I’m really interested in the ways we define fandom. Is it just associated with popular culture, or is it a more fundamental aspect of human life? I’m going to use this blog to work through my thoughts on this matter, so it isn’t by any means a completed document, and I will do my best…
Redefining Social Media into Social Communication
Originally I had this post connected with some thoughts I have had on media studies, but I have separated them because I think they are two different (but perhaps interconnected) projects. So this one is going to focus on redefining social media and the other one focuses on a new approach for doing media studies….
Compassionate Pedagogy for Online Teaching
In this blog post, I am collecting my thoughts as well as links to other people’s thoughts and writings about how to teach online from a perspective and position of compassion for learners. This information was originally collected on Twitter. Additionally, this notion of “compassionate pedagogy” is not limited to online teaching and learning but…
A Communication Toolbox for Communication Literacy
The following is an excerpt from my book Fractured Fandoms: Contentious Communication in Fan Communities. To read all of the information, you will need to get the book, either from a seller or your local library. [Do not cite this blog post as it is an abridged version of what appears in the book. All…
PCSJ Vol 7 Is 2: Inaugural Student Showcase
I am happy to announce that the second issue I have edited is now live and free to anyone interested in popular culture studies. More importantly, I am so proud that it features our inaugural Student Showcase, highlighting great scholarship done by undergraduate and graduate students from around the world. These students present their original…
Disney+, the Fan Industrial Complex, and Star Wars
I love this term: Fan Industrial Complex. Chris thinks he heard it from someone else, so I will need to investigate it. Because from a media ecology perspective, it’s very useful. That’s what we have now with online mediated fan-producer networks. The technologies and economic systems require a symbiosis between more ardent fans and producers,…
The Four Paradigms in Spiral Form
Subtitle: A positivistically constructed model to critique dominant design with a postmodern flair This was a group project from a class with Patti Lather at OSU in 2005 that I completed with Carrie Hung, Hana Kang, and Yongfang Zhang. I look at it now and think it’s so twee! In looking at the four research…
Virtual World Fandom Quasi-Autoethnography
This post contains my reflections on trying to express my Star Wars fandom in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. These reflections are based on the Twitter thread I ran in the summer and fall of 2020, which can be found here. I tried to reconstruct it chronologically to show the progression of events and my thoughts…
WrestlePosium I Presentation
Earlier this year I organized, ran, and presented at the inaugural WrestlePosium open online symposium for the Professional Wrestling Studies Association. My presentation concerned the work I have been doing looking at wrestling fans writing slash for the characters of Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. The entire presentation can viewed here. The other presentations from…
Importance of Play to Politics
Reading Huizinga’s Homo Ludens and struck by discussion of how fundamental play is to the formation of culture and thus human civilization, as well as its relationship to politics and political life. Per Huizinga, “Now in myth and ritual the great instinctive forces of civilized life have their origin… All are rooted in the primaeval…
Frasier and the New Man
For the fifty-eighth episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast, Christopher Olson and CarrieLynn Reinhard are joined by friend of the podcast Kadee Whaley to discuss the classic 1990s sitcom, Frasier. In this episode, they discuss the different representations of masculinity contained seen in the series, from the New Man of the ’90s to the American…
Don’t Panic! It’s Douglas Adams!
For the fifty-seventh episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast, Christopher Olson and CarrieLynn Reinhard are joined by former guest, friend of the podcast, and Patreon supporter, Shane Tilton to discuss the cosmic influence of British writer Douglas Adams In this episode, they discuss Adams’ comedic background and his legacy on science fiction and fantasy…
Over 9000 with Dragon Ball Z
For the fifty-sixth episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast, Christopher Olson and CarrieLynn Reinhard are joined by friend of the podcast, and Patreon supporter, Dave Stanley to discuss the classic anime series, Dragon Ball Z. The trio discuss the role Dragon Ball Z had in helping Japanese anime and manga become more mainstream in the United States,…
Episode 59: Barbie
In a first, the fifty-ninth episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast finds friend of the podcast Noelle Lynn Blood joining Christopher Olson and I to discuss the legacy of the famous fashion doll, Barbie. The episode comes out of Noelle’s interest, as a scholar and a fan, in the Mattel creation. The discussion focuses…
