Check out my former UWM colleague Aims McGuinness on the often misunderstood idea of "sewer socialism," Milwaukee history, and the interconnection of local and international politics.
dissentmagazine.org/article/more...
Gotta appreciate good news when it comes along. Long live the 111 year-old Downer.
"This is such a dad car" -- stinging remark I remember from the late 90s (it was my dad's early 90s Taurus).
screenshot of a retargeting advertisement for both editions of The Media Studies Toolkit
Retargeting advertising today is selling me both editions of my own book.
Here's a discount code for The Media Studies Toolkit 2e www.routledge.com/The-Media-St... or ask your university library to acquire it
Thanks for writing the book! I am ambivalent about calling TV shows long movies, but analogies are useful and you're pretty persuasive.
New work: a review of After Mass Media by @drtvlotz.bsky.social in Continuum. Important book for TV studies, lots to learn from it. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
New work: a review of After Mass Media by @drtvlotz.bsky.social in Continuum. Important book for TV studies, lots to learn from it. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
I could also kvetch about some other details, such as Rowlf and Kermit appearing in the same scene (reminding me that Jim H isn't performing either one of them) and a lack of bad puns, but the episode was generally a pleasure to watch so check it out if you like Muppets.
I liked the new Muppet Show and am glad they made it but I'm gonna be really nitpicky and complain that there should not be extra human beings in this show including Seth, Maya, and the lucky folks sitting in the audience. A guest star is the only human in the Muppet Theatre. Sabrina C was perfect.
This is a great text for teaching
I started using the 1st edition of this book in my intro class a few years back, can't recommend it enough
I wrote this book to be as accessible as possible to students at any level, including students whose first language isn't English, to be a good starting point for newcomers to studying media or to readers from other fields looking for guidance. Check it out or ask your library to acquire it.
endorsements for The Media Studies Toolkit
I'm grateful for the endorsements from colleagues I really admire who have assigned the book in their courses. Means a lot. Also grateful to an editor at Routledge who solicited these on my behalf (doesn't always work that way any more). Everyone there has been really great to work with.
Much of the updating was more adding or subtracting a paragraph or a sentence, and I did my best to get rid of every possible mention of Twitter. I replaced a discussion of Hamilton as problematic representation with some points about the Sabrina Carpenter record cover controversy from last summer.
screenshot of table of contents for The Media Studies Toolkit
screenshot of table of contents for The Media Studies Toolkit
screenshot of table of contents for The Media Studies Toolkit
The table of contents shows two added sections: an in-depth analysis of Jaws as an example of ideology critique of a popular text, and a glossary of terms.
For this edition, I got feedback from reviewers who have been assigning the book, including (I'm pretty sure) readers from different countries and academic backgrounds (the cultural studies and more mass comm sides of the field). I followed a lot of their excellent suggestions.
book cover of Michael Z. Newman, The Media Studies Toolkit, 2nd ed., Routledge, 2026
The Media Studies Toolkit, 2nd edition, dropped this week. I'm excited for this refreshed, updated, and expanded version to reach students and instructors of introductory courses in media studies. www.routledge.com/The-Media-St... A short thread about what's inside.
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
Yeah, I heard about this in a podcast just today and was like, you mean Netflix is television?
incredible work (though I love Cream City and don't care what anyone thinks)
I tried to delete as much of this stuff as possible and use other examples for 2e. No Bluesky mentions, though.
nice to hear!
I just sent in the proofs and index to the 2nd ed. of The Media Studies Toolkit, coming soon.
Added index entries for 2e include: Beyoncé, Carpenter, S., The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Spielberg, S., Swift, T., Wednesday, X (social media).
Protesters demonstrating at a No Kings rally
Protesters demonstrating at a No Kings rally, including a unicorn and chicken with a RESIST sign
Protesters demonstrating at a No Kings rally as seen from a bridge over the street
Protesters demonstrating at a No Kings rally.
Shorewood, WI
#NoKings
congrats, looks great!
excerpt about the blacklist and red scare from Bernstein's book. "They were really after the New Deal and the welfare state and panty-waist liberals and the civil rights movement and militant unions and the traitors in the State Department..."
Walter Bernstein, Inside Out: A Memoir of the Blacklist (172). Where do we find ourselves now?
(This is from next week's course readings in my Media and Society class.)
Thanks so much for sharing this, Michael. Glad to hear!
Book cover of The Media Studies Toolkit Second Edition (Routledge)
New Toolkit edition coming in February 2026
www.routledge.com/The-Media-St...
Book cover of The Media Studies Toolkit Second Edition (Routledge)
New Toolkit edition coming in February 2026
www.routledge.com/The-Media-St...
