Welcome to the first installment of volume 4 and a special Irony and Politics-themed week from In Media Res. Please feel free to respond to their comments and add your own thoughts and ideas about the series as well. http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org This week’s In Media Res line-up: Monday, January 14, 2008 – Ted Gournelos (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) presents: “South Park’s Ironic Whiteness” Tuesday, January 15, 2008 – Amber Day (Bryant University) presents: “Ironic Authenticity: Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping” Wednesday, January 16, 2008 – Ian Reilly (University of Guelph) presents: “Two Words: Chuck Norris” Thursday, January 17, 2008 – Catherine Burwell (University of Toronto) presents: "Calling on the Colbert Nation: How fan practices complicate irony” Friday, January 18, 2008 – Viveca Greene (Hampshire College) presents: “Shirley, You Can't Be Serious” Please check out these wonderful contributions and offer your thoughts via a comment. http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org In Media Res is envisioned as an experiment in just one sort of collaborative, multi-modal scholarship that MediaCommons will aim to foster. Its primary goal is to provide a forum for more immediate critical engagement with media in a manner closer to how we typically experience mediated texts. Each day, a different media scholar will present a 30-second to 3-minute clip accompanied by a 300-350-word impressionistic response. The goal is to promote an online dialogue amongst media scholars and the public about contemporary media scholarship through clips chosen for either their typicality or a-typicality in demonstrating narrative strategies, genre formulations, aesthetic choices, representational practices, institutional approaches, fan engagements, etc. Best, Avi Santo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Avi Santo, Ph.D. Assistant Professor 3014 Batten Arts & Letters (BAL) Department of Communication and Theatre Arts Old Dominion University Norfolk, Virginia 23529 (757) 683-6971 [log in to unmask] Co-Coordinating Editor: MediaCommons: A Digital Scholarly Network http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org Co-Creator: Flow: Television and Media Culture http://www.flowtv.org _________________________________________________________________ Introducing the City @ Live! Take a tour! http://getyourliveid.ca/?icid=LIVEIDENCA006 ---- Learn to speak like a film/TV professor! Listen to the ScreenLex podcast: http://www.screenlex.org