Tag Archive for 'media'

My conversation with the IU School of Informatics Alumni Association podcast

Published by Tristan on March 24, 2008 in Angie's List, education, media, music, podcast, technology and work. 0 Comments

Indiana University School of Informatics Alumni association logoI was interviewed on November 19th of last year by John Blue for the Indiana University Informatics Alumni Association’s “Bits of Informatics” podcast, and I’m pleased to say it’s now online for your listening pleasure. Over lunch at Aesop’s Tables on a cloudy, wintry day, John and I chatted about my telecommunications and new media experiences at the Bloomington and IUPUI campuses; surround-sound production and my 2-song Capstone presentation; how I met my wife in ballroom-dancing class; and List-en up, the Angie’s List podcast, which was in its infancy last fall.

Though my first name’s spelled incorrectly (I’m sure John will fix it soon), I got a kick out of listening to the podcast episode. It’s quite strange to hear my voice in a context outside of List-en up, but it was exciting to be the interviewee rather than be the interviewer. It was a bit nerve-wracking, as well — can you tell?

Television’s assault on true democracy: Superficiality reigns supreme

Published by Tristan on December 9, 2007 in media and politics. 0 Comments

broken tvTelevision might be the worst thing to happen to civilized society. Too many Americans rely on it for their political opinions, and taking political stances based on superficial exposure is a dangerous thing.

Take a look at pictures of the presidential candidates, and you’ll see there’s not an ugly, disfigured freak amongst them (although one of them is awfully elf-like… or leprechaun-like?). Not that it would necessarily be a good thing if an ugly, disfigured freak (like the hunchback in 300) were to lead our country, but it might be a good thing: it could show the world that we aren’t nation comprised only of self-absorbed, gas-guzzling, overweight, narcissistic, plastic-surgery-obsessed nation-rebuilders (no offense meant to those of us that are any of the aforementioned.) It would also show that we’re more concerned with what candidates do and say rather than how they say it.

My point is that people, in this country and others, rely far too much on what they see on TV for their information, political and otherwise. They tend not to read and do investigative research when making important decisions like who they’ll vote on to be president, and that’s unfortunate. They’re likely to take what they see on TV at face value, especially if it’s a pretty face saying some pretty things. McInformation is too ubiquitous in our culture and thus too easy to digest.

If Abraham Lincoln were to run for president today, he’d need an awful lot of makeup — kinda like one of the last guys who ran for president.