ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author examines the ecology of film criticism from the vantage of "sites" of film criticism. The four sites the author examine happen to be print publications transitioning to the new media landscape, but sites of film criticism could be radio or television shows and segments, newspapers, book publishing, and born-digital sites such as podcasts, vodcasts, blogs, or websites. He argues that the binaries of "critical" and "uncritical", or "criticism" and "non-criticism" can be set aside in favour of a more sophisticated and pluralistic understanding of the range of activities and engagements that constitute film criticism. The author suggests to Peter Bart that the firing of McCarthy, so incendiary of the contemporary crisis conversation in film criticism, had been framed in two ways: the decline of the importance of film critics; and the decline of print media, shifting the terms of employment from full time to freelance.
