Moving forward with our media studies search

12Nov09

Three months ago, I posted information about Middlebury’s search for a comparative media studies faculty member. I’ve been quite excited about the discussion and feedback I’ve gotten, highlighting the benefits of opening up the black box of the faculty hiring process. So as the search proceeds, I want to post an update.
We have received over [...]

Filed under: Academia, Media Studies, Middlebury, Teaching   |  12 Comments
Tags: job search

Fair use in publishing: A Society for Cinema & Media Studies Report

22Sep09

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m on the SCMS Public Policy Committee and one of our main initiatives is to draft formal policy statements on how cinema & media scholars deal with copyright and fair use. Two years ago we released a best practices document outlining guidelines for teaching and pedagogy. Now I’m happy to announce [...]

Filed under: Academia, Copyright, Fair Use, Media Studies   |  1 Comment
Tags: scms

Lostpedia and Wiki Fandom Article

15Sep09

Just a quick pointer to my newest publication: in the new issue of Transformative Works and Cultures, I’ve published “Sites of Participation: Wiki Fandom and the Case of Lostpedia.”Here’s the abstract:
This essay explores the award-winning fan site Lostpedia to examine how the wiki platform enables fan engagement, structures participation, and distinguishes between various forms of [...]

Filed under: Academia, Fandom, New Media, TV Shows, Technology, Television, Viewers   |  2 Comments
Tags: Lost, lostpedia, wiki

Teaching TV, Twitter, and my Textbook

10Sep09

The semester launched this week at Middlebury. Due to a little enrollment shuffling, I’m only teaching one course this semester: Television and American Culture. (I’ll certainly be sufficiently busy reading the hundreds of job applicants and actively working on the college website makeover project!) This is the first time through using my textbook, Television and [...]

Filed under: Academia, Middlebury, TV Textbook, Teaching, Television   |  3 Comments
Tags: twitter

Reflections on Teaching The Wire

27Aug09

First, I should indulge in self-promotion to link to this well-done profile of me and the Film & Media Culture program at Middlebury, from the local free weekly, Seven Days. Aside from reminding me of my rapidly graying hair, I’m quite happy with how it turned out!
The author found me first through a link to [...]

Filed under: Academia, Media Studies, Middlebury, Press, TV Shows, Teaching, Television   |  4 Comments
Tags: The Wire

Looking for a Comparative Media Scholar

03Aug09

One of the most interesting, exhausting, frustrating, and exciting things you can do as a faculty member is serving on a search committee–interesting to see the broad range of work that emerging scholars are doing, exhausting from the time it takes to read hundreds of files and conduct lengthy interviews, frustrating because in the end [...]

Filed under: Academia, Media Studies, Meta-blogging, Middlebury, New Media, Teaching, Vermont   |  54 Comments
Tags: job search

Previously On: Prime Time Serials and the Mechanics of Memory

03Jul09

As is typical for me at the end of the school year, my to-do list has a pile of publishing projects that I’ve put off to the last minute. So I’ve spent the last month knocking things off the list with general success – I revised an essay on Lostpedia that will be coming out [...]

Filed under: Academia, Media Studies, Narrative, TV Shows, Television, Viewers   |  10 Comments
Tags: Arrested Development, Battlestar, Lost, memory, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Veronica Mars

Notes on Serial Forms conference

10Jun09

I spent part of last week on a quick, tiring, but exciting trip to Zurich. I was an invited presenter at University of Zurich’s conference on Serial Forms, a small but well-focused 3-day conference focused on serial narratives across a range of media.
My own presentation was called “Serial Boxes: The Cultural Value of Long-Form American [...]

Filed under: Academia, Media Studies, Narrative, Television   |  1 Comment
Tags: conferences, serial

Essential tools for navigating digital culture

10Apr09

I’ve been asked by my friend/colleague/Dean/Provost Tim Spears to contribute to his blog, One Dean’s View, offering a post on a few digital tools that I find essential for navigating my digital life. Here’s what I had to say, reblogged:
I am known as one of the more technologically engaged/addicted faculty members at Middlebury. Luckily, it [...]

Filed under: Academia, Middlebury, New Media, Technology   |  2 Comments
Tags: tools

Teaching The Wire

06Feb09

My spring semester starts next week, and as I believe both in making my teaching work publicly available to the world, and in publicly acknowledging that teaching is my primary job 9 months of the year, here are the syllabi for my courses.The first is an old standard, Theories of Popular Culture – I’ve gotten [...]

Filed under: Academia, Middlebury, TV Shows, Teaching, Television   |  9 Comments
Tags: The Wire

The media library in a post-disc world

06Jan09

I’ve read a number of articles like this one, speculating on the potential future of the Blu-ray disc as media platform in the wake of online delivery of HD content. As a consumer and viewer, I’m heartened by this, as I’ve not jumped on the Blu-ray train yet. Moreover, I see a lot of potential [...]

Filed under: Academia, Copyright, Fair Use, Media Studies, New Media, Technology   |  6 Comments
Tags: blu-ray, dvd, library

Fair Use for Educators – and The Chronicle’s continuing poor coverage

11Nov08

Today the Center for Social Media officially released its latest in its series of excellent fair use guides, The Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in Media Literacy Education. It’s must reading for anyone involved in media pedagogy or policy.
However, in what has become a trend, I must protest the way the Chronicle of [...]

Filed under: Academia, Copyright, Fair Use, Media Studies, Teaching   |  4 Comments

Dualing political tones on television

03Nov08

One aspect of the campaign that I’ve been tracking is the comparative emotional tones being struck by Obama and McCain, especially via their negative ads. McCain’s commercials have been overly negative and brutal in their attacks of Obama, mostly by aiming for fear and suspicion. A couple of examples – first, a web-only ad linking [...]

Filed under: Academia, Media Politics   |  4 Comments
Tags: election, maddow, MSNBC, obama, olbermann, political ads

Communication Scholars Speak Out Against McCain Campaign

25Oct08

Just a quick link to this site, where over 100 faculty who teach communication and media studies have signed onto censure the deceptive, unethical, and racist discourse eminating from the McCain campaign in their desperate attempts to frame Obama as a dangerous “Other.” There are some links to frightening examples as well. If you’re a [...]

Filed under: Academia, Media Politics, Representations   |  1 Comment
Tags: campaign, election

Flowing Home

12Oct08

I’m about to leave Austin after an enjoyable and engaging conference. I hope to write more about it soon, but wanted to post my own presentation sooner. The format of the conference pre-posts position papers on Flow’s site, but as pdfs, making it a bit harder to consume the pieces. Beneath the fold is my [...]

Filed under: Academia, TV Shows, Television   |  3 Comments
Tags: satire, The Wire