Author Archives: Ralph Hanson

Everyone’s Gone To the Movies: Christopher Nolan’s early, popular and weird films

I would be hard pressed to name a more interesting activet film director than Christopher Nolan. His upcoming adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey is the most anticipated movie of the summer, and with Oppenheimer, he managed to turn a historical science … Continue reading

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Fun with Mando and Baby Yoda

I went to see director Jon Favreau’s  Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu at The Grand Theater in downtown Lincoln, NE Thursday at 9:40 a.m. with my Dear Wife. That may be the earliest screening either of us have seen … Continue reading

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Did no one pay attention to what the creation of Skynet led to?

Artificial Intelligence, AI, especially in its generative AI large language model form, has taken front and center lately in the discussion of contemporary culture. There are all of the awful AI-generated political memes out there, deepfake nude images, faulty legal … Continue reading

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Questions Worth Asking (Maybe): Perfect transcript, Perfect Jeopardy player, Imperfect corporate retreat, Perfect novelist

Why should every student should get their first “B” as soon as possible? (Atlantic gift Link) As a long-time college professor, one of my biggest frustrations was having students who were desperate to maintain their perfect 4.0 GPA. I had … Continue reading

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Welcome to the next phase of Living in a Media World

So, it’s been awhile… Posts here over the last year have been rather erratic as I’ve had a busy time finishing up my 38-year career as a journalism and communication professor. For the last 18 years I’ve been a teacher … Continue reading

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SCOTUS declines to hear AI copyright case

The US Supreme Court today announced they were not going to hear a case claiming copyright protection for AI generated works.  The plaintiff wanted to have copyright go to the person running the AI software. The courts had previously ruled … Continue reading

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A Video History of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Soul and Country Music

Thursday was one of my favorite media literacy lectures covering the history of a variety of formats of popular music, starting with hillbilly, folk, and the so-called race records. We started out with Chuck Berry performing “You Can’t Catch Me” … Continue reading

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A Hollowed-Out Washington Post

Approximately 13 years ago, Jeff Bezos was recruited by the Graham family to purchase The Washington Post for $250 million. Bezos, the founder of Amazon and one of the world’s wealthiest men, bought the paper as an individual, not as … Continue reading

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Getting a taste of Hannah Goldfield’s food writing

Although I haven’t talked about it enough here over the years, I’m enthralled by thoughtful food writing – whether it’s the reviews of street food by Los Angeles’ Jonathan Gold, the profane visits round the world by Anthony Bourdain, the … Continue reading

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TikTok is finally legal again in the US

TikTok has finalized a joint venture to have cloud-computing giant Oracle (along with a range of international partners) run its US operations. This finally brings the company into compliance with a law passed and signed into law in 2024 that … Continue reading

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