp. 94 - 105
Main Author: Bonnstetter, BethE.
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd 2012
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary: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.