One reason I decided to go to communication studies program instead of another home for cultural studies is because I thought more comm academics would be in touch with conversations about media and culture going on outside of academic journals. I thought there'd be a lot of people with backgrounds in journalism, filmmaking, may even TV writers in comm programs. I'm not sure if that was a correct assumption in general or not, but one of my classmates is just the kind of student I had in mind. Pam Nettleton has really enriched our program through bring knowledge from her many years in journalism.
Pam just wielded her writerly skills in an op-ed piece to portray commericial saturation of TV shows through product placements. She evisions what Dickens would sound like as a TV writer: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Luckily, I could easily tell time because I was wearing my Citizen 200 Meter Chronograph watch with titanium case and bracelet, only $400 online"
Pam' op-ed is funny and incisive: http://www.startribune.com/562/story/1073509.html
Monday, March 26, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Bad Blog Changes
Hopefully only temporary, but I just lot all the links as I tried to "upgrade" the template for this blog.
As expected . . .
Yep, the new Star Trib owners have been making rampant cutbacks in news staff. A City Pages article details the cutbacks: http://citypages.com/databank/28/1372/article15245.asp
When the City Pages run an article talking about their new ownership regime?
When the City Pages run an article talking about their new ownership regime?
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Another Writer's Block
I'm devoting most of my spring break to writing a paper analyzing how sixties rock critics helped to imbue rock with a sense of political importance. I had been really looking forward to writing this paper, but alas, it's eeking out all too slowly and uncomfortably. Alice has poked fun at me for my tendency to have more breakthroughs in terms of reflecting on general writing principles while I'm trying to write than actually getting anything on the screen (probably a more apt metonymy these days).
Lots of my reflection dwells on one of the most mysterious and fickle qualities of writing - flow. Flow is just as relevant to good academic writing as it can be to more literary genres, especially when you want academic writing to share at least some of the qualities of literary prose. I think the major factors that determine whether academic writing will seem just academic or move closer to a literary work has to do with "evocation." I take this ideas from Michael Hyde, tho perhaps I've distorted it a bit. But by evocation, I mean whether the writing calls forth something vivid - an image, a feeling, a tone. A perfectly logical argument or one that is backed by "good" (as in difficult to refute) evidence is not necessarily evocative in itself.
At first I was thinking that evocative writing is much more difficult than just writing good arguments, but I've come to think that assumption is flawed. One of the situations in which I write with the most ease is when I get to a section in my paper where I can write a narrative. Perhaps there is something deeply ingrained in the structure of human consciousness that makes narratives feel more natural. Narrative writing tends to be evocative and relatively easier to write than other modes that require careful planning to lay out a synthetic exposition of interlocking ideas. The hard part in writing academic papers can be finding narratives that actually fit in well with what you're trying to say. One reason I tend to like to read cultural history more than other forms of cultural studies is because historians rely more heavily on narrative. But it ain't easy to find the right narratives for good cultural history, as I'm finding out now trying to write about sixties rock critics.
Lots of my reflection dwells on one of the most mysterious and fickle qualities of writing - flow. Flow is just as relevant to good academic writing as it can be to more literary genres, especially when you want academic writing to share at least some of the qualities of literary prose. I think the major factors that determine whether academic writing will seem just academic or move closer to a literary work has to do with "evocation." I take this ideas from Michael Hyde, tho perhaps I've distorted it a bit. But by evocation, I mean whether the writing calls forth something vivid - an image, a feeling, a tone. A perfectly logical argument or one that is backed by "good" (as in difficult to refute) evidence is not necessarily evocative in itself.
At first I was thinking that evocative writing is much more difficult than just writing good arguments, but I've come to think that assumption is flawed. One of the situations in which I write with the most ease is when I get to a section in my paper where I can write a narrative. Perhaps there is something deeply ingrained in the structure of human consciousness that makes narratives feel more natural. Narrative writing tends to be evocative and relatively easier to write than other modes that require careful planning to lay out a synthetic exposition of interlocking ideas. The hard part in writing academic papers can be finding narratives that actually fit in well with what you're trying to say. One reason I tend to like to read cultural history more than other forms of cultural studies is because historians rely more heavily on narrative. But it ain't easy to find the right narratives for good cultural history, as I'm finding out now trying to write about sixties rock critics.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Radio KAOS
I had thought I was on a blogging momentum that wasn't going to let up, obviously not. It's not so much been a matter of having too much to do, just failure to really integrate blogging into my day-to-day routines.
A couple days ago, Radioactive Gavin from Evergreen College interviewed me for his Digital Crossroads program on Radio KAOS out of Olympia, Washington. I met him at the National Media Reform Conference in January, and I was surprised that he was interested in a paper I presented on applying anti-trust measurements to media markets for FCC regulation. It was a rather technical piece I wrote this summer while serving as a research fellow at the Free Press.
But I thought I'd be able to talk about the basic idea and give some descriptions of problems with ownership regulations at the FCC to an audience who might not be too enthralled about the details of adapting the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to media markets. It was tougher than I thought, however, to be able to speak well for a recorded interview. Being "on the record" made me realize how much I typically allow myself room to skirt around details I don't know. But aside from calling Michael Powell Colin's brother (instead of son), I think I got by well enough for Gavin to be able to make something coherent and accurate through chopping up the interview tape. The interview should air around noon pacific (2pm Central) time today on Radio KAOS (http://kaos.evergreen.edu/).
A couple days ago, Radioactive Gavin from Evergreen College interviewed me for his Digital Crossroads program on Radio KAOS out of Olympia, Washington. I met him at the National Media Reform Conference in January, and I was surprised that he was interested in a paper I presented on applying anti-trust measurements to media markets for FCC regulation. It was a rather technical piece I wrote this summer while serving as a research fellow at the Free Press.
But I thought I'd be able to talk about the basic idea and give some descriptions of problems with ownership regulations at the FCC to an audience who might not be too enthralled about the details of adapting the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to media markets. It was tougher than I thought, however, to be able to speak well for a recorded interview. Being "on the record" made me realize how much I typically allow myself room to skirt around details I don't know. But aside from calling Michael Powell Colin's brother (instead of son), I think I got by well enough for Gavin to be able to make something coherent and accurate through chopping up the interview tape. The interview should air around noon pacific (2pm Central) time today on Radio KAOS (http://kaos.evergreen.edu/).
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