Media Marathoning Book Announcement

I’m delighted to announce that I signed a Lexington Books contract for Media Marathoning: Immersions and Morality. I’m currently revising in response to peer feedback. The book may even be in print by the end of this year. I look forward to kicking off a scholarly conversation about media marathoning. In 2013, the popular press exploded with…

Binge on Love This Holiday Season

Holidays are a time to indulge–in decadent desserts, bacon-wrapped appetizers, mulled wines, and media. Articles in Slate and The New York Times have chastised those who over-indulge in media, giving these people the derisive label “binge viewers.” We know that the substance of those sugar cookies and pork bellies isn’t healthy, but what about the…

Fantasy Texts and Communication Anxieties

My Introduction to Media Studies course is currently grappling with Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death. Comprehending the medium as metaphor for our culture is challenging, so I present a lot of examples in class to help them see the reading in a new way.  In this first of two media marathoning blog posts, I…

Omne Trium Perfectum: Good Things Come in Threes?

In the end of July, Peter Jackson announced that The Hobbit would be split into three films. The decision was cause for concern, particularly among those who had a hard time picturing how a relatively short book would be coaxed into three separate films. (Would the story be sort of stretched, like butter scraped over…