The Role of The Critic

When we first began the class Studies in Prose Narrative, we were assigned an in class writing on what we believed was the role of the critic. Now that class is concluding we have been assigned the same writing to understand how our views have expounded on this role. The role of the critic is to look at every angle, and question what are the intentions of this certain medium. The critic must start in the beginning. They must understand the society of what they are criticizing. Why has this "thing" become so prevalent? What is this society? Why do they do certain things? Who makes up this society? For example throughout the semester I have researched and review the phenomenon of online dating. I took on the role of the critic. I started in the beginning by research what type of societies use online dating. Why has online dating become popular in these societies, and how has it changed these societies. The role of the critic is to ask questions and to inform. The critic is a form of "watch-dog." They ask questions that people don't want to answer and sometimes people don't want to know. Their role is to investigate, to inquire, to interrogate, so the consumer can become informed and know exactly what the media is selling to them. Good criticism addresses why society is changing and who is changing it. A good critic is open minded to other society's other than their own. They don't have to agree with their actions and beliefs but they need to know why and how they function. Critics will always have biased views. That is the point of their criticism, but they need to be well researched and expressed in order to get the criticism across effectively. Throughout the semester we have taken artifacts, such as online dating, and explored them in a narrative perspective. What story is this artifact trying to sell us, or how has this artifacts story effected us. Then we explored the Genre of our artifacts. What genre would this artifact fit in, or does this artifact create its own genre. We followed up with media ecology, which is the study of the media in the terms of its environmental impact. Meaning not only how the evolution of technology impacts us immediately, but how it impacts the places that we inhabit. Altogether, the media critic's role is a sociological investigator. They are here to report and keep society aware and in line.