Essays
I created this page as a central location for the longer essays I write for this blog, except for those about web series, which are mostly on the web series page.
Starred headlines (**) denote popular posts.
Can — And Should — YouTube Recreate TV?
Who Wins When TV and the Web Converge? Nielsen and the Problem of Web Ratings**
Quality Web Originals Jump Over-The-Top
Netflix, Qwikster and the Challenge of Navigating the Digital Transition
Netflix and Original Programming: If They Build It, Will We Pay?
Rise of the Black (Web Video) Network?
The Past and Future Market for Web Comedy**
Is Hulu Winning the Web Video Wars?
Paying for Content: The Context and Consequences of the Next Wave in New Media**
Crowdsourcing Funding for Web Series
The Other Side of Privacy: Benefits of Targeted Advertising?
Toward a History of the Web Series (Market)
Graduating from YouTube Hard Without Big Media Support
Why Black Americans Should Care About Net Neutrality**
What Makes a Successful Web Series?**
Lady Gaga’s ‘Telephone:’ Product Placement and Corporate Anxiety**
How Many Black TV Networks Do We Need?
Does the Broadcast Versus Cable Debate Matter?
Why Your Favorite TV Show Will Never Be A Movie **
What is “Television”? Broadcast, It Is Not
The Sitcom Returns! If So, For How Long?
Is ‘Enlightened’ Enlightened? The Strange, Quiet Brilliance of HBO’s Dark Comedy
The Sopranos and Its Legacy, Post-Hype
Cable TV’s Corruptible Women**
The ‘Mad Men’ Effect: When TV Became Slow**
On Cable, Long Live the Anti-Hero
White Supremacists Are Back (On Television)!
‘Damages’: Weakness at the Heart of Power
Will ‘Treme’ Fall Into the ‘Caprica’ Trap?
What Can U.S. Series Learn From Telenovelas?**
Best TV of the Decade! (Top Three, For Me)
Have Film Critics Really Been Seduced by Hollywood?
Big Marketing May Be Down. Is It Dead?
Recession Film Formula: Mad Men
Brilliance of Cute: ‘Babies,’ Documentary and Digital Culture
Feminism Fights For A New Generation
Where is the Black Julia Roberts? Top Actresses 2000-2010**
Is the Bechdel Test Overlooking Feminist Films?
Solitary Woman? Notes on Gender and Independent Film
Will We Ever Pay Homage to Nancy Meyers?**
Lonely Men: An American Encounters Sorrentino
Hollywood Needs Will Smith. Why Doesn’t It Make Another One?
Is Hollywood Pushing Black Actors to TV?
Who Should Have Directed ‘For Colored Girls’?**
Where is the Black Julia Roberts? Top Actresses 2000-2010
“Invictus” and the Politics of Idealism
Lo-Fi Survives the Age of High-Tech and Big Budgets
“Precious” and the Fight Against Representation**
“Precious” Isn’t the First Naughty Black Film
Spike Lee and the Right to be Angry
Understanding Tyler Perry, the Phenomenon**
Has Hollywood Mastered the Gay Film?
Fame (1980), Fame (2009), and Fame!**
Star Trek and Millennial Aesthetics
Mumblecore: We are a generation of hustlers
‘Avatar’ Robbed Like ‘Citizen Kane’?**
Dissertation: Off the Line: Independent Television and the Pitch to Reinvent Hollywood**
Fan Production as Industrial Response in ‘Transformative Works & Cultures’
Mumblecore After the Rise of Web Video and Decline of Digital Realism
The Revolution Will Come When It Comes
Toward a Market-Centered Critique of Representation
On Embracing the Burden of Representation**
Revisiting Henry Jenkins and Debates over the Power of the Internet**
Sex and the Millennials from Lady Gaga to ‘Easy A’**
In Defense of “Celebratory” Scholarship
An Analog Reading List for the Digital Practitioner
Reading List in Communication, Culture and Industry (updated)
Research Update: Web Series, Independent Production and Emerging New Media
Camp 2.0, or YouTube’s Queer Identity
