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…

TV Critics and Spoilers

My Media Marathoning book led to several research project “spin-offs,” one of which analyzes the experiences of TV critics as they navigate the spoiler-rich television environment. I completed the final interview on June 8th. Now bring on the writing! I am grateful that the following kind people gave me their time for an interview: Gina Carbone,…

Media Marathon Tee

Christmas is over, but here’s another gift I want. My friend Kristin sent the link to this cute media marathoning t-shirt she found on etsy. How rude! The description says “great geek gift.” Well, I guess it is kind of true. I promise I am not the person behind FishbiscuitDesigns, and this is not a media…

NPR Interview from December 17th

I had a great time talking with Evan Dawson, host of WXXI’s Connections, on Wednesday about my book Media Marathoning: Immersions in Morality. The listeners, Evan, and I addressed a great range of media marathoning topics: bingeing vs. marathoning, health effects of marathoning, compelling storytelling, the shift away from appointment television, the future of cable,…

Marathoning and Mom Guilt

My friend Amanda sent me this cartoon about a year ago. It sat on my fridge until now, taunting me through the book writing process. I am always delighted to see references to binge-watching in popular culture, but I confess to feeling mom guilt when I look at this cartoon. It made me think: Am…

Oh, You Do Marathons?

Here’s just a quick post today of this meme a friend sent me (accessed through funnymeme.com). We’ve currently got a winter storm watch in Rochester. Several of my friends are training for upcoming marathons, but I’ll bet even they would take option two instead of hitting the roads or trails today. Comments comments