I recently gave a presentation on Agenda Setting Theory in a course on Communication Theories & Frameworks. It is a fairly straightforward theory that addresses the ways in which issues covered by the media influences public opinion, which in turn influences policy. All the same, I thought I would throw some artifacts online for prosperity and the next person who needs to explain how the media is responsible for everything.

Here is a video of my PowerPoint presentation:

Here is an overly designed handout that summarizes the theory and some of its applications.

In this presentation I played one of my favorite scenes from the West Wing, which should be enjoyed with or without this presentation. Enjoy!

What do LOLcats and silent film have in common? More than you might imagine.

This week gnovis, an academic journal focused on new media and technology, published its Spring issue. According to the editor, this issue is particularly “cute.” From his overview:

“wants moar: visual media’s use of text in LOLcats and silent film,” by Jed R. Brubaker, continues the trend of comparative historical analysis of media forms, but using texts that are infinitely more… well… cute. LOLcats, popular on the Internet since 2007, are photos of housecats with comical captions. Brubaker’s analysis compares the captions used in LOLcats to intertitles from the silent film era.

Yes, this is my first solo publication at the graduate level, and I am thrilled that it is on something that never fails to make me smile. (more…)

Do you Twitter?

It was really fun to read about Boo’s thoughts on Twitter after having inundated her for a month with everything I saw that somehow included the word “Twitter.” I should have just sent her a link to a Google search. I forced myself on Boo when I discovered that she had been working on a paper about the use of Twitter by presidential candidates. This is interesting for sure, but I was surprised at her personal conclusion:

In other words, micro-blogging serves its purpose. I get that. And I think it’ll be interesting to see if it ends up filling a gap in investigative journalism or allowing organizers to keep a step ahead of the police trying to shut them down, or making conferences run more smoothly than they typically do. But as a service that supposedly offers some value to my life, I just don’t see it.

So, I think I’ll keep my tweets to myself for now.

Maybe I came on too strong.

(more…)

The academic blogosphere is a bit tame right now as we are all making our way through finals. This, of course, applies to me. This means hours in the library, scratching away at my papers, and always welcoming a distraction, which I am now sharing with you.

The question for the day: What would life be like if Facebook was actually played out in real life?

The answer (enjoy!):

Coincidentally, this video was posted to my Facebook wall by Raf.

I am certainly going to argue that it is.

Fred Dervin and Yasmine Abbas are editing a book entitled “New technologies of the self, mobilities and (co-)constructions of identities.” Here is a snip of the synopsis:

The new interpersonal spaces created by web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies seem to correspond to the technologies of the self that Michel Foucault (1988) has addressed in his lectures at the Collège de France at the beginning of the 1980s. These new technologies enable the individual’s self to emerge publicly and to be worked upon with its “disciples”… With high speed Internet access and increasingly generous capacities of storage… the opportunities for staging the self have become unlimited.

An email in my inbox was sent from Fred Dervin today to let me know that Yasmine had posted the list of chapter authors on her blog. Not to hold you in suspense, I am on the list. My work on craigslist Missed Connections will join what now looks like a fascinating group of authors and topics (read about the book and topics here).

(more…)

Next week I will be presenting at quickanddirty IV, part of a the larger D.C. Queer Studies Symposium. The two-day symposium is on April 17th and 18th at the University of Maryland, and its FREE!

I am presenting craigslist and anonymous online behavior research as part of a session entitled Regulation, Surveillance, and Queer Challenges to the State (obviously composing the ‘regulation’ portion). But don’t come for me – The symposium is bringing in academics including Siobhan Somerville, Roderick Ferguson, and their inevitable groupies.

Ramzi Fawaz and Ben Richfield, two DC-based colleagues of mine, will also be presenting work. Congrats to you both.

The rest of you – go learn something! (Find out more at The D.C. Queer Studies Symposium website.)

UPDATE: DC Queer Studies blog posted an entry with more details. Read it here!

UPDATE #2: The New Gay is now running a promo for the symposium. Read that one here.

Metropolitan cities are the perfect breeding ground for misfired romantic connections, and those posting ads in an attempt to expedite the back-fire. Something about the size and anonymity of cities like NYC and DC makes craigslist important, where in places like Salt Lake City it somehow just seems sad.

One DC community, however, is not teaming with as much digitally captured sexual frustration as some might like. The New Gay has issued a call to action for all DC lesbians:

We all know this: the w4w ads on Craigslist suck… I know we can do better. For the next week I challenge All DC-Area Lesbians to place a regular or Missed Connection ad on Craigslist that does not suck. One that you yourself could imagine responding to. Do it. And report back.

Granted, I have forwarded this to all of my w4w applicable friends, but I am curious if this will really work. (more…)

Apparently HappyCat and I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER have combined forces and entered new mediums.

Announcing the I Can Has Cheezburger? LOLcat Colleckshun!

To be released in time for Xmas, this seems like the perfect gift to further confuse my parents about my higher education track.

For everyone who has ever asked “Do craigslist missed connections actually work?” this video is for you.

The theorist in me has to point out that a missed connections attempts to reconstruct an interaction so that the other-half of the would-be connection will respond (think ‘intertextuality’ and ‘Kriteva’).

Or in other words, “Yeah, the odds are pretty low.”

So why not use YouTube to help you reconstruct the scene via video? (It might even go viral!)

But really, what is up with the pillow fight?

(via craiglist blog)

gnovis ran an article of mine today about a keynote delivered by THINKFilm’s Mark Urman at the URI conference last week, and the impact of digital distribution and net-neutrality on culture. You should all go and read it!

How is Urman shaping independent film? Well, I will leave that for my article on gnovis, but I will share a funny bit that I couldn’t quite fit in.

When URI’s Dr. John Leo was introducing Mark Urman to the stage, he stopped for a moment to ponder the name THINKFilm.

“Is that an acronym?”, he seemed to ask no one it particular.

Urman answered from his seat in the audience: “It’s a command!”

Go read the rest!