Cinema Journal's new monthly media studies podcast, Aca-Media, is now up and running. Hosts Christine Becker and Michael Kackman and co-producers Bill Kirkpatrick and Todd Thompson explore current scholarship, issues in the media industries, questions in pedagogy and professional development, and events in the world of media studies. Aca-Media is sponsored by Cinema Journal, the official journal of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, and has been funded in part by the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts at the University of Notre Dame. In the inaugural episode of Aca-Media, we interview incoming editor of Cinema Journal (and Batman scholar) Will Brooker, discuss the recent Flow Conference in Austin, TX (featuring a screening of the new Fox drama The Following), and report on the tribute to the late Alexander Doty held last fall in Bloomington, IN. You can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes or via RSS. Links, show notes, and more information about the podcast can be found at www.aca-media.org. You can contact the show at [log in to unmask], and you can follow us on Twitter at @aca_media. Want to participate? The next episode of Aca-Media will drop a week before the SCMS conference starts in Chicago, which offers perfect timing for the podcast to offer advice to attendees on how to foster the best conference experience. But to make sure we cover all bases, we need your help. We want to know: What one piece of advice do you wish you had gotten before the first SCMS you attended? What one item should presenters make sure to pack before heading to Chicago? What one thing should everyone make time to do at SCMS? What one thing should everyone avoid doing at SCMS? What have you always wanted to say out loud to that one person who always does that annoying thing at conferences but you can't because it might be taken personally and then you'll never get tenure? What are your best bits of best practices, sage advice, and sincere warnings related to SCMS? Record your answer to one of these questions in 30 seconds or less (a smartphone recording will do, if you don't have a digital recorder), and email the sound file as an attachment to [log in to unmask] by February 15. We will compile the best answers in a segment called Aca-Media Advice: SCMS Edition. We want serious answers, we want funny answers, we want answers that will help make this the best possible conference in the history of SCMSing. Send us what you've got to say! ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]