Archive: The Gnovis Blog
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What will happen to the Book?
“Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re are thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change. Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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A Rhetoric of the Gaffe: Restoring Dialogism in an Age of Message Discipline
For a long time now, I’ve wanted to write a rhetorical analysis of the political gaffe using the work of Bakhtin and Foucault as theoretical frameworks for my analysis. In truth, I love the gaffe, perhaps more than I should given my interest in strategic political communication.
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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In (Partial) Defense of Canons
“Canon” has become something of a dirty word in some circles of the academy. These are almost always the circles I find myself in so it has been fairly surprising to find myself coming down on the opp
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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Stating your purpose: A six-step guide by an aspiring doctoral student
The statement of purpose, a universally dreaded element for prospective college and graduate students. What is more daunting than writing an essay in which you’re expected to justify all your significant life choices and synthesize them into a cohesive narrative for an unknown audience? And did I mention that you have one thousand words or less?
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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The Weekly Round-Up: Sports Journalism at a Crossroads: TMZ and the Eye of the Tiger Woods Media Storm
When news of Michael Jackson’s death hit the public this summer, it wasn’t ABC, CBS, NBC, or even Matt Drudge who broke the story; rather, it was TMZ, an online gossip rag owned by Time Warner. Now, one week into the awkward public airings of Tiger Wood’s “personal failings,” TMZ has all but owned the breaking news, beating almost every other news outlet to updates on the ever-evolving story.
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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Apple Killed the Radio Star: Music, Videos and New Life in Box Sets
A lot has been written in recent years about the Napster revolution, illegal downloading and the itunes empire’s domination over the digital music market. Like may other media-related topics today, this issue brings out a polarized view of the issue. In his book “The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System,” Siva Vaidhyanathan provides a good overview of the cult
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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Capital "I" for Internet?
I’ve been doing a lot of work on virtual ethnography lately, and I was reading a recently-published book titled “Internet Inquiry: Conversations about Method” edited by Annette Markham and Nancy Baym. What was most interesting was the following footnote on the first page of the introduction:
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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A Potential Primer for Understanding Obama's Afghan Address
President Barack Obama addressed the nation Tuesday and outlined “the way forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” On first read, what can be delineated and what can be further reviewed to come to some conclusions on Obama’s approach to the eight year conflict?
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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Is Wikipedia Decaying or Growing Up?
In the Wall Street Journal, the article titled “Volunteers Log off as Wikipedia Ages”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 1Category: The Gnovis Blog
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Apocalypse Aesthetics
For an increasing number of people, daily experience has become an aggregation of linked passages through old, familiar and new networks. I borrow the specific usage of the word “new” from Christiane Paul’s distinction of the word in her introduction to her book Digital Art.
Category: The Gnovis Blog