Adrienne Massanari’s new book Gaming Democracy: How Silicon Valley Leveled Up the Far Right was released earlier this week by MIT Press. The book explores how play and gaming culture have mainstreamed far right ideology through social media platforms. Adrienne hopes that Gaming Democracy will be of great interest to many in the SOC community as it touches on topics we regularly talk about at AU/SOC: social media, politics and publics, democracy, media studies, digital cultures, and games/play.
Patricia Aufderheide was the Roger Ebert Annual Lecturer at the Roger Ebert Center at University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana (flagship campus) October 18, following a screening of two Kartemquin films, which she introduced with Kartemquin founder Gordon Quinn, on the 17th. Roger Ebert was one of the most well-known film critics of the broadcast era, and with Gene Siskel pioneered the two-thumbs-up genre via At the Movies. (He also used to ask Patricia to review films for the Chicago Sun-Times sometimes.) This lecture featured the history of Kartemquin Films, one of the most award-winning (and least well-known) documentary production houses in the U.S.
Patricia also lectured on the intertwined histories of Chicago and Kartemquin Films at Columbia College, Chicago on October 16.
Finally, Patricia and Kartemquin founder Gordon Quinn were also guests of the DePaul University film club in Chicago on October 16.
Filippo Trevisan was featured in this Q&A style interview in Spain’s La Razòn about British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s first 100 days in office and the recent ‘freebies’ scandal that significantly dented his popularity – a textbook example of how trying to “explain” one’s way out of a scandal never works.
The AU Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) and Gemma Puglisi just returned from the PRSSA/PRSA/Educators Academy conference this past weekend in Anaheim.
Congrats to the AU PRSSA Chapter for winning the bid along with the University of Maryland and Howard University to co-host the PRSSA Conference next year when it comes to Washington, DC next October. This is the third time that AU will host the conference. AU had the honor in 2010 along with Howard and Maryland; and then again in 2014, with the University of Maryland. The students who worked on the bid include juniors Thea Duc and Jared Bowes, pictured in the photos. The chapter president is also in the photo, Sole Meade, and Alex Spencer, with the University of Maryland.
Thanks to Dean Marnel Niles Goins for her support, as well as the Public Communication Division.
Thanks also to the SOC Grad Office for providing a sponsorship for the conference and having the SOC logo on all the bags for the conference. Over 600 students from all over the country attended.
