Fordham Notes: Television
Showing posts with label Television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Television. Show all posts

Friday, May 2, 2014

Strate on Postman: Resisting Telegraphic Discourse

Several people who have read Lance Strate’s new book have described it as a “love letter” to his late mentor, the media ecologist Neil Postman. In the just-released Amazing Ourselves to Death: Neil Postman's Brave New World Revisited, (Peter Lang, 2014) Strate, professor of communication and media studies, riffs on more than just the title of Postman’s seminal book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, which analyzed the way broadcast television, affects politics, journalism, education, and religion.

Strate’s book sets the stage for his academic peers to explore Postman’s theories in today’s new media. Postman explored television landscape in the mid-1980s before cable radically changed the nature of TV, whereas Strate’s book considers the same theories in light of the vast expansion of channel offerings and new networks via cable and satellite, and the addition of the Internet and world-wide web.

Regardless of the time period, Strate said electronic media are all interrelated. But how they have an effect on our democracy seems to have increased exponentially. He noted that the 18th-century leaders struck a healthy balance between the written and spoken word. They were great readers, which informed them to be great rhetoricians.

“Our country was founded by literate individuals and ours is a country that was argued into existence,” he said.

Postman wrote that the image-saturated electronic media eventually undermined reading-and-rhetoric, as electronic media’s emphasis on image elicits an emotional and irrational response. Strate broadens the focus to include the Internet’s speed and immediacy, which he said creates information overload.

“Speed, efficiency, and the overemphasis on technology—where only efficiency matters—puts us into what I call ‘hyper-irrationality,’” he said “Efficiency is a numbers game that takes us away from the balance of literate and oral.”

Postman and Strate argue that such a balance is the very basis of American culture.

When new media first arrived its emphasis on text spurred hope of a new generation of literacy. But now that the net has become increasingly visual, Strate says a “telegraphic discourse” has come to dominate.

“The Internet intrudes in so many ways that even at a church people don’t turn their phones off,” he said. “How do you get a sense of the sacred when we’re just a click away from something else?”

-Tom Stoelker

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

What's so Bad About Walter White?

credit: AMC

Why is America so fascinated with Walter White, the mild-mannered chemistry teacher-turned-methamphetamine-drug-kingpin? Paul Levinson, professor of communications and author of the popular culture blog Infinite Regress, weighs in on the character of Walter, on human nature itself, and on the evolution of American television heroes, in anticipation of  the popular AMC show's final episode on Sunday, Sept. 29.


AUDIO: Fordham Professor Paul Levinson on "Breaking Bad"




Thursday, December 17, 2009

FCLC Dancer Comes ThisClose

FCLC Sophomore Jakob Karr placed second in last night's final competition on So You Think You Can Dance. Karr, from Orlando, Fla., came to the Lincoln Center campus in August 2008, and auditioned for the reality dance series' sixth season in New Orleans in June 2009.

Show judge and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe called Karr "a truly polished diamond," and fellow judge, choreographer Mary Murphy said "Jakob, you are definitely one of the best dancers in this competition. There isn't anything you can't do." That wasn't enough to take the top slot, however, and Karr fell to Russell Ferguson, a 20-year-old krumper from Boston, who took home the $250,000 prize.

Throughout the competition, Karr was considered one of the most technically accomplished dancers. Lythgoe called him "outstandingly brilliant," and earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal called him "incredible in a contemporary routine," and predicted he would win the competition.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Fordham Alumni Shine on Television

Fans of drama take note: Fordham’s own Taylor Schilling (FCLC '06) made her television debut in Mercy, a hospital drama that premiered on Sept. 23, on NBC.

Schilling, a theater major who has also appeared in the 2007 film Dark Matter, stars as Veronica Callahan, a nurse who returns to Mercy Hospital after a year long tour of service in the Army.

In the first episode, “Can We Get That Drink Now?” viewers were also introduced to Callahan's fellow nurses Sonia, who thinks she finally found the man of her life; and Chloe, a rookie who is learning how to be a nurse the hard way . And Schilling's mother on the show is played by Fordham Department of Theatre faculty member Kate Mulgrew.

Schilling is not alone when it comes to Fordham grads in new TV shows this year. Dylan McDermott (FCLC '83), perhaps best known for his role as lawyer and law firm head on the legal drama The Practice, went deep undercover as Lt. Carter Shaw in Dark Blue, a crime drama on TNT that wrapped up its first season on Sept. 16

Thomas Calabro (FCLC '81), meanwhile, is reprising his role as Dr. Michael Mancini in Melrose Place, which after running for seven seasons on Fox, was given new life on the CW network on September 8. Though he’d found recurring roles on CBS’ Without A Trace and Touched By An Angel, and on F/X's Nip/Tuck, Calabro was a natural to bring back, as he was the only character on the original show to appear in every season, from beginning to end.

—Patrick Verel

Friday, March 6, 2009

‘Awesome’ Was The Word of the Day

U2 rocked the Bronx this morning as they played Fordham University for an exclusive set that aired on Good Morning America.

With the historic Keating Hall as the backdrop, Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr., and Adam Clayton, opened with their new single, “Get On Your Boots” from their newly released album, No Line on the Horizon.

The band played six songs for an elated audience.

Fordham Security was on their game at several checkpoints, aware that student I.Ds had become a hot ticket. Students, many who broke night in order to get the best “seats” in the house, enjoyed the show.

“It was worth waiting outside since 5 a.m.,” said Fordham College at Lincoln Center sophomore Jenny Hirsch. “They were great!”

The front crowd was student-heavy, but the back was much less homogenous. Professors, deans, administrators, alumni and even the members of the local firehouse lingered around the fringes to watch, many on tiptoes. Some hard-core U2ers balanced precariously on gates protecting the giant speakers, weathering the thump of the heavy base to get a glimpse of Bono’s theatrics.

“They were pretty awesome,” said Karen Casingal-Acampado, assistant director for the Office of Career Services. “I’m exhausted, though!”

And Professor Mark “Notorious Ph.D.” Naison was seen watching the concert from the roof of Dealy Hall with a GMA cameraman and Fordham photographer. Yes, folks. He was dancing.

“I have loved U2 ever since they first hit the airwaves as a rock band with a conscience in the mid 80's! What a day! What a moment! I have been here for nearly forty years and this is hands down the best musical event I have ever seen at Fordham, and up there with the greatest musical moments in my entire life,” Naison said.

Blogs and the MSM are abuzz this afternoon with news and photos from the show, including Brooklyn Vegan, Rolling Stone and America magazine.

–Janet Sassi and Gina Vergel