A podcast offering an academic perspective on media, from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies
The logos from the SCMS conference in 2023 (mountains) and 2024 (waves) on either side of a picture of outgoing SCMS President Priscilla Peña Ovalle.
Return with us to our live taping at the SCMS conference in Denver in April 2023 as we talk with outgoing SCMS president Priscilla Peña Ovalle about the past and future of the SCMS conference. What are the hopes and challenges of conferencing for the Society in the post-pandemic world?
Image: Denver, Colorado, professional headshot of Finley Freibert, a graphic logo for SCMS 2023, a building in the University of Winnipeg, and a background from the website Unpaywall.
We’re going to SCMS 2023 in Denver, Colorado! In our latest episode we talk about our plans for SCMS, where we’ll be doing a live episode (which is next week at the time of publishing!). We then chat with Finley Freibert of the SCMS Precarious Labor Organization to talk about how things have changed – and not changed – over the last few years. Finally, we bid farewell to our longtime producer, Bill Kirkpatrick, who has joined the Sociology department at the University of Winnipeg.
Image: The cover of Amy Seham’s book Whose Improv Is It Anyway?, the logos for Blackout, the Social Justice Improv Project, Mental Illness and Friends, and Glass City Improv.
Our latest episode is a fascinating deep dive into the practice, politics, and promise of improv comedy. Diana De Pasquale leads you on a tour, talking with four different practitioners of improv on what improv means today, especially to marginalized people. For example, is the famous improv mantra of “Yes, and …” perhaps in need of revision?
Image: Emily J.H. Contois, a post from Hot Dudes and Hummus, the cover of Food Instagram, an image from the Museum of Food and Drink website, and Zenia Kish.
In this episode of Aca-Media, we bring you the editors and several authors of the collection Food Instagram: Identity, Influence, and Negotiation. This fascinating discussion explores the intersections of food and media (as well as food studies and media studies), the changing landscape of social media, and the cultural politics of “food porn.” Featuring Emily J.H. Contois, Zenia Kish, KC Hysmith, Sarah Tracy, Tara Schuwerk, and Michael Newman.
L-R: Joe Rogan, Diamond and Silk, the cover of Matt Sienkiewicz and Nick Marx’s book That’s Not Funny, Gavin Mcinnes, and Greg Gutfeld.
In this episode we bring you a deep dive into the world of the right-wing comedy complex, from the hyper-visible Joe Rogan to the subterranean shows, circuits, and celebrities you may never have heard of, but whose success represents a crucial political development. Stephanie Brown talks with Matt Sienkiewicz and Nick Marx about their new book That’s Not Funny: How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them.
Aca-Media is proud to partner with the American Archive of Public Broadcasting to bring you a new special series: “Presenting the Past: Exploring the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.”
Image: black-and-white photo of a television control room with banks of monitors. The overlay reads: “Presenting the Past: Exploring the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.” Credits: the AAPB, Library of Congress, GBH, and Aca-Media.
This series features a series of informed conversations with scholars, educators, industry professionals, researchers, archivists, and others about significant events, issues, and topics documented in the more than 70 years of programming available in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting collection.
FOR MORE ON THIS SERIES, CLICK HERE.
Top: Judy Woodruff (still from a National Press Foundation tribute video); bottom: Annette Miller (still from a Newshour tribute video).
The ninth episode of “Presenting the Past” features Judy Woodruff, anchor and managing editor of the PBS NewsHour, and Annette Miller, former Vice President of NewsHour Productions. The PBS NewsHour Collection in the AAPB includes nearly 15,000 episodes from October 1975 to September 2019, including two half-hour predecessor programs, The Robert MacNeil Report (1975-1976) and The MacNeil/Lehrer Report (1976 – 1983), and the two hour-long series that followed, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour (1983 – 1995) and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (1995 – 2009), in addition to the PBS NewsHour (2009 - 2019).
The programs originally aired nationwide on public television stations, five nights a week; starting in 2013, the series added weekend news coverage. Covering national and worldwide news and public affairs, the programs feature interviews with leading newsmakers including presidents, Supreme Court justices, members of Congress, secretaries of state, and world leaders, in addition to coverage of issues in the news related to education, economics, science, health, and cultural affairs. Funding for the digitization of the collection was generously provided by the Council on Library and Information Resources.
In this episode, Woodruff and Miller talk about the NewsHour’s history and their careers working on the series.
Aca-Media is proud to partner with the American Archive of Public Broadcasting to bring you a new special series: “Presenting the Past: Exploring the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.”
Image: black-and-white photo of a television control room with banks of monitors. The overlay reads: “Presenting the Past: Exploring the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.” Credits: the AAPB, Library of Congress, GBH, and Aca-Media.
This series features a series of informed conversations with scholars, educators, industry professionals, researchers, archivists, and others about significant events, issues, and topics documented in the more than 70 years of programming available in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting collection.
FOR MORE ON THIS SERIES, CLICK HERE.
John L. Hanson, Jr.
The eighth episode of “Presenting the Past” features John L. Hanson, Jr., producer and host since 1981 of the nationally syndicated radio and podcast interview series In Black America at KUT Radio in Austin, Texas. In 2019, KUT received a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to digitize, preserve and make available in the AAPB 745 episodes of the series. In Black America, which began in 1970 and continues to be broadcast weekly, features hundreds of interviews with influential members of the black community in conversation about issues and topics pertaining to Black America, including education, style, economics, social issues, families, culture, literature, and politics. In this episode, Hanson talks about his long career in radio and his work as producer and host of the series.
Cat scenes from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Long Goodbye, and Cat People.
It’s the film studies textbook you’ve been waiting for: Cinema is a Cat, which teaches film theory, language, and history using examples of cats in movies. Frank Mondelli talks with author Daisuke Miyao about the book, its inspiration, some of his favorite movie cats, and what dogs might have to say about all this.
In this episode, we conduct an “exit interview” with the outgoing president of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Paula Massood, who discusses the downs and ups of her time leading the Society during a global pandemic. Before and after the interview, Chris and Michael discuss the decision to move the 2022 SCMS conference online. It might feel like Groundhog Day, but we’ve got you, babe.
Aca-Media is proud to partner with the American Archive of Public Broadcasting to bring you a new special series: “Presenting the Past: Exploring the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.”
Image: black-and-white photo of a television control room with banks of monitors. The overlay reads: “Presenting the Past: Exploring the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.” Credits: the AAPB, Library of Congress, GBH, and Aca-Media.
This series features a series of informed conversations with scholars, educators, industry professionals, researchers, archivists, and others about significant events, issues, and topics documented in the more than 70 years of programming available in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting collection.
FOR MORE ON THIS SERIES, CLICK HERE.
Jean Walkinshaw. Image Credit: The American Archive of Public Broadcasting.
The seventh episode of “Presenting the Past” features Jean Walkinshaw, an award-winning documentarian and producer in the Pacific Northwest for over 50 years. In 2021, Walkinshaw contributed 44 public television documentaries and full interviews conducted for the documentaries to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB). The Jean Walkinshaw Collection accessible online covers much of Walkinshaw’s lengthy career spanning the years 1972-2008. Her documentaries focused primarily on notable artists, writers, and social, cultural and ecological themes of the Pacific Northwest region.
In this episode, Jean guides listeners through her career and filmmaking process, highlighting titles in her collection available in the AAPB.