Academic Blogs and Idea Pollinators

As “back to school!” is being trumpeted through advertisements and social media, let me suggest another way to get back to where you once belonged: a blog. You’re reading this one. Why not make your own? I eased back into serious work mode in August by making this post on gender problems in children’s programming.…

Mourning and Media Marathoning

Curator’s note: This is the fifth and final blog post made by students in Dr. Perks’s spring 2015 Media Marathoning class at Nazareth College. Students conducted qualitative research projects in groups addressing one research question. These blog posts represent their distillation of findings that are also reported in 8-10 page essays. This post is from Brenna,…

Video Game Marathoning

Curator’s note: This is the fourth of five blog posts made by students in Dr. Perks’s spring 2015 Media Marathoning class at Nazareth College. Students conducted qualitative research projects in groups addressing one research question. These blog posts represent their distillation of findings that are also reported in 8-10 page essays. This post is from Dave,…

The Social Experience of Media Marathoning

Curator’s note: This is the third of five blog posts made by students in Dr. Perks’s spring 2015 Media Marathoning class at Nazareth College. Students conducted qualitative research projects in groups addressing one research question. These blog posts represent their distillation of findings that are also reported in 8-10 page essays. This post is from Joel,…

Formation of Media Marathoning Habits

Curator’s note: This is the second of five blog posts made by students in Dr. Perks’s spring 2015 Media Marathoning class at Nazareth College. Students conducted qualitative research projects in groups addressing one research question. These blog posts represent their distillation of findings that are also reported in 8-10 page essays. This post is from…

Binge-Watch Burnout: Take Back Your Life

Curator’s note: This is the first of five blog posts made by students in Dr. Perks’s spring 2015 Media Marathoning class at Nazareth College. Students conducted qualitative research projects in groups addressing one research question. These blog posts represent their distillation of findings that are also reported in 8-10 page essays. This post is from Adora,…

Morally Ambiguous Character Gallery

“[T]he world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters. We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on.” -Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  Students in Media Marathoning class elected to profile these morally ambiguous characters, describing both “dark” and “light”…

The Hero’s Sixth Sense

Note: Students in Media Marathoning created blog posts to extend our understanding of heroes and villains. This one comes from Chase, Cole, Elizabeth, and Gabby.  Even though villains and heroes are often seen as adversaries, heroes often have a tangible or metaphysical “6th sense” that links them to their villain. This connection can be seen…

You Can Binge-Watch and Still Be Social

I’m not depressed. I’m not lonely. I run about 30 miles a week. And, surprise–I am a binge-watcher! This post is starting to feel a bit like an “I’m a Mormon” commercial parody, so let me back up a bit. I research media marathoning, a phrase I prefer over the negatively-connoted “binge-watching.” (Check out Wikipedia to…