Pete Johnson

In a new essay, @aca-laurel.bsky.social examines the role of the fanboy auteur in HBO's backstage comedy "The Franchise," which satirizes Hollywood's superhero industrial complex. Read: www.flowjournal.org/2025/07/fanb...

Journal of e-Media Studies, Volume 7 Issue 2: Accessible Civil Rights Heritage: Mexicans in Your Town: Histories of Mexican Migration to the United States in Local Television Documentaries by Rodolfo Fernández and Deborah L. JaramilloUniversity of Connecticut (Fernández) / Boston University (Jaramillo)AbstractMigrants and LocalsA Brief Overview of Mexican Migration to the United States&...

On local television, public broadcasting, and responses to Mexican immigration: @rodolfofernandez.bsky.social and I wrote about how locally produced documentaries tackled their communities' anxieties about the "sudden" appearance of Mexicans in their towns. pub.dartmouth.edu/journal-of-e...

If you're re-watching 28 DAYS LATER, check out this fascinating article in HORROR STUDIES by @lindseydecker.bsky.social, which takes up, among other things, the 'rural idyll' & nostalgia in the film (+ relevant to 28 YEARS LATER) @intellectbooks.bsky.social
intellectdiscover.com/content/jour...

Thanks Deb!

Congrats to DR. Pete Johnson (@itstv.bsky.social) on successfully defending his terrific dissertation, "The Risk Myth: Reassessing the Financial Cultures, Practices, and Structures of U.S. Television, 1945–2013."

Next stop: Visiting Assistant Professor in Communication at the University of Miami!

Want to learn about how Texas media industry professionals are active in a range of distribution and exhibition activities across film, television, streaming, and podcasting?

Check out the latest installment in our podcast series! cc @utexasrtf.bsky.social @texasmoody.bsky.social

Texas Entertainment and Media Industries Symposium: Production Today, we’re bringing you the second episode in our special series about the Texas media industries. This podcast was recorded at the Texas Entertainment and Media Industries Symposium, which took pla

Podcast link: soundcloud.com/rtfmic/texas...

Stay tuned for a forthcoming white paper authored by several of us at UT-Austin on the state of the Texas media industry ecosystem.

YouTube video by Media Burn Archive Steven Spielberg watches Oscar nominations in 1976

With everyone reflecting on the 50th anniversary of “Jaws,” it’s the perfect time to revisit this fascinating TVTV clip of Steven Spielberg reacting to the Oscar recognition his blockbuster got — and didn’t get — when nominations came out (via the Media Burn Archive).

Flow is experiencing some unexpected back end issues which have resulted in the site currently being down. We are doing our best to get this resolved as quickly as possible. Thanks to those who have already reached out!!

The financial ecologies of transnational television production: “Following the money” from private equity to Sky Germany’s Pagan Peak - Peter Arne Johnson, 2025 Private equity firms and institutional stakeholders increased their investments in television production amid the streaming boom of the late 2010s and early 202...

How is global TV production shaped by private equity?
Peter Arne Johnson follows the financial threads behind #PaganPeak to unpack the paradoxes of capital investment. #OnlineFirst journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

The only section of my dissertation I am willing to share publicly:

#Dunkin

say it again:

4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities

ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x

demolishing higher education is economic sabotage

The financial ecologies of transnational television production: “Following the money” from private equity to Sky Germany’s Pagan Peak - Peter Arne Johnson, 2025 Private equity firms and institutional stakeholders increased their investments in television production amid the streaming boom of the late 2010s and early 202...

🚨New (open access!) article in @mcsjournal.bsky.social on transnational media financing and private equity investment in TV production 💰📺

Reminder: Friday, May 16, 2025 is the last day to volunteer for service. You can serve on an Award or Standing committee, or the 2026 Program committee. SCMS relies on its members to function at its best, so get involved!

www.cmstudies.org/page/Volunte...

Trump and many GOP lawmakers want to end all funding for NPR and PBS − unraveling a US public media system that took a century to build The precursors of today’s public media programs consisted of professors giving lectures about history and finance.

Wrote a historical piece that defends funding for NPR and PBS. Whatever their problems, we cannot let Fox News become our default "public sphere." There needs to be alternatives, including imperfect yet aspirational ones.

In "Welcome to Wrexham and Representations of Management in Football (Soccer) as a Product of the “Media Sports Cultural Complex”" Andrew Stubbs-Lacy explores representation & construction of management in football with a focus on Welcome to Wrexham. Read: tinyurl.com/4z7wkuk8

Instead of advertising’s integration of AI media technologies as driven by natural market tendencies, @matthewcrain.bsky.social argues its from systemic commodification & political-economic forces, as analyzed through the Political Economy of Media & Communications framework. tinyurl.com/3yajfcmb

My new column in @flowtv.bsky.social : "Silicon Valley's Human Shields."
Earlier drafts were more a love letter to Lina Khan, this is somewhat more serious?
www.flowjournal.org/2025/04/huma...

Next up: @geraldsim.bsky.social critiques Big Tech’s lobbying strategies against antitrust legislation, arguing that companies use technoliberal narratives, racialized imagery & nationalist rhetoric, such as the “China Argument,” to manipulate public opinion and more. tinyurl.com/ycka7652

Too Much TV: SXSW Loses Its Soul Can the once-lively festival survive if it's just part of an entertainment industry sales flywheel?

I wanted to highlight tonight's newsletter. Because I think it's a really good example of what I do five days a week

open.substack.com/pub/toomucht...

a group of minions wearing hard hats and goggles are standing together ALT: a group of minions wearing hard hats and goggles are standing together

🥳New Flow?! With Michael Z. Newman, @geraldsim.bsky.social ,
@matthewcrain.bsky.social , Roderik Smits, & Andrew Stubbs-Lacy! Topics include: camera looks in sitcoms, advertising’s integration of AI, Big Tech’s lobbying efforts, "fair pay” in media industries, & Welcome to Wrexham! flowjournal.org

Dr. Newman explores the use of camera looks in sitcoms like Abbott Elementary as a comedic device. Establishing direct connection with the audience, blending traditions of comedic performance that invite viewer participation & emotional response. Read it here: tinyurl.com/4vp8uakv

For Flow, I wrote this essay about the camera looks in Abbott Elementary and other comedies, and camera looks more generally going back to film comedian comedies and musicals. I connect these looks to the sitcom laugh track. www.flowjournal.org/2025/04/came...

Next season on #TheStudio

A projection on the outside of the Old North Church reading "Let the WARNING ride forth ONCE MORE: TYRANNY is at OUR DOOR"

Old North Church in Boston last night on the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere's ride.

SCMS flyer for 2025 awards ceremony happening Saturday, April 5 from 7:15 to 8:15 in the Fairmont Hotel's International Ballroom

Join us tomorrow night (Saturday) in the Fairmont Hotel's International Ballroom as we celebrate this year’s award recipients at the Awards Ceremony—scheduled from 7:15PM to 8:15PM!
#SCMS25

List of TV & Radio History SIG Sponsored Panels: *A2: The Most Trusted Men in America? Television News Departments in the Middle of Twentieth Century Political Change *D12: Noncommercial Radio Broadcasting in the United States and Canada *E11: Useful Television: Expanding Understanding of the Medium Through Alternative Histories *F26: Historicizing the Present in Media Studies *L4: Strange Bedfellows: Cross-Sector Partnerships in U.S. Broadcasting Industry History *O9: Learning at Home and Away: Mobilizations of Educational Technology in the Late 20th Century *R19: Doing Political History with TV: How and Why to Use TV Texts as Primary Source Material

List of SIG Recommended Panels

TV & Radio History SIG is thrilled to share its sponsored and recommended panels for #SCMS2025 in Chicago 🎉 .

These panels highlight the excellent research that can be found in television and radio history! #SCMS25

100% stealing this

The political economic framework that Bob championed has received increasingly less attention within the field of communication even as its usefulness and timeliness is arguably more glaringly apparent than ever before.

Also, anyone who is thinking about private university boards right now should be reading @charlieeaton.bsky.social and Albina Gibadullina.