Visual research, audio-visual thinking, and video essays are forms of humanities "writing" that push the norms of traditional scholarship: "Audiovisual Thinking is a pioneering forum where academics and educators can articulate, conceptualize and disseminate their research about audiovisuality and audiovisual culture through the medium of video."[cit]

According to On Postmodernism: "Television and movies represent the pinnacle of mass-produced American culture and exhibit many of the Postmodern motifs shared by other art forms" including "pastiche, spectacle, fakery and mystery." [cit] Pastiche and fakery are common forms of self-referentiality, where a piece of art refers to itself—its forms, ideas, histories, production, genre, and theories, i.e. This Is the Title of This Story, Which Is Also Found Several Times in the Story Itself."[cit]