Hello anonymous blogospherian reader-
Introductions up front: My name is Mike and I’m a third-year Ph.D. student here at Annenberg. I'm originally from San Diego, by way of several other longitudes and latitudes: undergraduate days in San Francisco, a master's in journalism from Columbia (NYC), and a few years work as an alt-weekly writer in Houston. (More details - and article links to cure insomnia - should you be oddly inclined here.)
My academic research and journalistic reporting tends to be about popular and consumer culture (with a dash of religion and politics thrown in). Increasingly, I'm interested in focusing on the intersection of youth and technology - namely, how the character, values and behavior of this nascent "millennial" generation (vis-a-vis their new media and digital technology) is being represented in the press, constructed by media and marketing industries, and experienced by millennials themselves.
Although I won't likely find my way to a surfboard off the coast of Mission Beach this summer (a mild bummer), there's plenty of exciting projects and opportunities already afoot. In May, I gave a research talk in the Political Communication division of the International Communication Association conference in Montreal. Bruce Hardy and I had co-authored a multi-method analysis of the geopolitical implications of Christian apocalypse entertainment. That's just the fancy-pants way of simply saying our research asked: What is the Left Behind series doing to fans and what are fans doing with it? In recent years, the Left Behind franchise has witnessed extraordinary growth and popularity (rivaling Harry Potter in sales) and it is deeply imbued with intriguing geopolitical themes and ideas. Through survey data and message board textual analysis, we try to tease out how the series might inform readers’ beliefs about war, diplomacy and global relations.
It was my first trip to an ICA conference and I thoroughly dug the intellectual offerings. Montreal had a fantastic vibe as well; hope to get back there sometime soon to explore further, ideally with some québécois phrases to fake local. (Side note: Thankfully, “puteen” – Canada’s indulgently unholy marriage of fries, cheese and gravy – is not a regular staple on Philly menus, lest I balloon my cholesterol up to an even 400.)
This month (June), I’m busy with the first major undertaking of the summer: teaching a “Visual Communication” class offered through CGS at Penn. The schedule is compact and therefore intense – 4 days a week for 1.5 hours a day – and teaching a class of my own is an experience as invigorating as it is intimidating. But we’re nearly halfway through the course and the energy remains high. Great bunch of peeps on board – hopefully they’re finding the material engaging and edifying (what with a steady diet of MTV music videos, classic action movie scenes, and couture advertisement deconstruction, one might hope so...).
So that wraps up dispatch one. Hopefully it’s in keeping with the tone and goal of the blog - a mix of formality and informality (much like summer itself, I suppose). Echoing into the cyberspace void is a funny thing (and one I’m new at): The abyss just stares back at you.
Anyhow, on the July horizon there’s further conference travel (Jamaica) to report on and an exciting “Summerculture” research program in Finland and Russia organized by Dr. Barbie Zelizer. As ever, Annenberg’s hookups are generous and boundless and for that I am always grateful… more to follow therefore… and onward.
safe travels
-serazio
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