Category: Television Studies
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Virtual Interactive Television
The Virtual World Television (VWTV) project came to an end when Pooky Amsterdam and I published this article with Participations: http://www.participations.org/Volume%2014/Issue%201/5.pdf In this article, I outline my thoughts on interactive television as consisting of three types of interactivity: Access interactivity: controlling what to watch, when, where and how Social interactivity: engaging with others while watching…
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Virtual World Television as Interactive Television Published
The work that Pooky Amsterdam and I have done on virtual world television has come to a close with the publication of the project’s second journal article in the latest issue of Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies. The article is titled “A Community of Televised Avatars: Interactivities in virtual world television promoting and acknowledging…
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Pop Culture Lens on Transformers
In the thirty-seventh episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast, Christopher Olson and I welcome friend of the podcast Jef Burnham of CadaverCast to discuss the classic toy line, Transformers. In this episode, the three recall with fondness how these toys impacted their lives, but in doing so, they also focus on the relationship between nostaglia…
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The Pop Culture Lens on Doctor Who
In the thirty-sixth episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast, Christopher Olson and I welcome friend of the podcast, Paul Booth of DePaul University, to discuss the venerable British science fiction series, Doctor Who. In this episode, the three discuss what has led to the longevity of the series, which started in 1963. This discussion…
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The Exorcist on Fox
Christopher Olson (Seems Obvious to Me) and I have been working on a project analyzing the portrayal of exorcism in cinema for the past several years. That project is about to reach fruition with the publication of our book Possessed Women, Haunted States: Cultural Tensions in Exorcism Cinema from Lexington Books this November 15th (https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498519090).…
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Virtual World Television and Interactive Television
This is the end result of the work I have been doing with Pooky Amsterdam. This paper is the write-up of the presentation Avatars, Audiences and Interactive Television. I do not think there is enough in this paper to make pursuing publication worthwhile, but I do hope to use the categorizations of the three types…
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Convergent Wrestling: The Nature of Professional Wrestling
Professional wrestling has been criticized for its emphasis on the fiction of its entertainment rather than the reality of its sport. My partner, Christopher Olson (Seems Obvious to Me), and I argue that professional wrestling functions as a convergent media product, representing a vital text for examining the media landscape of the 21st century. The…
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Call for Papers: Pro Wrestling Symposium
Here is another call that is speaking to research near and dear to my heart: The Pro Wrestling Symposium: Laying the Academic ‘Smackdown’ Weekend of Saturday, 18th June 2016 Hosted by the Department of Theatre, Film & Television Studies, Aberystwyth University As one of the only cultural forms to have had an almost consistent presence…
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Star Trek: Episode 12 of The Pop Culture Lens
In the latest episode of our podcast, The Pop Culture Lens, Christopher and I are joined by good friend and Associate Professor at DePaul University, Paul Booth, to discuss the longevity of Star Trek. All three of us are huge Star Trek fans, and we had a rousing good conversation about why the series has…
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Pop Culture Lens Podcast: The X-Files
In the sixth episode of our ongoing podcast, The Pop Culture Lens, Christopher Olson and I discuss my favorite television series of all time, The X-Files. I was a huge, huge, huge fan of this series; I can still recall sitting there when the show premiered, on that magical Friday night back in 1993, with…
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