Modern Media Podcast

In this episode, JNP talks with Jason Mittell, Professor of Film and Medias Culture at Middlebury College in Vermont. Author of several key manuscripts on television culture, Prof. Mittell is also a key figure in the development of videographic criticism in film and media studies. He and his colleague, Prof. Christian Keathly, have since 2015 offered several two-week intensive workshops on videographic criticism for scholars. Our discussion focused on the history of videographic criticism, its roots in avant garde film and video work, its connection to the digital humanities, as well as current practices and pedagogies. For more on videographic criticism, you can visit the website The Videographic Essay: Practice and Pedagogy (http://videographicessay.org/works/videographic-essay/index). You can also see examples of published videographic criticism at [in]Transition (http://mediacommons.org/intransition/). And check out Jason’s own videographic work on his Vimeo channel. (https://vimeo.com/jmittell) As a special treat, you can watch Jen Proctor’s remake of “A Movie” by Bruce Connors right here. (https://vimeo.com/11531028) And have a listen to The Video Essay Podcast (https://thevideoessay.com/work), hosted by Will DiGravio.

Counternarratives: A Conversation with Alexandra Bell One of the most important questions you can ask about media is how it represents – ideas, things, people. But it’s not just a question of what the mechanisms for representation are. Instead, questions about representation are questions about meaning and about power: how they are produced and maintained. And representations are a site of struggle over meanings and power. The news media are one particularly potent site for engaging with the politics of representation. How are stories told in the news? What cultural frameworks guide the construction of news stories and, in turn, our engagement with the news? How do these frameworks help perpetuate harmful ideological positions? On this episode of Modern Media, we speak with multimedia artist Alexandra Bell about her work that engages with precisely these questions of representation. In particular, we talk with her about two series of prints that she has produced over the last several years. The earlier series - “Counternarratives” - reimagines New York Times articles (through revision, redaction, annotation, and magnification) in order to reveal and confront the news media’s complicity in perpetuating racial prejudice. Her later series, “No Humans Involved: After Sylvia Wynter,” (which was part of the 2019 Whitney Biennial) engages the coverage surrounding what came to be called the “Central Park Five” or the “Central Park Jogger” case from 1989. Across both series, Alexandra Bell’s work reveals the explicit and implicit biases that underwrite news narratives involving communities of color, and how those biases circulate nearly invisibly under the guise of journalistic objectivity. Read more about Alexandra Bell’s work: From The New Yorker magazine, April 17, 2019 https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/an-artist-revises-the-racist-news-coverage-of-the-central-park-five From The New Yorker magazine, May 29, 2018 https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/how-alexandra-bell-is-disrupting-racism-in-journalism The New York Times, December 7, 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/07/arts/design/artist-alexandra-bell-dissects-the-new-york-times.html Episode Music Credits: Blue Dot Sessions “An Oddly Formal Dance” (www.sessions.blue) “Careless Morning” (www.sessions.blue) “Our Digital Compass” (www.sessions.blue) “Our Own Melody” (www.sessions.blue)

Antisocial Media: A Conversation with Siva Vaidhyanathan In this installment, JNP sits down with Prof. Siva Vaidhyanathan to talk about his latest book, Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy. The conversation delves into questions of how Facebook positions itself as a social good while its very structure provides a platform – unprecedented in its size and scope - for the manipulation of political discourse and the widespread circulation of misinformation. Prof. Vaidhyanathan is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia where he also serves as the Director of the Center for Media and Citizenship. He is the author of several other books, including The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry), and he also serves as a columnist for The Guardian.

We Now Disrupt This Broadcast: A Conversation with Amanda D. Lotz In this installment of Modern Media, JNP talks to Dr. Amanda D. Lotz about her latest book, We Now Disrupt This Broadcast: How Cable Transformed Television and the Internet Revolutionized It All (MIT Press, 2018). The story of the transformation of television at the turn of the 21st century is a story of emerging technologies, regulations, business models, and aesthetic practices that came to establish the era of internet distributed television that we now inhabit. Connecting these new structures to older ways of understanding television, Dr. Lotz makes a compelling case for understanding the persistence of television amidst the news of its demise. You can follow her on Twitter at @DrTVLotz.

Journalism as Activism: A Conversation with Adrienne Russell In this installment, JNP sits down with Dr. Adrienne Russell to talk about the changing worlds of both journalists and activists as they engage the intersection of emerging technologies and pressing social problems. Adrienne Russell is the Mary Laird Wood Professor of Journalism and the Environment at the University of Washington, and the author of two books: Networked: Contemporary History of News in Transition, and Journalism as Activism: Recoding Media Power.

In this installment, JNP sits down with Anne Helen Petersen - senior culture writer for Buzzfeed and the author of the recent book, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman – to talk about balancing academic and journalistic writing, managing the role of the public intellectual in the age of social media, and why cultural criticism matters. You can access Anne Helen Petersen’s work for Buzzfeed here: https://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelenpetersen. To find out more about her books here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/228194/anne-helen-petersen

"Show your work": A Conversation with Frank LoMonte In this installment, JNP sits down with Frank LoMonte to talk about the importance of student media, the value of journalism education, and the need for transparency and the free flow of information. Frank LoMonte is the Director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida. Prior to that, he was the Executive Director of the Student Press Law Center in Washington, D.C. Can you embed these links in the text of the names in the body of the text? Brechner Center for Freedom of Information: http://brechner.org/ Student Press Law Center: http://www.splc.org/

"Nothing drives traffic like news": A Conversation with Juli Metzger JNP talks with Juli Metzger about the role of media literacy education, journalistic entrepreneurship, and the importance of local media at a time when our media environment has been forever altered by new and emerging technologies that threaten to throw that environment out of balance while at the same time offering new possibilities for more meaningful and impactful journalism.

“Everybody Should Be Podcasting”: A Conversation with Michael O’Connell In this installment, JNP sits down with Michael O’Connell to talk about the role of podcasting in journalism, the changes that digital platforms have brought to the work of journalism, and the value of journalism in the digital media environment. Michael O’Connell is the host of the podcast It’s All Journalism and the author of the book Turn Up The Volume: A Down and Dirty Guide to Podcasting (Routledge 2017). O’Connell is also the senior digital editor at Federal News Radio in Washington, D.C. Links to embed for podcast title, book, and federal news radio: http://itsalljournalism.com/ http://itsalljournalism.com/turn-up-the-volume-down-dirty-guide-to-podcasting/ https://federalnewsradio.com/

In the summer of 1978, Bill Rasmussen hatched what is surely one of the most impactful innovations in the history of television: the 24-hour cable network, ESPN. As the founder and former President of the company, Rasmussen helped develop the network’s flagship program, “Sports Center.” Bill Rasmussen joins us in the studio to talk about the thinking that led to the idea for ESPN as well as his latest venture, Hometown Networks, which allows individual communities to create and maintain their own streaming service for local sports. http://hometownnetworks.tv/

In this installment, JNP talks with Sara Quinn about visual journalism and the importance of design for news. Far beyond simply adding graphic elements to news production, design is central to the way that news is consumed, the degree to which people trust information, the increasingly undervalued status of photojournalism, and the fascinating eye-tracking research that goes into understanding how reader interact with news through design. Sarah Quinn is the President of the Society for News Design and the R.M. Seaton Endowed Chair in the Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kansas State University. https://nppa.org/news/eyetracking-photojournalism-new-research-explores-what-makes-photograph-memorable-shareable-and

Part IV: Warfare In the final installment of our series on net neutrality, I talked by phone with Prof. Barbara Cherry of the Media School at Indiana University. Our topics of discussion ranged from primary definitions of regulatory structures, how those structures are represented in media accounts, the legal structures undergirding much of this debate, and the economic and ideological stakes of these regulatory policies. Prof. Cherry worked for many years as an attorney representing telecommunications companies, AT&T and Ameritech. She then worked for several years as senior counsel at the FCC in the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis. She received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University and now teaches courses on public policy, deregulation, net neutrality, communications infrastructure, law, and economics.

Part III: What Do you Mean by ‘Fast Lane’? In Part III of our series on net neutrality, I talk with Prof. Doug Harms of the Computer Science Department at DePauw University. I sat down with Prof. Harms to find out just how the technical elements of “speeding up” and “slowing down” internet access to specific sites works. Prof. Harms teaches courses computer graphics, networking, and the ethics of computing. His research includes work on historic computing and computer generated holography.

Part II: New Marginalized Spaces In Part II of our series on net neutrality, I sit down with Prof. Leigh-Anne Goins of DePauw University. We discussed how the prospect of rolling back net neutrality regulations could have direct effects on the ability of marginalized people to participate equally in political, educational, economic, and cultural spaces. Prof. Goins teaches courses such “Women and the Internet” and “Media and Marginalized Bodies” for the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department.

Net Neutrality Part I: Who Cares About Netflix? In Part I of our series on net neutrality, I talk with Prof. Andrew Cullison who serves as the Director of the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University. We spoke about the relationship between net neutrality and a healthy democratic system of governance. Sure it may seem like all this is really about is large corporations wanting the freedom to dictate your access to your favorite entertainment streaming systems. But as Prof. Cullison points out, there’s far more at stake. Andy has talked about this issue twice before on his own podcast, Examining Ethics.

JNP sits down with Indira Lakshmanan to discuss the problem of "fake news," the difficulty of reporting on politics in the era of President Trump, the erosion of trust in the news media, and how that trust might be re-established. Indira Laskshmanan is a Washington DC-based columnist for the Boston Globe, writing about foreign policy and politics, and the Newmark Chair for Journalism Ethics at the Poynter Institute. You can read her most recent work at https://www.bostonglobe.com/contributors/ilakshmanan.

BuzzFeed's News Editor, Craig Silverman, has been on the trail of fake news for years. In this installment of JNP talks with Silverman, about fake news: what it is, where it comes from, the economic and political impulses for creating and sharing it, and what we can do about it. For more on Craig Silverman's work, click here (https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman)

Jonathan Nichols Pethick interviews Jill Frederickson, DePauw '92, Vice President, SportsCenter & News Editorial Operations, ESPN

"Antelopes and Jaguars: A Discussion with Riley Ray Robbins" JNP talks with Riley Ray Robbins, a Development Executive at Back Roads Entertainment, about the varied roles of reality television in contemporary television culture - as it relates to the current wave of high-end production, the politics of representation, the current state of the media industries, and the not-so-surprising spectacle of modern politics.

In this installment of modern_media JNP talks with Dana Ferguson, the political reporter for The Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Dana discusses the varied roles of a print journalist in the age of digital distribution, her early attraction to print journalism, and importance of student media in training good storytellers.

In this installment of JNP talks with multimedia journalist Ben Solomon of The New York Times about the emerging world of virtual reality storytelling as a tool for journalists. Solomon discusses the possibilities as well as the limitations of emerging VR technologies for journalists as well as the larger ethical stakes in telling stories about tragedy.

In this previous incarnation of the modern_media podcast, Dr. Nichols Pethick speaks with journalist Rick Horowitz about his career in opinion writing and commentary across media platforms.

In this previous incarnation of the modern_media podcast, Dr. Nichols Pethick sits down with Jams Brown, Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the School of Journalism at IUPUI, to talk about the future of journalism education.

In this previous incarnation of the modern_media podcast, Dr. Jonathan Nichols-Pethick and Prof. Seth Friedman discuss the function of the Academy Awards.

In this previous incarnation of the modern_media podcast, Dr. Nichols Pethick talks with Erin Copple-Smith, Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Austin College about managing the nuts and bolts of teaching contemporary television and film.

In this previous incarnation of the modern_media podcast, Dr. Jonathan Nichols-Pethick talks with Prof. Sharon Ross and Conner Good from Columbia College about their work with Watercooler Journal, the interrelationship between production and criticism, and alternative avenues for undergraduate media research.

In this previous incarnation of the modern_media podcast, Dr. Nichols Pethick talks with Jonathan Coffin ('06) about how politicians respond publicly through the media about social conflict.

Pulliam Center Director Dr. Jonathan Nichols Pethick interviews DePauw Communication Professor Dr. Jeff McCall about the tension that exists between the government and the media in this previous incarnation of the modern_media podcast.