April 3, 2008
Around the Consortium: Recent Publications from Jenkins, Green, Punathambekar, and Ford

There have been some publications over the past week from around the Consortium that we thought might be of interest to the blog readership.

Earlier this week, C3 Director Henry Jenkins was featured in a new piece with The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled "Public Intellectuals in the New-Media Landscape", while C3 Research Manager Joshua Green published "Where It Belongs: Positioning US dramas on Australian TV" for In Media Res.

Yesterday, C3 Consulting Researcher Aswin Punathambekar published "A Family Drama: Television and the fight for the national family" on In Media Res as well, while To Lead the Digital Revolution, PR Must First Educate the C-Suite" appeared on Bulldog Reporter's Daily Dog, a piece I co-wrote with Peppercom's Steve Cody.

The Chronicle of Higher Education piece focusing on Henry was an adaptation of remarks he made while delivering the keynote address at the publication's recent Technology Forum. You can see Henry's notes on that event here. From the piece:

Today the comparative-media-studies home page (http://cms.mit.edu) hosts feeds from seven different blogs affiliated with our various research groups and faculty members. Our site regularly offers podcasts from conferences (like Futures of Entertainment and Media in Transition) and colloquia we hold at MIT. My own blog, Confessions of an Aca-Fan, attracts several thousand readers a day. We also recently made the decision to offer our masters' theses online so they can be read by researchers around the world. These efforts have had an impact on our relations with our current students, prospective students, alumni, faculty members, the news media, the general public, and other readers.

The In Media Res pieces from Joshua and Aswin are part of a "TV Promos-themed week" from IMR, which also includes contributions from Maeve Connolly and Miranda Banks, as well as a piece planned for tomorrow from Stephen Harrington.

Finally, from the Bulldog Reporter piece I co-wrote with Steve Cody:

Though almost a third of respondents indicated their leadership was supportive or eager to learn, more than a quarter of respondents felt their leadership was moving forward only cautiously and skeptically. This is often the case as a small number of visionaries often lead the way in adopting new ways of thinking, with other companies then following suit--first the "eager-to-learns" and then the "cautious skeptics," while a sizable number of companies hold out as long as they can, refusing to adopt new ways of communicating with audiences.

The problem, though, is that this isn't 1996. A company's digital presence is no longer experimental or ancillary, or at least it shouldn't be. For all but the most local of companies, one of the best ways to reach new customers and converse with a wide range of interested audiences--regionally and globally--is online.

If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave a comment or else e-mail me at samford@mit.edu.