What are we doing here?

I was that kid who spent every minute absorbed in TV. I watched everything. It didn't matter if i even liked the show. With "Saturday Night Live," "Electric Company," "Let's Go Bowling," and "The Charlie Chan Mystery Theater," those four channels of flickering fantasy were my teachers, my friends, and my access to the world outside.

It was not a happy subject in my family.

At age five, I was sneaking out of bed to watch "Charlie's Angels." By eight, I started to believe that "turn off that damn idiot box!" was my middle name. As a teenager, my saintly mother managed through shear force of will to heft the family television, tubes and all, across the un-mowed lawn and through the un-trimmed hedges to heave it unceremoniously onto the front parking where it would have sat with the other garbage, had I gotten around to taking it out.

So believe me when I say that it gives me no small amount of satisfaction to say that I will one day have a Ph.D in television.

...

Well, that's my media story. And my way of introducing The Idiot Box to you all.

Without question, everyone in this class has been affected by mass media. It brings us our shared culture, it dictates how we spend our time, it fills the conversations we have with our friends, and even, to some extent, determines with whom we can even be friends.

The Idiot Box is the place for you to share your stories, thoughts, and ideas about how affected we all are. Do you have a favorite TV show? What is it? How much do you love facebook? How many friends do you have? How many words can you "thumb" a minute on your cellphone?

These are the first questions. Thinking about how we individually use media technology is the starting point to revealing the larger questions about the media and how it changes the society we live in.

So blog on! Come here to tell us about your media-self or read what others have to say about theirs. The important thing is to start thinking about how you use media (and how, maybe, media is using you).

Cheers!

RC

Welcome to the Idiot Box

My name is Rich Cleland. I'm in the second year of my masters program in the department of mass communication and journalism. My research focuses on the impact of new media technology on society. I'm interested in understanding how stuff like cellphones, blogs, handycams, and desktop publishing can democratize politics, build community, and re-establish the individual as the primary instrument of cultural creativity.

I grew up in Iowa, but I ran away to join the Navy and become a Russian linguist until the Cold War sighed its last. I did my undergad work at the University of Maryland in Government & Politics. I worked for non-profits for a bunch of years during which time I traveled a lot and lived in Siberia (you think Wisconsin is cold?), Prague, and on the beach in France for a summer. I tried the corporate thing for a while working for the National Basketball Association in New York. I was analyzing site traffic and doing marketing research for nba.com when I realized how much more interesting it would be to direct my own research.

So here I am in school, along with you, studying this stuff that changes the world. I'm looking forward to new discoveries and lively discussions.

See you in class!

RC