What are the priorities of Indian business television news?

Check this space in nine months to find out!

In other words, I’ve found my dissertation research question. For now.

Prelims Post

What’s a graduate student website without a blog post about taking prelims?

I took prelims a couple weeks ago. The reading lists were long but focused, the questions weren’t trying to trip me up, and my answers will be helpful in the long run.

There. I wrote about my prelims.

Here are some longer posts from other people about the process of taking prelim exams:

http://chrisuggen.blogspot.com/2006/07/failing-prelims-failing-comps-failing.html

http://www.tmttlt.com/archives/6459

If I write a longer post about prelims in the future (maybe after they’ve been evaluated), I”ll talk a lot about the food I ate and how I took breaks by staring out the window at the pedestrian bridge that had an icy patch just big enough to capture three people in one day.

Media History as General History

I came to the realization recently that the principle reason that I study media history is that the media is the most viable and comprehensive lens through which we can view, order and articulate historical events. If we want to get to know the history of a particular social group, geographic terrain or political entity, we would do best to investigate how the media (and communication) function. Media history is the only subfield to offer a substantial view. The scientific,political and even religious histories of a community, society or nation can at best give fractured insight. Maybe this is precisely because it is through the media (and communication) that we are invited (or discouraged) to understand and engage with others.

Summer Publications

In addition to presenting at the International Association for Mass Communication Research conference in Hyderabad, India, I had one book review and one article published this summer.

My IAMCR paper, co-written by my UW SJMC colleague Alicia Wright, described how the mainstream Indian media covered the allegations of sexual assault brought against Tarun Tejpal, founder-editor of the alternative weekly newsmagazine, Tehelka. Our argument was that the coverage was about the magazine (the institution) not the man (the individual) and that the mainstream media — often the brunt of criticism from Tehelka — would not have attacked the CEO of a non-media company the way they did Tejpal. I should clarify that none of the paper is about the merit of the accusation or the case itself, rather that the coverage of the case is another example of the battle between mainstream and alternative media.

The book review, which appeared in New Media & Society, discussed Sunetra Sen Narayan’s dissertation-cum-monograph, Globalization and Television: A Study of the Indian Experience, 1990-2010, published by Oxford University Press in 2014. The book had a lot of potential and Narayan did a lot of work, but there was no compelling argument that brought the grand theory of globalization and the study of televisual media product development together.

The original article is a revision of my M.A. thesis that told the institutional history of the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Communication Department, told through the lens of disciplinarity. Rather than look at discipline as a fixed place, I argue that it is more lucrative to conceptualize the disciplinization process when it comes to evaluating and explaining the decisions made by faculty and administrators to build a department in a particular way. The article is part of a special issue of Review of Communication on the Microhistories of Communication.

I’m currently working on a long review essay on books about print culture in India.

Journalism Ethics Education — Where is the Research?

Today I gave a presentation on the lack of a corpus of scholarly publications on journalism ethics education. According to my research, the Journal of Mass Media Ethics and Journalism (and Mass Communication) Educator combine to publish fewer than 30 articles that deal explicitly with the issue of teaching ethics in journalism schools since the 1980 publication of the landmark pamphlet by Clifford Christians and Catherine Covert, Teaching Ethics in Journalism Education. Even if there were problems with my search terms, the fact remains that an alarmingly low percentage of the possible articles published in those two journals — where one would expect most of that conversation to take place — focused on the role that professors and instructors play in shaping their students’ conceptions and employments of ethics. Even if these kinds of conversations might happen on conference panels, if they were prominent enough or if those having the conversations were passionate enough, they would show up in a journal.

So, where is the research on how we teach our students about journalism ethics? If the research is being done, why isn’t it being published in two of the most obvious places?

As this project progresses, I’ll update it here.

Book Acquisition: De-Westernizing Media Studies

In my effort to build a knowledge of non-U.S. media studies, I came across an edited volume, De-Westernizing Media Studies, edited by James Curran and Myung-Jin Park. The book is a collection of case studies written in the Critical/Cultural tradition and seems to be a good starting place for anyone interested in comparative media studies.

Of course, it was published in 2000. If anyone has suggestions of more current works, I’m definitely interested.

On, Wisconsin

I’ve set up this blog to help me keep track of my research ideas and, when the time is right, generate conversation about my own ideas and the ideas of others.

Last week I began my doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. This site’s purpose is not to generate or respond to departmental gossip, but I will say that the environment in Vilas has been one of immediate warmth, collaboration and excitement. I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn, study and teach here and appreciate those who made it possible.

As my thoughts mature and this site grows, if you find yourself reading these posts, I’m flattered and if you find yourself inspired my ideas, I’m honored.