Several schools of thought regarding media criticism, derived from diverse disciplines and literary sources, have emerged during the last decade. To examine their application to the visual communication media arts such as film and television, this paper: (1) reviews the literature of media criticism; (2) discusses various approaches to visual communication media criticism; and (3) provides examples of the application of existing visual communication approaches to criticism. Discussion includes parameters of visual communication media arts, critical approach versus critical method, and selection of criteria for the evaluation of visual communication media arts. The following critical approaches and their applications are examined: journalistic; historical; sociological; rhetorical; narrative; cultural; semiological; psychological; ideological; genre; producer's; and visual literacy. It is suggested that the development of visual media criticism is directly related to and depends upon the development of verified theories of the various visual communication media arts. (Contains 74 references.) (MAS)