Archive for the ‘Media Politics’ Category
Over the course of these harrowing couple of months since the election, one of the many questions that has plagued me is how media educators can effectively teach about media under the Trump administration. This spring semester, I’ll be teaching my cornerstone course Television & American Culture, where media & democracy are a core topic. I’ve racked […]
Filed under: Media Politics, Teaching, Television | 7 Comments
Complex TV: Ends
I am filled with joy, relief, and many other emotions in posting the link to the final chapter of Complex TV. Not accidentally, the chapter is called Ends, and it focuses on conclusions, as well as serving as one for the book. Here’s the abstract: American commercial television differs from much of the world in […]
Filed under: Academia, Books, Complex TV, Media Politics, MediaCommons, Narrative, Open Access, Publishing, Television, TV Shows | 1 Comment
Tags: breaking bad, finales, Homeland, Lost, The Sopranos, The Wire
Like most people I know, I’m sad, angry, and numb in reaction to the massacre of children and their teachers on Friday. While I feel helpless to affect change in a meaningful way, I do what I can via the small contributions to organizations like the Sandy Hook School Support Fund and the Brady Campaign […]
Filed under: Academia, Media Politics, Media Studies, Television, TV Textbook, Videogames, Viewers | 12 Comments
Tags: cultural studies, media effects, media violence, violence
Tonight in my Television & American Culture course, I screened Buying the War, an excellent Bill Moyers PBS feature detailing how the press allowed themselves to be co-opted by the Bush administration to enable the fraudulent war in Iraq. (If you haven’t seen it, check it out online.) The screening reminded me of this piece […]
Filed under: Media Politics, Not Quite TV | 3 Comments
Vermont’s Governor Wallace
Today Vermont had an opportunity to lead the nation in the fight for equality and justice by becoming the first state to legislate marriage equality without a mandate from the courts. Today, Governor Jim Douglas stood on the wrong side of history and vetoed the bill that had overwhelming support from the legislature. There is […]
Filed under: Media Politics, Middlebury, Vermont | 2 Comments
Tags: gay rights, marriage equality
Since I moved to Vermont in 2002, I have been on the board of Middlebury Community Television, our local public access channel. Yesterday, the board sponsored a community media forum, where we invited members of our community to come together to discuss the role of a small public access channel in a small town today […]
Filed under: Media Politics, Middlebury, Technology, Television, TV Industry, Vermont | 6 Comments
Tags: public access
A new day
While I’m certainly overcome by the thought of President Obama, I think the joy in respecting and believing in my President for the first time in a long time will sink in slowly after he starts to do all the good things that he will do. But first I need to relish in the end […]
Filed under: Media Politics | 2 Comments
Tags: cheney, president obama
Name one thing…
I write this on a day I’ve awaited for eight years: the final day of the George W. Bush presidency (also known as the Dick Cheney Vice Presidency). It’s hard to fathom how much has transformed over the past eight years, and thus I believe that Bush’s tenure will be regarded as one of the […]
Filed under: Media Politics, Not Quite TV | 14 Comments
Tags: bush, presidency
Vlad and Boris speak!
On October 14, a YouTube video appeared on a new account entitled “vlad and friend boris presents ‘Song for Sarah’ for mrs. Palin”: It bore no identifying markers of its creation beyond the names Vlad and Boris. A music video attesting a Russian crush on Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, it slowly began spreading via […]
Filed under: Media Politics, Narrative, New Media | 3 Comments
Tags: election, music video, online video, sarah palin, youtube
Live-blogging
Just a link to Midd Blog, where I’ll be weighing in with a number of Middlebury students & faculty throughout the day about the election. With my fingers crossed…
Filed under: Media Politics, Middlebury | Leave a Comment
Tags: election
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
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
In 2004, my lifelong Red Sox fandom came to fruition, with a unprecedented sense of contentment and peace after years of suffering. That lasted around a week, until Bush was reelected, offering a stomach punch to my other lifelong allegiance to progressive politics. For a native New Englander, these two events were uncomfortably related, the […]
Filed under: Media Politics, Not Quite TV | Leave a Comment
Tags: baseball, election, red sox
Spinning the War
Be sure to read this excellent bit of investigative reporting in today’s New York Times by David Barstow. It lays out in painful detail the way that the Pentagon created and nurtured a web of “independent” war analysts to serve as talking heads on TV news for the past 6 years, and how nearly all […]
Filed under: Media Politics, TV News | 1 Comment
Tags: Iraq War, New York Times, PR
Just TV 