Watch out for literary critics. They can get feisty.
Theorists from across the spectrum of cultural studies have had different opinions as to what constitutes "culture" and what role and function cultural texts serve. And let's be real: when you're dealing with such a broad concept as "culture," is it any wonder?
Even though cultural studies has taken plenty of different forms, you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to see that it's changed a lot since the Frankfurter days. One area of debate has been the relative roles of author, reader, and text: though cultural theorists have a shared interest in the production and reception of texts and the circulation of meaning, they have sometimes been at odds when it comes to the question of where power lies.
As the Big Players section elaborates, the Frankfurt school often seemed to regard people as passive receivers, emphasizing the power that texts (and mass-media texts in particular) wielded over the unwitting public. The CCCS, always down for compromise, started to take a more balanced view and focused on how individuals interacted with the texts that they encountered in their daily lives.
So are people totally brainwashed by whatever the media throws at them? Or can readers and viewers be seen as producers of meaning themselves?
While cultural theorists have moved more and more toward reception theory (that second option there), there have been concerns over the past few decades that cultural studies has strayed too far from it roots. The big issue here is de-politicization: cultural studies started out as a political project, but this has faded over the years, and wasn't ever big in the US version of cultural studies. Sure, identity politics can factor into cultural studies projects, but any Marxist or neo-Marxist angle is often seen as outdated, and cultural studies as a whole isn't as critical (you could say cynical) as it used to be.
One of the most obvious topics of debate is the role and value of pop culture. In the bygone days, cultural theorists saw pop culture as just another way to keep the masses in check. After all, if folks were busy zoning out to episode after episode of Real Housewives, they weren't exactly going to get up off the couch and fuel a revolution. But as the years went by and cultural studies crossed the Atlantic, that all changed.
These days, cultural studies is known for its enthusiastic study of pop culture in all its mass-produced, mass-consumed glory. Not all theorists have been thrilled by this, though: Stuart Hall, for instance, memorably remarked that he couldn't be bothered reading yet another study of Madonna or The Sopranos. So, just as there have been conflicting attitudes toward cultural studies among the tweed-wearing professor set, there have been conflicting attitudes within cultural studies, too.