Aca-Media is a monthly podcast sponsored by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies that presents an academic perspective on media. Hosts Christine Becker and Michael Kackman explore current scholarship, issues in the media industries, questions in pedagogy, professional development, and events in the world of media studies. Questions and comments can be sent to info@aca-media.org.
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Chris and Michael finally get back to business and introduce a conversation between Melanie Kohnen and Amanda Lotz about Lotz’s 2025 book After Mass Media , which explores how industrial shifts and technological changes have reshaped the entertainment landscape, as well as academic approaches to the media industries. If you’ve ever rolled your eyes when you heard someone describe a TV series as…
Lift yourself out of the dregs of summer and everything else with this chat Mike Miley, author of the new book David Lynch's American Dreamscape. Miley shares his first encounter with Lynch’s Dune – as a 5-year-old! -- and his insights into the intertextuality of Lynch’s work, particularly Inland Empire. He also talks about being a high school teacher publishing academic books. Chris and Michael…
We have a special treat for listeners in this episode as DePauw University’s Jordan Sjol sits down with acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, and TV writer José Rivera for a conversation about his journey from playwriting to Hollywood, writing across different media, adapting literary classics, and balancing artistic integrity with commercial demands.
If you missed it – and let’s be honest, most everyone did – you can catch up with the episode we recorded live on the eve of the SCMS 2025 conference in Chicago. Hear about the labor of the Graduate Student Organization from Kristina Brüning, the power of finding joy in play from Matt Payne, and the importance of building local community from AJ Christian. (With usual apologies that the sound…
Chris chats with Swapnil Rai about her book on how Bollywood stars transformed Hindi cinema into a global phenomenon, as well as how she uses podcasting activities in her classroom. And if you’ve got ideas for how students can study media by making media, you’re invited to submit a proposal for a symposium at Notre Dame on that very topic.
Aca-Media producer David Lipson was in Paris for the 2024 Olympics/Paralympics, so we sent him out into the field. He captured some sounds of the city and the people flocking to arenas and also turned modern journalism’s most essential tool – a smartphone – toward journalists themselves, uncovering the challenges, and a few joys, that unite media professionals across the globe today.
Stephanie Brown delves into the dangerous world of women laughing in this conversation with Maggie Hennefeld about her new book Death By Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema. Covering everything from 19th-century obituaries blaming giggle fits (rather than girdle fits) for women’s deaths to the modern-day political power of a vice presidential cackle, we’re certain this episode will…
We’ve reached that late post-spring time of year, as Michael judiciously puts it, and if you’re lucky and industrious enough to have finished writing something over summer and you’d like to get published, we’ve got just the roundtable for you! One side of the table features experienced editors and the other side has young scholars with questions, so the end result is an engaging and enlightening…
O.J. Simpson died on April 10, 2024. Along—and intertwined—with the impact that he had on formations of "law and order," celebrity and scandal, race and gender, class and nation, Simpson had an enormous impact on U.S. television. This episode of "Talking Television" considers that impact, as TV scholars Hunter Hargraves, Lynne Joyrich, Brandy Monk-Payton, and Samantha Sheppard talk about the…
In this episode of Aca-Media, David Lipson talks with Shawn Glinis and Arlin Golden, the creators of Wiseman Podcast , which is devoted entirely to discussing the films of--you guessed it—Frederick Wiseman. Shawn and Arlin explain how the podcast is produced and why they feel Wiseman should be mentioned in the same breath as Kubrick, Coppola, and Scorsese. Also, Chris and Michael banter about an…
