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Academia

MOOChed

Massive Open Online Courses (or MOOCs) have attracted a lot of publicity of late. A uni lecturer I know referred to it as MOOC-mania tonight, in this tweet: https://twitter.com/jason_a_w/status/270777359450382336 The description seems pretty close to the mark and a discussion ensued, with one participant referring to uni administrators as looking very much like the print […]

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Academia Media

Television and the Nation

While buzzing around the University of Wollongong website yesterday, I came across this little news story talking about the role of television in constructing ideas about the nation. The story talked about a seminar at UOW today titled ‘Television, Popular Memory and the Nation’, which is very similar to the topic of my honours thesis. […]

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Academia Media

A Simpsonised Year

I’ve wasted half my life, Marge. You know how many memories I have? Three! Standing in line for a movie, having a key made, and sitting here talking to you. Thirty-eight years and that’s all I have to show for it! – Homer Simpson, The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace At the end of a long-ish […]

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Academia

Imagined Communities in ‘The Simpsons’

UPDATE: If you’ve come to this post looking for information about content analysis, you might be better served looking here, where I’ve written up a more detailed and logical post. It’s been a little while since I written a post here with anything to do with my thesis. That is mostly because I’ve been working […]

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Media

If Fairfax Falls, What of Rural Papers?

The extraordinary developments at Fairfax have been well-covered throughout the Australian media and blogosphere. In particular, the Jonathan Green on The Drum, Andrew Jaspan in The Conversation and Eric Beecher in Crikey are very good articles, full of insight and context. But, if Fairfax falls, what will become of rural and regional papers? Or, perhaps […]

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Academia

The Road Not Taken

UPDATE: If you’ve come to this post looking for information about content analysis, you might be better served looking here, where I’ve written up a more detailed and logical post. I have been doing some considerable reading for the last fortnight and I came across one text that has thrown me a bit. The problem […]

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Academia

An Analysis of the Content

UPDATE: If you’ve come to this post looking for information about content analysis, you might be better served looking here, where I’ve written up a more detailed and logical post. A key data collection method for my thesis will be content analysis. Basically (and I could well be shot for simplifying it this much) content […]

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Academia Media

Springfield Revealed [Revised]

I published a version of this post a couple of days ago. This one is much more detailed and refined. I wrote it up for The Drum, but it wasn’t wanted. You get it here instead 🙂 The Simpsons fan world is abuzz with the news Matt Groening has revealed the real Springfield is near […]

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Academia

Springfield Revealed

The Simpsons fan world is abuzz with the news Matt Groening has revealed the real Springfield is near his hometown in Oregon. This is probably unsurprising news as many people have guessed Springfield, Oregon was where Groening got the name. However, it seems to have been slightly more complex, with Groening telling the Smithsonian Magazine: […]

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Media Social Media

I’m A Simpson