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 r...
Dec 08, 2020•42 min
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 pol...
Aug 01, 2019•45 min
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. V...
May 16, 2019•43 min
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 distribu...
Apr 17, 2019•34 min
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 Acti...
Jul 20, 2018•32 min
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 ...
Jul 03, 2018•25 min
"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 ...
Apr 26, 2018•28 min
"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.
Mar 27, 2018•29 min
“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 a...
Feb 19, 2018•22 min
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 ow...
Jan 25, 2018•17 min
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 Desi...
Jan 08, 2018•37 min
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 telecommuni...
Dec 13, 2017•29 min
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.
Dec 13, 2017•15 min
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 Depa...
Dec 13, 2017•20 min
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. Culliso...
Dec 13, 2017•12 min
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/il...
Dec 11, 2017•26 min
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)
Nov 16, 2017•31 min
Jonathan Nichols Pethick interviews Jill Frederickson, DePauw '92, Vice President, SportsCenter & News Editorial Operations, ESPN
May 05, 2017•14 min
"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.
Apr 26, 2017•29 min
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.
Apr 01, 2017•21 min
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.
Jan 17, 2017•25 min
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.
Apr 07, 2016•29 min
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.
May 07, 2015•28 min
In this previous incarnation of the modern_media podcast, Dr. Jonathan Nichols-Pethick and Prof. Seth Friedman discuss the function of the Academy Awards.
Feb 17, 2015•33 min
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.
Feb 09, 2015•19 min
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.
Jan 14, 2015•23 min
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.
Dec 09, 2014•23 min
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.
Oct 01, 2014•18 min
