Category Archives: Chapter 5

Front Pages: Stories from the insurrection, Part 5

The violent insurrection in Washington, D.C.  Wednesday was both utterly predictable and unimaginable. My feelings about those events go well beyond the scope of this blog, so instead of laying out my feelings, I’m going to share a variety of … Continue reading

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What does the 1st Amendment mean? Stories from the the insurrection, Part 3

The violent insurrection in Washington, D.C.  Wednesday was both utterly predictable and unimaginable. My feelings about those events go well beyond the scope of this blog, so instead of laying out my feelings, I’m going to share a variety of … Continue reading

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When Respected News Media Turn Zombie

Earlier this week I recorded a short video for my media literacy class explaining why this would be the last semester I’m teaching a unit on magazines.  The industry, basically, is dying. It was a difficult decision to remove the … Continue reading

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Teaching Mass Communication in the Time of COVID-19

It’s been  a difficult time for all of us the last few weeks with the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for social distancing, self-isolation, self-quarantine, working remotely, dealing with shortages of medical equipment and hospital beds… For faculty and students, it … Continue reading

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Twitter and the Death of a Basketball Legend

As everyone knows, basketball legend Kobe Bryant and several others, including one of his daughters, died in a helicopter crash on Sunday. Without further comment, here’s a number of Tweets that have discussed the flow of news about this tragedy. Retweeting here … Continue reading

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Death at the Fried Chicken Restaurant – How a story today echos Edna Buchanan’s most famous lede

One of the things that I really like about living in central Nebraska is that we don’t get a lot of people being shot and killed. It happens, but it’s not a routine part of our lives here on the … Continue reading

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Media Tweets: Joseph Maguire Edition (with a T.S. Eliot shout out)

A brief roundup of media news on the Twitter machine. The main focus today is on talk about Acting Intelligence Chief Joseph Maguire’s testimony because the House Intelligence Committee: Reminder: It was the Wall Street Journal that broke this story … Continue reading

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Is the magazine industry dying? Some thoughts.

Meredith sells Sports Illustrated intellectual property to Authentic Brands Group When Meredith Corp. bought out Time Inc. a year ago, the speculation was that the Better Homes & Gardens publisher would sell off all of the newsy magazines and just … Continue reading

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Great Magazine Covers

In this era of declining magazine circulation and budgets, it can be hard to remember that magazine covers were once one of the most powerful cultural memes around. Journalist Matt Haber recently tweeted out a fantastic thread looking at influential … Continue reading

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Portrait of the National Portrait Gallery

I recently was in Washington, D.C. for an academic conference, and fortunately enough, the conference hotel was about three blocks from the National Portrait Gallery and Museum of American Art. I’ve been there on several occasions in the past, but … Continue reading

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