Aca-Media

It's a spooky, mystery-filled Halloween for the Aca-Media team.  Chris has just moved into a new house, only to discover that it might be haunted.  While she and Michael investigate (luckily our SCMS grant enabled us to afford a deflux modulator!), we bring you a "Cinema Journal Classics" interview with Jennifer Hyland Wang about her 2000 CJ piece on Forrest Gump.  Then we give you a tour of last year's SCMS Undergraduate Conference and a preview of what you can expect from next year's … if the ghost doesn’t get you first! 

Now that you've distributed those syllabi, but before the first papers come in, reward yourself with a new episode of Aca-Media!  Our "Cinema Journal Presents" segment this month features Courtney Brannon Donaghue discussing Sony's film production in Brazil.  Chris then introduces you to an exciting new outlet for video essays, [in]Transition, discussing the form's potential as well as questions of evaluation and review. Finally, Chris and Michael discuss baseball players who don't have a clue and a couple of British detectives who do.  Even though Chris herself doesn't have a clue how to say Aca Hyphen Media Dot Org, that's where you should click right now to give it a listen.

This month's episode features Jennifer Petersen on the famous 1915 Mutual v. Ohio case: the Supreme Court's ruling in that case that films are not speech seems obviously wrong today, but Jen helps us understand the cultural context of that decision and it's legacy today. We also bring you a Vox Scholari segment: an (academic) star-studded lineup of reading recommendations to get you excited about everything from cultural geography to intertextuality.  Finally, Chris and Michael discuss all the shows they hope to catch up on.

The "academic summer" has begun, which means we're … working as hard as ever! This month, Luke Stadel joins us for our "Cinema Journal Presents" segment on the intersections of cable television, pornography, and regulation. It's safe for work but h-o-t-t nonetheless. Then Chris discusses the value of the standalone M.A. in Media Studies with professors at three schools that have started terminal M.A. programs. Finally, Michael and Chris discuss what they are watching.

After a month's hiatus (lots of conference-going around here), Aca-Media is back! This month features Julie Wilson discussing her recent Cinema Journal article about celebrity activism. Then we bring you a roundtable on teaching experimental film and video that will interest you even if you never teach that topic--just lots of great insights into teaching media generally.  Finally, Chris shares some of the shows she's most excited about viewing this summer.

This episode brings you our 2014 SCMS Conference preview. Bill interviews programming chair Angelo Restivo about how papers and panels are selected for the conference, then scheduler Bruce Brasell tells us about putting together the program (be sure to take a look at the photos of Bruce's less-than-catproof scheduling system). Then Seattle locals offer suggestions on what  to see and where to eat in Seattle, followed by Chris and Michael's own recommendations.  See you in Seattle!

Episode 12: Things That are Now Natural to Us

This month we bring you a very cool interview with Michael W. Harris about music in Akira Kurosawa's Drunken Angel, which gets into all kinds of themes: postwar censorship, the meanings of Jazz and American culture in Japanese cinema, and the relationship between filmmakers and scholars.  Then Chris takes a closer look at Scholarly Interest Groups within SCMS: what are they, what are they good for, and why would you want to be in one?  Finally, Chris and Michael talk about the film and television they have been watching, for better and worse. 

After a long absence spent recovering from Episode 9, in which MOOC spores wiped the brains of film and media scholars everywhere, we're back up and running. This month we feature an interview with Mary Beltrán about Latinization and the Fast & Furious franchise, based on her two Cinema Journal articles on the topic (note: this segment was recorded before the death of Paul Walker). Then Jennifer Proctor reports on the 2013 University Film and Video Association conference. Finally, Chris and Michael reveal what might be the only way to enjoy 2 Broke Girls.

In Episode 9 we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the famous "War of the Worlds" broadcast by talking with Neil Verma about the program, its use of radio aesthetics, the panic that ensued, and the relevance of "War of the Worlds" today. There might be one or two other things going on in this episode as well … just saying.

In this episode, Christine and Michael finally meet face-to-face, and the banter is electric! Coming to you from the luxuriously appointed Aca-Media Command Centre in South Bend, Indiana, we investigate the Peabody awards and their connection to academia, including the amazing Peabody Archives that every media scholar should know about. Also, in our "Cinema Journal Presents" segment, we talk with Hollis Griffin about the challenges and joys of being a junior scholar in film and media studies at this moment in the history of the academy and the discipline.  Bonus feature: Bill speaks! With a human voice!

This is a great one, folks! We discuss the question of "industrial authorship" with Josh Heuman, who wrote a recent article in Cinema Journal on the topic. Then we bring you a roundtable discussion about the Trayvon Martin case, getting insights from Bambi Haggins, Miriam Petty, and Kristen Warner on what a Media Studies perspective can bring to the issue and how we might make sense of it as scholars, teachers, parents, and citizens. Plus Chris and Michael tell us about what the media they are consuming this month. Be sure to click through to the show notes for a "web extra"--a segment from the roundtable that was too long to include in the podcast version.

This episode features an interview with Paula Amad about her Cinema Journal article "Visual Riposte: Reconsidering the Return of the Gaze as Postcolonial Theory’s Gift to Film Studies." We also bring you a pedagogy roundtable on teaching with social media, as well as a new segment, "What We're Watching." Finally, we're still looking for contributors to our next Vox Scholari segment: What was a time when you were surprised in the classroom? 

This month, we introduce a new segment, "Cinema Journal Classics," in which we look back at an especially important or influential article (or just one of our favorites) from the CJ archives. In this installment, we return to the Autumn, 2005 "In Focus" feature on "The Place of Television Studies" and talk with one of those authors, Horace Newcomb, about television studies and his career in general. Then we bring you an interview with Aviva Dove-Viebahn about the SCMS website and the challenges the organization faces as it moves deeper into the online world.  Finally, we invite you to contribute to an upcoming "Vox Scholari" segment:  Tell us about a moment when you were surprised in the classroom.  You can record your response and email it to info@aca-media.org.

This episode features an interview with David Scott Diffrient about his recent Cinema Journal article on the controversial 1970 sex comedy Myra Breckinridge. We also bring you a report on the recent SCMS Undergraduate Conference held at Notre Dame, a "Vox Scholari" segment on the texts that got us interested in studying media, and an Aca-Media Bites in praise of administrative assistants.