#communication studies

[a99jazzybean]

I’M DONE! My first year of my masters program is officially over. After slaving over papers, I’m so glad to get a little bit of a break (I wrote a total of 76 pages of research over the last three weeks). I’ll begin research on my thesis over the summer, but I’ll still have much more time to write fanfic again.

Thank you guys so much for your patience and kind words when I got the chance to write. I’ll be regularly getting fics out starting next week!

[bakhtin]

Starting a studyblr account because I need to romanticize my grad program before I lose my mind

[tvlipsandbread]

I miss those English classes where everyone would engage with the lesson, and I'd get so excited to contribute to the discussion, then we'd get sidetracked and the teacher would have to reel it back in. I miss my spark.

[jolteonmchale]

[astroacespace]

Recently, a 4-hour video essay on plagiarism in the YouTube space came out from YouTuber hbomberguy. The video made some big claims with damning evidence against some big-name YouTubers—the first half focusing on two channels with significant-sized audiences. The 2nd half focuses on James Somerton, a gay video essayist primarily known for his queer video essays on tv and film. To summarize hbomberguy's video (this will not do it justice if you have the time, I highly recommend the original video it's so gripping it doesn't feel like 4 hours), Somerton plagiarized most of his content significantly. The twist here is that Somerton's persona was that of gay representation when he stole his content and ideas from much smaller queer writers who saw none of the profits from their stolen content. The content he wrote was often misogynistic, with double standards on the way women engage with pop culture. Then, when concerned fans saw that his work was almost word for word of an article or book, Somerton would claim that the concerns were in bad faith from targeted homophobes sending him death threats. This situation hit many topics we've covered: virtue signaling, representation, Marxist theory, & feminist theory. I really looked at this situation from a more meta-narrative; what can we learn from the Somerton situation to better understand rhetorical criticism and analysis? As we try to understand pop culture through these different lenses, I think it is essential to take away to understand the power of a platform. Queer fans really engaged with Somerton's work because they believed him to be a trusted source from their community. This is why it is so devesting that he stole the words and ideas from other queer people who did not benefit from their hard work. Somerton stole without regard for his community, even stealing the ideas of men who died in the AIDS crisis. This made me think about how important our work as communication scholars is. By first recognizing and building on our community ideas, we succeed together. We must continue to research and analyze media in good faith and lift up the writers who came before us.

[codeandcanvas]

While I am loading up my handheld with music, I came across The Book of Ive talking about Solarpunk and how it relates to Cyberpunk.

At first I was passively listening to it, as you do while doing something more important but still need to occupy your inner gremlins, but then he mentioned a word I have not heard before: interpassivity, a word linked to Robert Pfaller’s philosophy of media, and also the title of his 2017 book, and I paused and took note.

And this is how the book and its topic is described on its page on De Gruyter:

“A radical criticism of current assumptions in the field of cultural theory today

Why do people record TV programmes instead of watching them? Why do some recovering alcoholics let others drink in their place? Why can ritual machines pray in place of believers?

Robert Pfaller advances the theory of ‘interpassivity’ as delegated consumption and enjoyment. Applicable to both art and everyday life, the concept allows him to tackle a vast range of phenomena: culture, art, sports and religion.

Pfaller criticises dominant assumptions, offers an escape from prevailing ideologies and exposes how cultural capitalism promotes commodities with the promise of happiness.”

Interesting take, right?

[duffy-is-daydreaming]

Not to be a grad student but my university's library has a physical copy of Toward Independence which was one of the most influential documents in the history of the Americans with Disabilities Act and man. There really is something special about holding such a momentous piece of disability rights legacy in my hands and reading the words that laid the groundwork for so many of the reasons that I'm able to be an openly neurologically disabled grad student at a public university at all. Like the paper that I'm using this thing for is not quite the genre of academic writing that I'm most invested in, but I am nonetheless getting a little emotional in my office over this incredibly powerful work of sociopolitical rhetoric that was published when my mom was younger than I am now and still makes me feel so fucking seen and heard almost 40 years later. I should stop procrastinating now and actually write my paper but man communication studies was not lying when they said rhetoric can emotional appeal <3