Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Over the past decade, as digital media has expanded and print outlets have declined, pundits have bemoaned a "crisis of criticism" and mourned the "death of the critic." Now that well-paying jobs in film criticism have largely evaporated, while blogs, message boards, and social media have given new meaning to the saying that "everyone's a critic," urgent questions have emerged about the status and purpose of film criticism in the twenty-first century.

In Film Criticism in the Digital Age , ten scholars from across the globe come together to consider whether we are witnessing the extinction of serious film criticism or seeing the start of its rebirth in a new form. Drawing from a wide variety of case studies and methodological perspectives, the book's contributors find many signs of the film critic's declining clout, but they also locate surprising examples of how critics--whether moonlighting bloggers or salaried writers--have been able to intervene in current popular discourse about arts and culture.

In addition to collecting a plethora of scholarly perspectives, Film Criticism in the Digital Age includes statements from key bloggers and print critics, like Armond White and Nick James. Neither an uncritical celebration of digital culture nor a jeremiad against it, this anthology offers a comprehensive look at the challenges and possibilities that the Internet brings to the evaluation, promotion, and explanation of artistic works.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I The Critic and the Audience
• Chapter 1 Thumbs in the Crowd: Artists and Audiences in the Post-Vanguard World
• Chapter 2 Critics Through Authors: Dialogues, Similarities, and the Sense of a Crisis
• Chapter 3 "The Last Honest Film Critic in America": Armond White and the Children of James Baldwin
• Part II New Forms and Activities
• Chapter 4 The New Democracy? Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Twitter, and IMDb
• Chapter 5 The Price of Conservation: Online Video Criticism of Film in Italy
• Chapter 6 Before and After AfterEllen: Online Queer Cinephile Communities as Critical Counterpublics
• Chapter 7 Elevating the "Amateur": NollywoodCritics and the Politics of Diasporic Film Criticism
• Part III Institutions and the Profession
• Chapter 8 American Nationwide Associations of Film Critics in the Internet Era
• Chapter 9 Finnish Film Critics and the Uncertainties of the Profession in the Digital Age
• Chapter 10 The Social Function of Criticism; or, Why Does the Cinema Have (to Have) a Soul?
• Part IV Critics Speak
• Chapter 11 The Critic Is Dead . . .
• Chapter 12 What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Movies
• Chapter 13 Who Needs Critics?
• Chapter 14 Excerpts from Cineaste's "Film Criticism in the Age of the Internet: A Critical Symposium"
• Afterword
• Selected Bibliography
• Notes on Contributors
• Index