UC Davis experts: News media and popular culture

The University of California, Davis, has campus experts available to provide commentary related to the media and popular culture.

American popular culture

Laura Grindstaff, assistant professor of sociology, studies American popular culture, including television and Hollywood film, with a special emphasis on issues of gender, class, race and sexuality. Her courses include "Women in Film," "Film and Social Issues," "Documentary Film," "Hollywood Genres" and "The Films of Alfred Hitchcock." She wrote a book on daytime television talk shows, published by the University of Chicago Press in spring 2002. Contact: Laura Grindstaff, Sociology, (530) 752-1580, lagrindstaff@ucdavis.edu.

The news media

John Theobald, a lecturer in the UC Davis Department of Communication, can talk about how the television media covers the news, including restraints and challenges facing the industry. Theobald's academic interests include studies of news, political communication, mass culture, media effects, and the social consequences of technology. He can also discuss the politics that print and broadcast media encounter in attempting to communicate to the public. He teaches "The Media Industry," "Media Analysis" and "News Policies and Practices." A former television news producer, Theobald is a frequent radio and television commentator on communication-related issues in Northern California. Contact: John Theobald, Communication, (530) 752-4916 office (Monday-Thursday), (707) 942-1132 home (Friday-Sunday), theobald@worldnet.att.net.

Social justice journalism

Radical social journalism is about ideas -- not profits -- and cannot be judged by the standards of its mainstream counterparts, argues UC Davis technocultural scholar Bob Ostertag. He can talk about the successes -- as well as give context -- for a number of publications produced through American social movements: abolitionism and suffragism of the 19th century, gay and lesbian movements, the GI press in the Vietnam War, and environmentalism. A journalist who covered the civil wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador in the 1980s for a variety of journals around the world, Ostertag's writings on contemporary politics have been published on every continent and in many languages. He is the author of "People's Movements, People's Press: The Journalism of Social Justice Movements" (2005). Contact: Bob Ostertag, Technocultural Studies, (415) 609 9619, bob.ostertag@mac.com.

Masculinity, media, holidays

Jay Mechling , professor of American studies, is considered one of the most influential academics in American studies. He writes and teaches about the construction of masculinity in American culture, from the socialization of boys in families and organizations to the representations of masculinity in film and television. Dr. Mechling can also talk about various American holidays, their history and their cultural importance. He also writes about violence in movies. His book "On My Honor: The Boy Scouts and the Making of American Youth" was published in fall 2001 by the University of Chicago Press. Contact: Jay Mechling, American Studies, (530) 752-9043 (office) or (510) 865-8858 (home), jemechling@ucdavis.edu.

Alternative media, community broadcast media

Jesse Drew, associate director of the UC Davis Technocultural Studies Program, can talk about alternative media, community television and radio, independent media technology use in education, and communications technologies and labor organizations. Drew combines practical-world experience with artistic and scholarly endeavors, having worked for a dozen years in the electronics industry for companies like Hewlitt-Packard and Dolby Laboratories, with an academic career. He has been teaching for the past nine years as well producing independent documentary and artistic video and multi-media work for the past 15 years. Contact: Jesse Drew, Technocultural Studies, 530)-752-9674, jdrew@ucdavis.edu.

Better bodies through technology

Carolyn de la Peña, a UC Davis assistant professor of American studies, can talk about the history of quack products that promise better bodies and the relationship between energy devices and legitimate/illegitimate medical practices. According to de la Peña, early 20th century attitudes about using technology to release latent energy and reverse physical decline have carried over to today. Related to this, she says mid-century Americans enjoyed comic books featuring Flash Gordon, Spiderman and Plastic Man because these characters allowed them to believe that technologies and human bodies were evolving together. She can talk about how Americans work out key cultural myths about our physical capabilities through popular culture such as in comic book heroes. De la Peña's book, The Body Electric: How Strange Machines Built the Modern American, was published in 2003. Contact: Carolyn de la Pe ña, American Studies, (530) 752-3375, ctdelapena@ucdavis.edu.

Blacks in film and TV

Christine Acham, UC Davis assistant professor of African American and African studies, can talk about the history of blacks in African American film and television. She can also talk about contemporary film and TV trends in regards to blacks, African Americans currently in film and television industry, and popular culture. She is writing a book on black TV series of the '70s and another on the Blaxploitation films of the '70s. Contacts: Christine Acham, African American and African Studies, (530) 754-6619, acham@ucdavis.edu.

Toys, Christmas, world design

UC Davis environmental design professor Dolph Gotelli collects toys and Christmas memorabilia as part of his a lifelong visual design scholarship. He has mounted a number of museum exhibitions using toys from his collections. Gotelli can talk about Christmas rituals, Santa Claus and design in cultures around the world. He also boasts one of the largest shopping bag collections in the world. Gotelli can articulate the importance of imagination and why today's material culture—toys, movies, etc., are devoid of stimulation. Contact: Dolph Gotelli, Environmental Design, (530) 752-2589, degotelli@ucdavis.edu, or his assistant, Rhonda O'Brien, at 530-6223, rrobrien@ucdavis.edu.

Media contact:

Claudia Morain, News Service, (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu

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Last updated Nov. 2, 2006