Media Archives - Page 2 of 3

Media

Are White People Really in Decline?

No, but when the mainstream media reports changing racial demographics as a contest for social domination, they validate white supremacists’ worst fears

September 15, 2021 • by Karen Gaffney

_____ When the United States Census Bureau released its 2020 census on August 12, 2021, the news media highlighted two important trends in race and ethnicity: a drop in the number of white people and a rise in the number of people who identify with more than one racial group. Both facts represent ...

Media

Watching Afghanistan

On television and the Afghan culture wars

July 12, 2021 • by Jeannette Estruth and Wazhmah Osman

_____ Media scholar Wazhmah Osman’s book, Television and the Afghan Culture Wars: Brought to You by Foreigners, Warlords, and Activists (University of Illinois Press, 2021) analyzes the impact of international funding and cross-border media flows on the national politics of Afghanistan. Her research is rooted in feminist media ethnographies that focus ...

Media

Ronald Reagan’s Worst Decision Created Rush Limbaugh

When the Fairness Doctrine was demolished in the name of free speech, a new conservative media rose up from the ashes

March 3, 2021 • by Robert Slayton

_____ When Rush Limbaugh died of lung cancer on February 17, 2021, all I could think of was Ronald Reagan’s worst decision. There are many contenders for that crown: his neglect as the AIDS crisis became an epidemic has to be a top pick. But another must go to his deregulation of ...

Ronald Reagan’s Worst Decision Created Rush Limbaugh

Media

Larry King

Past Present Podcast, Episode 265

February 2, 2021 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: TV and radio legend, Larry King, died last week at the age of 87. We discussed some of the retrospective pieces King’s sixty-year career produced, like this 2010 feature in the New York Times, and this 1988 article in the ...

Media

A Reality-Show Coup with Real Fascists Inside

The MAGA insurrection will be a forever reality show for recruiting new right-wing activists

January 18, 2021 • by Todd Gitlin

On January 6, Donald Trump’s spectacular MAGA insurrection radiated far beyond Capitol Hill. It was screened everywhere, over every known medium—broadcast, social, antisocial, what have you. The events and their meanings have been stockpiled in a cornucopian arsenal of propaganda, digital weaponry that is not done ravaging the world. The videos ...

A Reality-Show Coup with Real Fascists Inside

Media

The 2020 Presidential Election Certification

Past Present Podcast, Episode 261

January 6, 2021 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: On January 6, Congress will meet in a joint session to formally count the votes of the Electoral College. Natalia referred to Trevor Potter’s Washington Post piece underlining that this meeting should be purely ceremonial, not an opportunity for a ...

Media

Hallmark Christmas Movies

Past Present Podcast, Episode 260

December 22, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The Hallmark Christmas movie is a bona fide super-genre. Niki referred to this New Yorker article about how the form took over cable television, and Natalia drew on this piece at The Lily about the tradition of hate-watching the films. In ...

Democracy

Detroit’s Project Green Light and the “New Jim Code”

Why video surveillance and digital technology intensify racism

October 1, 2020 • by Vince Carducci

————— Over the last three and a half years, the City of Detroit has greatly expanded Project Green Light, an initiative of the Detroit Police Department (DPD), along with local businesses and other organizations, to use video surveillance and digital technology to fight crime. Since the first cameras went live in ...

Detroit’s Project Green Light and the “New Jim Code”

Media

Jessica Krug and Racial Identity Theft

Past Present Podcast, Episode 246

September 15, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: George Washington University historian Jessica Krug has been posing as a Black woman for years, and recently outed herself online. Neil referred to Martha Sandweiss’ book, Passing Strange: A Gilded Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line. Natalia ...

Media

Lovecraft Country

Past Present, Episode 224

September 2, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Lovecraft Country is attracting attention for its blend of historical drama and horror. Niki discussed this hybrid genre, as explained at Vox. She also mentioned the documentary, Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. Neil compared Lovecraft Country to Colson Whitehead’s recent novel, The Underground Railroad. Natalia referred to this ...

Media

Populist Digital Media?

Social media systems and the global populist right discourse

October 28, 2019 • by Majid KhosraviNik

But what is the role of social media in this? Participatory digital spaces or social media communication (SMC) should be viewed as a completely new communicative paradigm. This new communication system has made a radical shift in the way the media has been understood, upending established mass media assumptions in ...