Studying American Films through the Internet

Abstract

For much of the 20th century, movies have been one of the most creative expressions of popular culture. Hollywood has shaped not only Americans' sense of identity but also how people around the world think of their own lives and societies. As the 21st century begins, the internet has emerged as another vibrant locus of popular culture, the most advanced technology of the "information" age. This paper examines one intersection between these two dynamic dimensions of popular culture - film criticism on the internet - with the particular goal of exploring methods to study film and criticism using the internet. The wealth of data on the internet seems boundless. In order to manage this massive amount of information, this article is limited to two important areas of internet coverage of films: 1) popular websites containing film criticism, a rich vein for assessing the cultural meaning of films, and 2) sites and methods for more systematic academic research using the internet. In both areas the sampling of websites is not scientific but rather impressionistic.