Aca-Media

This episode of “Presenting the Past” features Newton Minow, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under President John F. Kennedy from 1961 until 1963. Minow would become a key figure in the establishment of public broadcasting in the U.S., and in this conversation, he reflects on his early vision for public service television.

Highlighted in this program are clips from the AAPB collection, including Minow’s famed “vast wasteland” speech to the National Association of Broadcasters in 1961, his lesser known address to the same organization the following year, as well as a panel discussion with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt on the role of television in society.

Joining the discussion is Mr. Minow’s daughter, Mary Minow, Presidential Appointee to the National Museum and Library Services Board at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and current member of the AAPB Executive Advisory Council.

Since May 2020, Aca-Media has been bringing you a special series, “Talking Television a Time of Crisis,” organized by Hunter Hargraves, Lynne Joyrich, and Brandy Monk-Payton and featuring dozens of prominent academics and practitioners. These sixteen episodes over two seasons have helped us understand the relationship of TV Studies to, first, the COVID-19 pandemic, and then, following the murder of George Floyd, the struggle for racial justice in the context of multiple crises of political legitimacy, climate emergency, and more. In this finale, the organizers reflect on the series as a whole and offer their take-aways from this extraordinary series of podcasts.

In the third episode of "Presenting the Past," Shirley Sneve, Vice President of Broadcasting for Indian Country Today, reflects on her work with Indian Country Today, Vision Maker Media (VMM), and archiving with the AAPB. Sneve also comments on the history of Native American public broadcasting and presents excerpts from a few of the documentaries that VMM has supported that present a diversity of perspectives on traditional and contemporary Native American culture.

Our special series “Talking Television in a Time of Crisis” continues with episode 15: Academics. How have the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racial injustice affected academia, and how might they force a reimagination of the role of television studies inside and outside the academy?

Our special series "Talking Television in a Time of Crisis" continues with Episode 14: Ethics. What ethical practices should television employ in depicting and framing the pandemic and struggles for racial justice? And moving forward, what are the ethical responsibilities of audiences?

Host: Taylor Nygaard [Arizona State University]

Participants:

Heather Hendershot [Massachusetts Institute of Technology]

Jorie Lagerwey [University College Dublin]

Taylor Nygaard [Arizona State University]

Yoruba Richen [Documentarian]

Rebecca Wanzo [Washington University in St. Louis]

Khadijah Costley White [Rutgers University)

Aca-Media is back with a fascinating conversation about the great Faye Emerson, actress, talk-show host, proto-feminist, and bon vivant. She was once known as “The First Lady of Television” but is now all-too forgotten. Chris talks with media scholar Maureen Mauk and archivist Mary Huelsbeck about Emerson’s remarkable life and career, the Emerson collection at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Television Research, and the joys of archival research into film and television’s past.

In the banter, Chris and Michael discuss ways that YOU can get involved with Aca-Media, including a new segment: “Ask a Cinematologist.” We even have a jingle!

This is the second episode of our special series, “Presenting the Past,” a collaboration with the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. We talk with broadcast historian Allison Perlman about the AAPB special exhibit "On the Right: NET and Modern Conservatism" and the state of conservative movement in the 1960s. What challenges did conservatives face following World War II and the defeat of Barry Goldwater? What were the debates and fault lines within the movement? And how did public media try to make sense of the conservative movement in this period when its future was unclear?

Link to this episode and show notes: www.aca-media.org/aapb#ep2

Link to the AAPB special collection "On the Right: NET and Modern Conservatism": https://americanarchive.org/exhibits/conservatism

Our special series “Talking Television in a Time of Crisis” continues with episode 13: Publics. What new viewing publics have been created over the past year? How have such TV publics both connected and disconnected us, particularly in these times of media bubbles, and with what effects?

Hear the conversation with:

Hannah Hamad [Cardiff University]

Charlotte Howell [Boston University]

Rahul Muhkerjee [University of Pennsylvania]

Swapnil Rai [University of Michigan]

Mel Stanfill [University of Central Florida]

In the first episode of “Presenting the Past,” a new special series from the American Archive of Public Broadcasting and Aca-Media, film scholar Michelle Kelley highlights a collection of 127 unedited interviews conducted for the landmark PBS documentary series Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965, first broadcast in January 1987. Kelley provides context for the making of the series and explores examples of interviews that give different, yet valuable, perspectives on the civil rights movement than the one presented in the final cut of the series.

Our special series “Talking Television in a Time of Crisis” continues with Ep. 12: Aesthetics. Questions include: How is television transforming aesthetically, and what new developments in TV form and style have emerged in this time of crisis? How have new forms of television changed our relationship to the TV image?

Featuring:

Josie Torres Barth [North Carolina State University]

Elana Levine [University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee]

Yael Levy [Northwestern University]

Jason Mittell [Middlebury College]

Isabel Pinedo [Hunter College/CUNY]

Nick Salvato [Cornell University]