While most people devote their procrastination hours on Reddit, undergraduates at Massachusetts Institute of Technology will received course credit for surfing this social media website. They are being offered a course called “Credit for Reddit,” taught by MIT researcher Chris…
Can Digitized Circulation Preserve Traditions?
Hafez notes that even though technology would allow media to flow across national borders, it still tends to flow within cultural groups. Since music is statistically the thing that crosses cultural borders most frequently, I am going to write about…
Cameras on Police Officers
There seems to be absolutely no trust towards the police after the incident of John Brown in Ferguson. Missouri. The conflicting reports of John Brown’s death from the police, witnesses, and Brown’s autopsy report has citizens furious. The tragedy in Ferguson…
The Midterm is the Message

Here are some of the videos we have shown in class and will be relevant study aids for the midterm. McLuhan on “media is the message” Glen Beck on the CPI Jon Oliver on Net Neutrality Arthur Jensen on global…
Videos from Week 1
So we watched several videos this week, and I’m posting the links here in case you want to view them again. In the case of the McLuhan video I strongly suggest you view it again (hint, hint). Marshall McLuhan Interview…
Lecture 1.3 (update)
For Wednesday’s lecture we’ll be finishing up on Marshall McLuhan and Understanding Media and moving on to discussing the early history of communications research. Some things to look for in the Czitrom selection you’ll be reading: Pay attention to the…
Lecture 1.2
For tomorrow you will be reading the first half of Dominc Boyer’s Understanding Media. Here are some things to think about and look for to help guide your reading. Look for the historical continuity in McLuhan’s claim the “the medium…