Aca-Media

Recorded after Game 1 of the World Series and before the conclusion of the US presidential election, here we feature interviews with Kirk Combe and Sangeet Kumar on political satire media in an international context, as well as Cynthia Meyers on broadcast advertising and the red scare. Visit the website for full show notes!: http://www.aca-media.org/episode33

Kicking of the fall semester, we present the first in a three part series with media scholars in conversations addressing the current election season—beginning with Chuck Tryon, author of the new book “Political TV.” In addition, we are featuring an excerpt of the excellent SCMS Fieldnotes interview with Constance Penley by Elena Gorfinkel. Visit the website for full show notes!: http://www.aca-me...

We’re back with an extended summer episode courtesy of the SCMS Sound Studies Scholarly Interest Group (SIG). Produced by Tim Anderson, the episode features excellent segments with Jeremy Morris on music formats, metadata and tagging; Brian Fauteux on Canadian college radio; Joan Titus on Shostakovich and musicology; and Nina Cartier on Blaxploitation soundtracks. Enjoy your summer!

Just wrapping up the spring semester, this new episode features a report from the Academy Film Archives featuring interviews with the archive’s director Michael Pogorzelski, preservation officer Joe Lindner, and public access coordinator May Haduong. In addition, we present an interview with Nicholas Mirzoeff, speaking on his new book “How to See the World,” as well as scholarly and activist proje...

A special Aca-Media short report! The non-academic talk of #SCMS16 has been the furry convention at the hotel next door, so Chris went along with a handful of fan studies scholars to check it out.

Our pre-SCMS Atlanta episode includes a detailed report from the Radio Preservation Task Force Conference, featuring interviews with Josh Shepperd, Sonja Williams, Gerald Seligman, and Wendy Shay. In addition, we present a segment on the history and legacy of the SCMS Latino/a Caucus, from Luisela Alvaray, Laura Isabel Serna, and Rielle Navitski, featuring interviews with Margarita De La Vega-Hurt...

Following last episode’s segment on graduate student-run journals, we present a segment on the undergraduate journal Film Matters, featuring co-editor-in-chief Tim Palmer of University of North Carolina Wilmington, guest editor-in-chief Gregory Chan of Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and editorial board members Jen Pintao and Kailyn Warpole. In addition, we feature an excerpt of the SCMS Fieldnot...

Our Cinema Journal Presents segment features Jun Okada, Associate Professor of English and Film Studies at SUNY Geneseo discussing her new book Making Asian American Film and Video: History, Institutions, Movements, as well as ongoing research. In addition, we’ve put together a segment on graduate student-run journals, including interviews with editors of InVisible Culture: An Electronic Journal f...

Drama! Tension! Melodrama! Horror!  This episode will put you through the emotional wringer, it will give you the feels, it will help you understand both cannibals and Cubs fans.  No preview can do it justice:  you'll just have to listen.  With Vicky Johnson, Lisa Schmidt, and "Very Special Guest Star" Elana Levine.

Fall is here and the semester has begun. Michael and Chris share some teaching tips, and we'd like to hear your teaching tips too: email us at info@aca-media.org. Our Cinema Journal Presents segment features Debra Ramsay discussing war-based video games like Call of Duty. Then we bring you another Fieldnotes interview, this time with film scholar James Naremore, expert on Welles and Hitchcock. Fin...

It's an exciting, exciting episode of Aca-Media to help you while away the dog days of summer. First up: Kristen Warner talks about "colorblind casting" and waxes eloquent about her love for Magic Mike XXL. Bonus: We're giving away a copy of Kristen's new book to a lucky graduate student; to enter, email your idea for a segment of Aca-Media to info@aca-media.org. Then we bring you another Fieldnot...

Michael and Chris are back from Dublin, and we have lots of great content for your summer listening pleasure.  First, Bill interviews Jill Simpson, Executive Director of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, about her background and plans for the society. Chris talks with Jennifer Proctor about he [in]Transition video essay on textuality in film. Finally, we have a Vox Scholari segment of summ...

It's been a while, but we're back with some good stuff!  First, Austin Fisher discusses his video essay from [in]Transition, responding to Michelle Cho’s CJ article on spaghetti westerns. Then we air a tribute to distinguished media scholar Michele Hilmes, produced by Andrew Bottomley and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin.  Finally, Michael and Chris lament the latest political develop...

This episode features lots of great content to get you through your flight to Montreal. First we talk with Jon Lewis about his classic Cinema Journal article from 2000 about “How the Blacklist Saved Hollywood." Then media policy scholar Danny Kimball fills us in on the FCC's big network neutrality decision. Finally, after the most implausible segue in recorded human history, Casey McCormick and Er...

Don't fear the numbers! In a fascinating (and funny) interview, we talk to Jeremy Butler about how he uses quantitative analysis and digital tools to better understand film and television style. Then we continue bringing you interviews with great film and media scholars from the folks at Fieldnotes: this month Thomas Waugh talks with Linda Williams about Jump Cut, the pornography wars of the 1980s...

This month we bring you the great film scholar Thomas Elsaesser as part of our collaboration with the new Fieldnotes project. Fieldnotes is conducting oral histories with notable media scholars, so look for more great interviews in coming episodes, and listen to the full interviews at the SCMS website (http://www.cmstudies.org/?page=fieldnotes). We also have a fascinating conversation with Rielle...

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...

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 o...

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...

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...

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 so...

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...

Michael and Chris are freezing, yet they pull themselves together to provide another great episode. In the "Cinema Journal Presents" segment, Michael Slowik discusses music in early Hollywood sound film. Then Caetlin Benson-Allott introduces us to a great SCMS tradition, Grrrls Night Out. Finally, Chris discusses what she's watching and Michael sends one out to the snow-shovelers we love.  

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...