Back in 2013, I analyzed President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address after the contentious 2012 election campaign. I copied the transcript for his address and ran it through a word cloud generator (at the time, Wordle) to see what words he used more, and thus what ideas he emphasized in his speech. In…
Tag: Donald Trump
Echo Chambers and Fandom
Okay, first, let’s talk about echo chambers. You may have heard this term, especially since the 2016 presidential election. In media studies, an echo chamber is a community, usually one that is online, where the members of that community all have the same interests, values, and beliefs. This group of like-minded individuals talk with one…
Carpenter’s The Thing and Politics of Paranoia
In the thirty-fifth episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast, Christopher Olson and I welcome friend of the podcast, and unofficial third host, Joe Belfeuil to discuss the influential horror film that is John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982). In this episode, the three discuss how the narrative and craft of the film has inspired a…
The Dangerous Ideology of Trump
Tom Brokaw, with his years of experience and expertise, had this wise words to say about the ideas of presidential candidate Donald Trump. And I want to take a moment to address something as a communication scholar and as a human being. http://player.theplatform.com/p/2E2eJC/nbcNewsOffsite?guid=nn_tbr_Muslim%20Ban%20Essay_151208 First, as a communication scholar trying to teach people to become better…
