Go update your LinkedIn settings.

OMG

Leaving Amsterdam after a great three day stay, the most impressive (practical) thing we saw was being able to check in and out of every bus/tram/train by just swiping your debit card or phone - you then get charged for rides at the end of each day! Every city needs to copy this system ASAP!!

New issue launched with 11 new video essays on a range of topics, including four focused on eco-criticism and animal studies! Spread the word: intransition.openlibhums.org/issue/1672/i...

It's far from novel or impactful to call out today's GOP as hypocritical, but how they're leveraging the media regulatory system they've long decried to force private corporations to bend to government power is rage-inducing for those of us attuned to media history. "Toaster with pictures" indeed!

One maddening aspect of the ABC/Kimmel situation is that the GOP has spent decades rallying against the FCC's oversight of anti-trust & media consolidation - if they had gotten their way in the 1980s-2010s, then today's FCC would lack the power to threaten media companies to do their bidding!

One maddening aspect of the ABC/Kimmel situation is that the GOP has spent decades rallying against the FCC's oversight of anti-trust & media consolidation - if they had gotten their way in the 1980s-2010s, then today's FCC would lack the power to threaten media companies to do their bidding!

I am not surprised my friend and longtime former colleague @franklinavenue.bsky.social wrote this fiery condemnation of Nexstar and Disney’s actions today. I am a bit wowed that Penske-owned Variety published it. Good on them. Read and share:

Meanwhile, the meanest and most accurate thing you can say about Jimmy Fallon is that the Trump administration isn’t worried about him in the slightest.

One of these rich dudes invested in a food company with all proceeds going to kids in need. The other started Sundance Institute, boosting the lives of countless artists. Hey modern rich dudes, don't be a typical greedy AI crypto-prick, be like these two.

Charlie Kirk was a bad person and his death is cause for celebration, writes journalist Evan Urquhart. Read our very special free speech edition of Assigned Media. www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

Pay attention. Something dark might be coming. The murder of Charlie Kirk could have united Americans to confront political violence. Instead, Trump and his anti-democratic radicals look to be readying a campaign to destroy dissent. 1/ Here's what's happening.

Oop.

to my mind the woman who dies of sepsis because of antiabortion laws, or the person who dies because they can't afford insulin -- these are just as much victims of political violence as the man shot through the throat while making a racist speech

better things are possible!!!!

I encourage people to watch this video. The selected footage shows the professor doing nothing even slightly out of line, whereas the student misinterprets the law and hopes to impose her religious beliefs on the material. Administrators caving to this is terrifying.

I mistakenly read today's David Brooks column against my better judgment, and now am searching for some quality snarky takedowns! C'mon @michaelhobbes.bsky.social or @davekarpf.bsky.social - there's red meat there for the taking!

On Monday September 22, @jmittell.bsky.social will be giving a workshop on videographic criticism and reflexive footage at the University of Amsterdam, organized by ASCA and NICA. @uvahumanities.bsky.social

Something you don't expect to see wondering around Trondheim, Norway: a record store & label named after a Gen X icon of US weirdness!

About to fly away from the USA for the next three months! Hope it’s still in one piece when I return. (Details below) justtv.wordpress.com/2025/08/30/m...

Felt like a pie chart was in order. Number of mass shooters since 2018: 4197 % of mass shooters since 2018 that were transgender? 0.095% % of mass shooters that were cisgender: 99.905%

Hey Firefox users.

I've spent today repeatedly listening to the new album by The Beths, "Straight Line Was a Lie," which is as utterly great as their previous three albums. They make it seem so easy to create such perfect bangers! (And in a month, I'll be seeing them in concert - in Paris!!!)

Twenty years ago, Middlebury College acquired the financially-struggling California graduate school Monterey Institute of International Studies - at the time, 80% of us faculty voted to oppose the move. Today, after two presidencies and more than $200mil of losses, (+)

There are tons of graphic novels, academic papers, film and TV scripts, & prose novels/nonfiction on the LibGen list Anthropic used. As settlement approaches, make it easy for the class action lawyers to contact you! Here’s how Part 1: is your work in Libgen? www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Oh well. I am making my claim and every author should.

Newsletter: My 16,000 word opus - How To Argue With An AI Booster, a comprehensive guide to arguing with AI boosters, addressing both their bad faith debate style and their specific (and flimsy) arguments as to why generative AI is the future. www.wheresyoured.at/how-to-argue...

This cartoon is a distraction. www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...

I'm not gonna say this is the reason for tenure but it's not not the reason

I've been slow-walking through season 4 of THE BEAR, largely because I've found it pretty unsatisfying. Just got to "Bears" (the wedding episode), which seems to have been hailed as the peak of the season, and... I think I'm done. +

My toddler must’ve turned on speech to text, but honestly a lot of posters do need to hear this.

This thread is really worth a read. Matthew has done the hard work not only of diagnosing the problem but of providing a potential solution in "detokenizing" the classroom. Suspect this would involve a period of loss and mourning if implemented, but it might save learning.

I appreciate that one of my books' publisher has issued an Opt-In Addendum that I can choose to sign, granting them rights to use my writing for AI training, giving me a small portion of those royalties. I don't appreciate getting 4 emails in a week reminded me to "Opt In" when I don't want to!

You can add up all the enjoyable pursuits of LLMs and the work productivity hacks and none of them, separately or together, will be more important than AI’s ecological costs or political disruption. “We” is more important here.

Some incredibly good news: One year ago this week, The Onion returned to print. In that one year, we’ve grown to the 13th largest print newspaper in the United States, just ahead of the Boston Globe, and growing fast. In short, it’s working. So… thank you. Thank you for helping save this thing.

Hello, colleagues! I'm putting together a proposed #SCMS26 panel on Television and Catastrophe. (I know at one of you has to be working on Chernobyl, right?) Hope you'll consider sending me a topic proposal! See my call for panelists here: docs.google.com/document/d/1... #SCMSTV #TVSIG

If pundits would like to talk about violence, a terrorist recently shot up the CDC and another assassinated Democratic officials in Minnesota but they sort of let both stories disappear Not as threatening as motorbikes in DC I know but maybe we could circle back?

Bonus points to @espiers.bsky.social for quoting the wonderful Hal Hartley short film "Theory of Achievement" - is there a more Gen X move than to turn to an obscure work from a mostly obscure oeuvre? 5 stars.

Recommend this piece by @ibogost.bsky.social on the dismal state of where we're at in higher ed teaching & learning right now. Key takeaway is that to fix what is breaking would require a wholesale overhaul that few of us have the time, energy or institutional capacity to undertake.

Just hit "Ozymandias" as part of my BREAKING BAD rewatch with my daughter, and yeah, that episode still wrecks me. It did a number on her too - reading @emilynussbaum.bsky.social's excellent morning-after criticism helped her process.

I drew this on my lunch break your excuses are fucking pathetic

Brand new issue of (the open access!) Media Industries journal with a range of articles including a special section on new directions in VOD research. journals.publishing.umich.edu/mij/ cc @misig-scms.bsky.social

“I’ve moved all my employees to exclusively using microwaves. After I threatened to fire any employee that complained everyone told me the microwaves were great. But I only threatened them so everyone would love the microwaves.” www.colincornaby.me/2025/08/in-t...

“A legitimate PhD-level expert in anything,” they said. “Show me a diagram of the US presidents since FDR, with their names and years in office under their photos,” I said.

Yo! We are just 6% away from our fundraising goal. 6% ensures we *keep* the money raised. This close to the finish line every dollar adds up, so please donate even $5 if you can! (A photo of me when I started this project siz years ago with less grey hair.) seedandspark.com/fund/in-loco...

I just wrote the following sentence in reference to one specific thing - and then realized that it aptly describes so much about life in 2025! "There is widespread belief that there's nothing wrong with it - despite all evidence to the contrary that it's ineffective and immoral."

My friend & colleague @jamescsanchez.bsky.social produces (excellent) documentary films and his newest is about the history of sexual assault at elite boarding schools. They need funding to put the finishing touches on this important, impactful film - please chip in if you're able!