I wanted to talk a bit about confession ( Read more... )

I do not think it is an accident that a society willing to grant corporations the legal status of individuals is also a society that seeks 'community' with anthropomorphized brands. What the viral success of the Old Spice guy shows us is how deep the desire has been (who knew anything could make Old Spice cool?) and how late advertisers are to the ( Read more... )

Here is something I wrote that I thought I would put out for other people's thoughts ( Read more... )

A student asked me how I wound up doing what I do intellectually, and why I do it where I do it. It occurred to me that some of you might welcome hearing me tell this story. I dedicate this to folks who feel their story is too weird or unorthodox or whatever, and that they'll never find a place for themselves and their politics. My advice for those ( Read more... )

This week, students in a cyberculture class are asking me questions about doing ethnography. One of the students asked me to discuss the issue of ambivalence. Here is part of my reply ( Read more... )

My colleague Stephen Maddison and I are working to put together the symposia below. We just won a 'pump prime' grant from our university today ('pump prime' is another way of saying, "Here is some internal money to get people to help you write bigger external grants so we don't have to give you any more money.") The best part about this is that I ( Read more... )

After the cut, you can find the assessment questions for my third-year undergrad Digital Media Cultures class.

OPTION 1: MAKE AND ANALYZE YOUR OWN REMIX

OPTION 2: Discuss the legal and ethical implications of TurnitIn

OPTION 3: PROVIDE A SCHOLARLY ANALYSIS OF YOUR FRIENDS LISTS

OPTION 4: COMPARE TWO FORMS OF ‘SUPER PUBLIC’ LIVING

( Read more... )

--PLEASE PASS ON TO INTERESTED PARTIES--

Hello, friends in London!

I wanted to invite folks to join me next Tuesday at the University of East London Public Lecture Series, where I am giving a talk about--among other thing-- half-naked young girls on the internet.

Because it's the sort of conversation that's best had in the presence of people under ( Read more... )

Here's  my newest paper proposal for the Association of Internet Researchers Conference (this October in Sweden!) 

This paper is part of a larger (and awesome) panel I’ve proposed with the title, “Brand Me Online: Sustaining Personal Identity through Strategies of the Corporate.”

PROPOSED PAPER:

Micro-celebrity, charity, democracy? Decoding the ( Read more... )

 
Writing an Abstract: From Terri Senft: t.senft@uel.ac.uk

Many students working on abstracts find themselves panicked with "blank page syndrome." To help, I have developed a tool for you. This has been designed for students in Media/Cultural Studies, but could probably be adopted for a range of programs.

Enjoy!

Elements of a strong abstract

1 ( Read more... )