My experience with computers began in 1985 as I learned the beauty of Logo on a Packard Bell computer at the vocation school and the ability of a turtle to move through an electronic field by giving the turtle directions. I’ve enjoyed writing programs for computers in BASIC, simple JAVA and ActionScript for years. The connection to the world of cyberstudies came from my first experience on a bulletin board system (BBS) during my middle school years. I got to see virtual interactions on a textual level. Little did I know that I would be studying those interactions for my doctorate later in life.

The Four Terms of Memetic Analysis

Memes (unlike other works of digital culture) tend to be shared among friends, family, and colleagues because they are immensely rich, complex in their messaging, and have elements that resonate with others they care about. These three aspects of memes are why they are part of our digital communication, and...

Continue Reading

Lexiempeiría

The nature of studying communication and its impact on society means highlighting the gaps of knowledge in the realm of the known that I’ve spent most of my adult life researching, critiquing, and explaining. I felt a particular knowledge gap was worth discussing in the postscript of my latest book,...

Continue Reading

Glyphs in the Memetic Age

Comprehending Internet culture requires a person to have a keen understanding of how one connects with others on a social, cultural, and psychological level. Interactions within the online realm will often crossover to the physical world as discussions maintained through computers do not remain there. People bring their beliefs, values,...

Continue Reading

A Critical View of the Blurred Lines of Journalism

The last few months leading up to the National Communication Association's 2020 Annual Conference was marked by the continuous denunciations of the journalistic organizations and platforms that perform the role of maintaining an informed public. Rhetorical attacks came from the bully pulpits and were invoked by those that followed political...

Continue Reading

Bourdain as the Curious Food Journalist

One of the strongest themes from the chapter I wrote about Anthony Bourdain for the Eating Fandom book related to the reasons that his fans enjoyed his work was due to his ability to present his curiosity about the world throughout the various series he produced. His ability to go...

Continue Reading

Six Community Archetypes

My last post discussed the four journalistic communities and the platforms journalists use to tell audiences the communities' stories. These nexus of platforms formed the foundation of the Journalism Breakdown and developed the techniques that I used to teach journalists how to explain those communities' realities to the broader population....

Continue Reading