Josh Braun

@dianabutlerbass.bsky.social Stumbled across your 2018 podcast interview with Dan Harris yesterday and it was what I needed to hear in that moment. Thank you.

But when you've gone on @ezraklein.bsky.social's program, and presumably others, the bulk of your conversations have taken siren's-call politics as a given, then focused on how progressives can finally start to win at it. The restructuring argument feels much more necessary to me in this moment. 2/2

@chrislhayes.bsky.social I deeply love the argument in "The Siren's Call," but something's been nagging me about how you've deployed it. In the book itself, you make this thoughtful, well-sourced case for why and how we need to restructure our politics to avoid the logic of the siren's call…1/2

Reparative Media Can producing stories and developing platforms to support people who have been harmed by multiple, intersecting systems heal those systems? In Reparative Med...

Speaking of which, the latest entry in MIT's Distribution Matters series (which I co-edit with Ramon Lobato) is "Reparative Media" by the ever-amazing @ajescoffery.bsky.social. It now has a gorgeous cover and a pre-order page (hint). So proud to have had the opportunity to work with Aymar. #commsky

The cover image for Seth Long's new book, "The Last Mixtape: Physical Media and Nostalgic Cycles." It is a stylized line art image that makes the front of the book resemble the old classroom tape decks so ubiquitous in the 1970s and 1980s, complete with a loaded audio cassette and physical playback buttons. The color scheme is late 70s/early 80s, too, with the body of the recorder in a blue-green color that belongs to the same color palette as avocado wallpaper and appliances. There are similarly retro red-orange highlights. The whitespace is colored to look like aged paper.

Annually, I prepare a list of books undergrads in my Media, Technology & Culture course can select for their final projects. Always fun to assemble and I get kick out of sharing it, too, so here it is! #commsky

Pic of Seth Long's book, my favorite new cover.

umass-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/person...

This Program Is Brought to You By . . . Journalism, television, cable, and online media are all evolving rapidly. At the nexus of these volatile industries is a growing group of individuals and fir...

It looks at the company's original ambitions of bridging television and the internet, and how—as TV audiences moved online—it grappled with forging coherent online strategies amid the tangle of branding relationships across NBC News, MSNBC and (then) Microsoft. 2/2
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Goodbye, MSNBC. Hello, MS NOW.

Now, as MSNBC spins off into its own company, distinct from NBC News, it seems like a good time to mention that I wrote a book on MSNBC. 1/2

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/b...

Still asking the hard questions, I see. 😂

I'm returning from sabbatical, so this is a bit too on the nose for me right now, lol. 😬

Person standing on a beach looking at a giant wave. Caption reads “Academics on August 1”

So say we all.

non-affiliated friends and colleagues this is good news!

Screenshot of a low-effort spam email with the subject line "Article request notice." The complete body text reads: "Hello, Dear Author Have any manuscripts for publication?"

Journal spammers really putting their back into it.

#academicSky

I taught myself to type on an Olivetti portable manual typewriter in the 70's. People who didn't practice evenly hitting the keys so the z would come out just as dark as the f don't get to tell me how many spaces to put after a period, and need to get off my lawn.

@chrislhayes.bsky.social Just finished "The Siren's Call" and it's fantastic. In addition to being excellent on its own merits, it hit at the perfect moment for me, as I'm thinking more about attention in my teaching and research, as well as in my own life. Thank you.

The audio archives are. Their podcasts are free for several days when they first post.

The fear among academics and lawyers now talking on the record on just about any topic that involves the federal government or the White House is really extraordinary and worrisome, and getting worse, it seems to me, every week. Dissent by an establishment figures becoming verboten in the US

Trump Appears to Be Targeting Muslim and “Non-White” Students for Deportation Students from Muslim-majority countries as well as Asia and Africa are having their visas revoked with little or no explanation.

theintercept.com/2025/04/08/t...

I’ve been inundated w/ Q’s about the boundaries of our constitutional rights. Q’s about whether & how people can protest, considerations & calculus for whether they should exercise their speech rights. Freedom in the age of revenge is a fragile premise. We are all feeling the fear. That’s the point.

Great news: NIH postbac program is recruiting again! If your grad school plans were affected by program cutbacks or admissions freezes this year I highly encourage you to apply, this could be a perfect opportunity. Please repost.

www.training.nih.gov/research-tra...

The University President Willing to Fight Trump Christopher L. Eisgruber of Princeton University talks about the administration’s move to freeze billions of dollars in funding to higher education institutions.

I greatly appreciate everything that Christopher Eisgruber says in this interview, but, more than that, it's increasingly a relief to hear someone in a position of authority willing to be sane in public. #academicSky #eduSky

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/p...

The world premiere of the new wind band arrangement of my score for Buster Keaton's COPS received a standing ovation. Concert was held last night in Luxembourg.

The text reads "At the behest of corporations and trade groups touting its tremendous potential for education, development, and social uplift, regulators cleared the way for radio, only for it to become another aggressive marketing channel predicated on the sale of useless crap." The word "radio" is crossed out and replaced by the word "cable," which is crossed out and replaced with the words "online services," and so on with "the commercial internet," and "mobile internet" crossed out as well. Beneath all the text that's been struck through is the latest iteration: "generative AI?"

U.S. media history is pretty straightforward, honestly.

#commsky

Of course! And I can only imagine. I’m missing ICA as well this year, though I’m happy to connect by Zoom or perhaps a future conference. Again, thank you for the wonderful book.

Was just having a conversation elsewhere about what a wonderful book this is. Written not just with great insight, but with great empathy. Both more important now than ever.

Movies that take place at roughly the same time

Cover image from "Capturing News, Capturing Democracy: Trump and the Voice of America" by Kate Wright, Martin Scott, and Mel Bunce The cover is red-orange and features an illustration in near-silhouette. A man in a suit is running frantically out of frame as a giant arm reaches out to drop a bird cage over him.

Posting for no particular reason.

global.oup.com/academic/pro...

#commsky #VOA

Buster Keaton's Seven Chances was released 100 years ago today, on March 15, 1925

A century of propaganda studies: from pen and sword to surveillant smartphone Published in Critical Studies in Media Communication (Ahead of Print, 2025)

I'm excited to share the new forum I've co-edited with @marcowenjones.bsky.social for CSMC, here is our introduction: 'A century of propaganda studies: from pen and sword to surveillant smartphone' -check out the fascinating open access essays by our contributors! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Work by Lucas Zimmerman

Check out this new research in @regionalstudies.bsky.social! "Unseen costs: the inequities of the geography of innovation"