Media Studies Colloquium

Sam Woolley, Institute for the Future
CMA 5.136 - Part of Digital Media Speaker Series, co-sponsored with the Media Ethics Initiative
*Note new time: This talk is on a Tuesday, 1:30-3:00 pm
"The Ethical Operating System: How Not to Regret the Things You Build"

Summary:
The current wave of computational propaganda has taken the world by surprise. Technology firms, policy makers, journalists and the general public are scrambling to respond to the societal threats posed by disinformation and politically motivated trolling. This talk outlines one method for responding to these issues. It describes and presents the Ethical Operating System (ethicalOS.org), a toolkit for anticipating future uses of technology. Jane McGonigal and Samuel Woolley, with support from Omidyar Network, constructed this guide to help a wide variety of groups think about how to design technology with democracy and human rights in mind. The toolkit has been used by major companies in Silicon Valley, by legislators at the state and federal level and by students in Stanford's design school and intro to computer science courses. It's time, however, to put into the hands of the U.S. public so that they can help in the fight against disinformation and manipulative technology.

Assistant Dean, Queensland University of Technology
BMC 5.208 - Part of Global Media Industries Speaker Series
"Globalization, Neo-Globalization and Post-Globalization: New Challenges for Global Communication Studies"

In this presentation, I will discuss the three major paradigms of global communication studies: modernization theories; critical political economy; and globalization theories. I will particularly focus on globalization theories, as these are not only conceptual approaches, but claim to be underpinned by an increasingly global economy, culture and communications system. I will argue that these claims need to be approached with some caution, as nation-states, national cultures and national economies continue to be very significant – we have not moved to a post-national, globally cosmopolitan era. I will discuss alternative frameworks for reforming globalization and global institutions (neo-globalization) and the rise of populist nationalism (anti-globalization). I will conclude with a discussion of whether we are heading towards a post-global era and what implications this may have for the field of global communication studies.

BMC 5.208 - Associate Professor, Department of Communication, University of Washington
Ralina Joseph is an associate professor at UW-Seattle's Department of Communication. She is the founding and acting director of the University of Washington’s Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity. Dr. Joseph is also affiliated with UW Departments of American Ethnic Studies and Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies. Her latest book is "PostRacial Resistance" (2018).

"Postracial Resistance"

Abstract:
From Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, and Shonda Rhimesto their audiences and the industry workers behind the scenes, Ralina L. Joseph considers the way that Black women are required to walk a tightrope between calling out racism only to face accusations of being called “racists” and responding to racism in code only to face accusations of selling out. Postracial Resistance explores how African American women celebrities, cultural producers, and audiences use the tools of postracial discourse—the notion that race and race-based discrimination is over and no longer affect people’s everyday lives—to refute its very tenets. In a world where they’re often written off as stereotypical “Angry Black Women,” Joseph offers that some Black women in media opt into a phenomenon of “strategic ambiguity,” using the failures of post-racial discourse to nameracism in order to resist it. As these women are required to perform and negotiate their race in strategic ambiguity, Joseph listens to and watches Black women from three different places in media culture: textual analysis of the media’s representation of these women; interviews with writers, producers, and studio lawyers; and audience ethnography to consider how Black women viewers negotiate the limited representations available to them. In doing so, Joseph maps the tensions and strategies that all Black women must engage in to refute the racialized sexism of everyday life, on- and off-screen.

11:00 am • BMC 5.208
“Beyond the Written Text: Visual Communication and Academic Research”
Sponsored by the Technology Information Policy Institute

Nico Carpentier is Docent at Charles University in Prague, Professor at Uppsala University, and Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB – Free University of Brussels). Moreover, he is a Research Fellow at the Cyprus University of Technology and Loughborough University. Earlier, he was ECREA Treasurer (2005-2012) and Vice-President (2008-2012), and IAMCR Treasurer (2012-2016). Currently, he is Chair of the Participatory Communication Research Section at IAMCR. His latest books are The Discursive-Material Knot: Cyprus in Conflict and Community Media Participation (2017, Peter Lang, New York); Cyprus and its Conflicts. Representations, Materialities, and Cultures (2018, co-edited), Critical Perspectives on Media, Power and Change (2018, co-edited) and Respublika! Experiments in the Performance of Participation and Democracy (2019, edited).

This talk touches on the possibilities of communicating academic research through non-written texts. Methodologically and analytically grounded in Arts-Based Research (ABR), a series of experiments has investigated the possibilities of communicating communication and media studies research through the use of photography, installation and exhibition. Two main case studies will be discussed.

The first experiment is the Iconoclastic Controversies. A visual sociology of statues and commemoration sites in the southern regions of Cyprus photography exhibition, which analyses how statues and commemoration sites narrate and frame the Cyprus Problem, and the struggle between antagonist nationalist discourses and their contestations. The second experiment is Respublika!, an art project that ran between November 2017 and January 2018, focusing on participatory arts and art about participation, originating from community media affiliated artists. Both experiments allow for an investigation of the possibilities and limits of "other" academic genres, and the opportunities of enriching our academic practices.

BMC 5.102 - Radio-Television-Film Professor Kathy Fuller-Seeley

"Shot in Texas, 1911: Exploring Media Studies Research Questions and Historical Evidence surrounding 'Billy and His Pal'"

The visual power of the Texas landscape, gender construction and queerness, developing cinematography and editing practices, narrative and aesthetics, western mythology, racial stereotypes, screen performance, commercial product placement, cinema history, audience reception and cultural context—issues across media studies contribute to our understanding of a one-reel dramatic comedy produced in San Antonio in February 1911 by the Melies Star Film Company. The material was rediscovered, just a few years ago, in a New Zealand archive. We will explore materials from this current research project.

Happy Hour to follow at Hole in the Wall.

BMC 5.208 - Professor, Department of Media & Communication, London School of Economics
Part of Digital Media Speaker Series. Sponsored by Technology and Information Policy Institute (TIPI) and Good Systems.

"Injustices of Digital Disruption: More Tepid Policy or a Radical Democratic Turn"

This lecture examines a fundamentally important question for the future of society. Is there ever likely to be an effective challenge to the pursuit of wealth through inequitable mass individualization? The ‘platformization of everything’ – by Google, Baidu, Facebook, Amazon and a few others - is implicated in the spread of misinformation and in the deepening of many kinds of inequalities. This lecture explores reasons for the persistence of cautious and relatively weak policy responses to platform power and whether a turn to radical democratic theory and practice might help to promote policy responses that work as a counterpoint to platform dominance.

BMC 5.102 - Eric Dienstfrey, Postdoctoral Fellow for the Center for American Music
Part of Global Media Industries Speaker Series

"The Time the Telephone Company Broke the Talkies"

\In the 1930s, the newly formed Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences did something puzzling. It implemented an industry-wide technical standard—nicknamed “Academy Mono”—that dramatically impaired the sound quality for all talking pictures. Why exactly industry leaders thought such impairments were a good idea remains unclear. At the time, the Academy claimed that its standard would correct the problems with sub-par sound systems, and thereby improve the reproduction of films in smaller theaters. My presentation, however, provides a different explanation. Drawing upon studio contracts, court filings, FCC reports, and the surviving correspondence of audio engineers, I argue that studios adopted the technical standard in order to kneecap the Hollywood office of AT&T. In the years leading up to Academy Mono’s creation, the telephone company had been widely accused of “throttling” films and extorting exhibitors into installing AT&T-licensed loudspeakers. The solution to this power grab was to implement acoustical restrictions that undercut AT&T’s equipment advantages and weakened the company’s stranglehold on the industry. This presentation, in turn, reconsiders the value of technical standards within media industries. Contrary to scholarship that sees standardization as a means to bolster cooperation and efficiency, I contend that industry leaders exploit technical regulations in order to restrict competition, consolidate power, and maximize profits. In other words, standards are designed to benefit those in power, often at the expense of aesthetic quality and intra-industry cooperation.

*Please note that this on a Tuesday.*
BMC 1.202 - Anchor and Executive Producer, Latino USA; CEO, Futuro Group
Part of Latino Media Arts and Studies Speaker series

Presentation by Maria Hinojosa, anchor and executive producer of NPR's Latino USA, with a conversation facilitated by Professor Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez. KUT will host a reception following the talk in the KUT event space, from 5-6 pm. Both events are open to the public.

As the anchor and executive producer of NPR's Latino USA, and anchor of the Emmy Award-winning talk show "Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One," Maria Hinojosa has informed millions of Americans about the fastest growing group in our country. Previously, a Senior Correspondent for NOW on PBS, Hinojosa has reported hundreds of important stories—from the immigrant work camps in NOLA after Katrina, to teen girl victims of sexual harassment on the job, to Emmy Award-winning stories of the poor in Alabama.

Hinojosa's important contributions to journalism and social justice reporting have been acknowledged with a range of awards and honors, including a Peabody Award for Latino USA; four Emmys; the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism; the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Reporting on the Disadvantaged; the Studs Terkel Community Media Award; the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club for best documentary; and the AWRT Gracie Award for Individual Achievement as Best TV correspondent.

She has taught in the Latin American and Latino Studies program at DePaul University and in April 2010, Hinojosa launched The Futuro Media Group with the mission to produce multi-platform, community-based journalism that gives critical voice to the voiceless by harnessing the power of independent media to tell stories that are overlooked or under reported by traditional media. She is a frequent guest on MSNBC; has been named among the top 25 Latinos in Contemporary American Culture by the Huffington Post; and was recently honored as one of People En Espanol's 25 most powerful women.

Sponsored by KUT, the Center for Mexican American Studies, the Moody College, Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, School of Journalism, Latino Media Arts & Studies, and faculty in the Department of Radio-Television-Film.

BMC 5.208 - "Podcasting: Industries, Identities and Strategies"
Panelists:
Briana Barner, PhD Student, RTF
Adam Brown, Executive Strategist for Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
Kathy Cacace, PhD Student, RTF
Kelsey Whipple, PhD Candidate, Journalism
Moderator: Kyle Wrather, PhD Candidate, RTF

This roundtable will feature recent research and perspectives on the continuing development and growth of podcasting. The panel features three Moody College of Communication doctoral researchers as well as Brown, a marketing strategist and practicing podcaster. Brown’s own podcast, the "Social Pros Podcast" can be found here: [https://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcasts/shows/social-pros-podcast/]

BMC 5.102 – Lennart Soberon, Doctoral Researcher, Centre for Cinema and Media Studies, Ghent University, Belgium

“The Structures of Antipathy: Action Cinema and the Affects of Animosity”
 
This lecture deals with the practice of enemy making in film and the emotional structures that sustain antipathic forms of spectator/character engagement. Throughout its history the cinematic medium has shown great potential as an instrument of dehumanization and demonization. Using the action film genre as a case study, I will critically investigate enemy image construction as both a discursive construct and a set of textual practices in contemporary Hollywood. Being a genre renowned for spectacular action and visceral violence, the action film centers around the Manichaean struggle between righteous heroes and villainous ‘others’. Specifically I will focus on a selection of contemporary action blockbusters, such as Jack Reacher (2012), Skyfall (2012), and John Wick (2014) to elucidate how enemy making plays a pivotal role in the genre’s affective logics. In their efforts to deliver narratively practical villains that build suspense and hold attention, these films accentuate enemy characters their position as threat and their general deviance from the social norms. Moreover, through a set of narrative and aesthetic strategies the spectator is attempted to be involved in an emotional state of ‘moral indignation’. By structuring a combination of emotions such as fear, hatred, disgust and contempt in the generic paradigm of revenge, both an ideological and affective framework are offered to read the violence of the hero as just and the lives of villains as ungrievable.
 
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LENNART SOBERON works as a doctoral researcher and teaching assistant for the faculty of Communication Sciences at Ghent University, Belgium, where he is a member of the Centre for Cinema and Media Studies (CIMS). His research deals with the representation of contemporary conflicts in cinema and focusses on the construction of enemy images in American action films. For his inquiry on hero and villain characters in action cinema he combines the use of quantitative methodologies with neoformalist-oriented forms of textual analysis. Apart from working on themes of vilification and ‘othering’, he has also published on themes of genre, political economy and national trauma.