If I blog only sporadically over the next month it’s because I’m locked in a library reading! I’ll be taking what my graduate program calls “comprehensive exams” in October and I have a ridiculously long list of books to get through. It’s an exciting process in the beginning: it’s great to get a solid historical, [...]
Posts Tagged ‘research’
Reading List in Communication, Culture and Industry
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on August 30th, 2010
Research Update: Thinking About Web Series, Independent Production and Emerging New Media
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on August 14th, 2010
Most people who read this blog know me professionally, which is to say, digitally. And, digitally speaking, I talk about my research, but not as rigorously as I do in person. I’m developing my reading list for my exams now, which means I’m doing a lot of big and small preliminary thinking about “who I [...]
Web Series: Practicing What You Blog/Research
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on May 7th, 2010
The truism goes: “Those who can’t (insert creative skill)…(insert presumably less creative skill).” Like most sayings, it’s both simplistic, harsh and somewhat true. Those can’t or won’t: do/teach, paint/curate, film/critique. I blog and research about web series — most of them independent — but I have never tried to make one, or a piece of [...]
Toward a History of the Web Series (Market)
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on April 5th, 2010
Screengrabs of the homepage for American Cybercast, a late nighties web show network (orange outline mine) I’ve been researching for an article on web programming, and I’ve found tons of interesting gems! I’d already known “webisodic programming” had dated back to 1995, and I’m well aware the Internet repeats itself. But what old newspaper and [...]
Rethinking “Post-Racial”
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on November 20th, 2009
I’d originally planned to do reams and reams of reading on this, and an extensive literature review, but I’m so busy writing, curating, filming, editing and researching other things I won’t get to it for another year, and I don’t want to cite some theories and miss others. Eventually I will have to do a [...]
Academic Conferences: Presenting Post-Excitement
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on November 20th, 2009
So I found out yesterday I’ll be going to the SCMS — Society of Cinema and Media Studies — conference in Los Angeles next year. This is somewhat exciting news because it would be my first conference with a significant group of film and television scholars. Yay. But going to conference is sometimes fraught. Scholars [...]
“Valemont” Wants Your Blood
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on November 10th, 2009
UPDATE (11/29): MTV screened Valemont today at 6PM and the series is in talks for a possible second season produced for television. ORIGINAL: I’ve been very busy with researching, freelancing, curating, etc. and really I haven’t had much time to sit down and enjoy any of the media I study. With that, instead of going [...]
Posted in uncategorized 
Tags: advertising, research, web series, Web Series/Online Video 
No Comments »The Web Series Market: Research, Stage One
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on November 7th, 2009
So at this point I’ve conducted around two dozen interviews with nearly thirty individuals working in the market for original (mostly scripted) web shows. It’s been fun! I still have much more to learn, but, being an academic, have already started writing. It’s what we do. Here is the first full paper I’ve written on [...]
The Rules and Meanings of Vlogging
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on November 5th, 2009
My first academic article has been published! The article, published in First Monday, titled, “Real Vlogs: The Rules and Meanings of Online Personal Videos,” looks at how users on YouTube talk about what vlogs are “real” or authentic, and “fake” or inauthentic. Here’s the abstract: This paper explores what the “rules” of vlogging (video blogging) are: the [...]
Posted in uncategorized Tags: Digital Culture/Industry, research, vlogging, Web Series/Online Video, youtube No Comments »“Precious” and the Fight Against Representation
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on October 20th, 2009
I saw Precious Wednesday (it’s accomplished, bound for Oscar greatness), but I’ll hold off on film criticism and instead talk about what I think the film means, and what I think it does for black cinema, a field I’m still learning about, so I would love comments and suggestions. My thrust is simple: Precious is [...]
What is a Web Series? A Guide and Introduction
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on October 9th, 2009
What is a web series? To anyone in the industry right now, this post will be elementary. Apologies in advance. But I think for academics and maybe aspiring producers, this might be useful. I’ve had a bunch of hits on my old primer, but it’s rough at best. I’m also posting this so if you’re [...]
Posted in uncategorized Tags: research, TV, vlogging, web series, Web Series/Online Video, youtube 4 Comments »Web Series Research and Television Genres
Posted by Aymar Jean Christian on September 28th, 2009
I’ve been incredibly busy of late with various projects (lectures, editing documentaries, freelance and academic articles) and haven’t had time to post. Nevertheless I did want to give a couple scholarly updates. First is really just a class assignment — click for report — on Jason Mittell’s Genre and Television. Mittell’s is a remarkably well-researched [...]
