Interview with Renee Hobbs
The week ahead. Plus, Adam and I interview Dr. Hobbs for the Digital Gardening podcast.
Welcome to the work week.
I am excited this morning because today, if Amazon is to be believed, I am receiving shipment on my new zero gravity folding lawn chair. These have been around for years now, but I’ve never owned one, always wanted one, and today is the day.
What else am I excited about this week?
Warm weather. Every day this week promises to be in the high seventies, with temps creeping up into the eighties by the weekend. This summer we are going to have actual grass in the backyard (unlike last summer’s mosh pit), and I can’t wait to start spending more time back there with the dogs. Our backyard is a bit larger than a postage stamp, but there’s just enough space there for the dogs to run around and to host a few people around the fire pit. There might be enough room to toss a pee-wee size football, if you don’t get too crazy with it.
Finishing Chapter 3. I want to finish this chapter this week, even though doing so would put me three weeks ahead of schedule. (When I say “finish,” I just mean “someone could read this and not get angry.”) Most of this chapter details the history of media literacy education (MLE), mostly in the US context, and connects it to more recent efforts in information literacy, digital literacy, news literacy, and algorithmic literacy. I am learning a lot through my research, but I am also at that stage where I’m learning every day just how little I know. #Humbling.
Hitting the Monon and the Canal. For the last several months, probably since January really, I have been staying loyal to the Monon, but I think this morning I am going to mix it up a bit and run a little bit north on the Monon and then double back and head downtown for a loop around the Canal and the soccer fields at IUPUI. My friend Jim wants to cycle the entire length of the Monon this week, from Sheridan, Indiana to Tenth St. in Indianapolis, which is about a 27-mile ride end-to-end.
Today’s Berkman Klein Center webinar on generative AI. This promises to be a fascinating discussion. I am looking forward to it. (Also, this is one of those things that sort of gets to count as book work/research, even though I just get to sit back and relax ‘n’ learn.)
So, with all that said, please take some time to check out the recent podcast interview that Adam and I conducted with the one and only Dr. Renee Hobbs, Director of the Media Education Lab at the University of Rhode Island and a shining star (nay, a galaxy) in the firmament of media literacy education. Dr. Hobbs is an internationally-renowned media literacy expert and just an all-around great person. Renee is also Professor of Communication Studies at URI.
Dr. Hobbs' current project, Courageous RI, focuses on violence and hate speech prevention via community-led discussions on such topics as "Feelings and Facts," "Conflict Entrepreneurs," and "Preventing Violent Extremism." All Courageous RI events are free, online, and open to the public. (I think I have attended all of them so far, and they are terrific. I highly recommend attending one or two.)
Our conversation in this episode spans several timely topics. We talk about the role of universities and colleges in repairing the epistemic divide and mitigating the hyper-polarization of our current moment, even as institutions of higher education (like all knowledge-producing institutions) are experiencing a crisis of confidence and a toxic lack of trust from the publics they serve. We discuss the rise of influencers and the concomitant decline in expert knowledge. And we explore the future of higher education and what must change—especially in terms of disciplinary siloing and incentive structures—for higher education to truly seize the gravity of our current postdigital moment.
Interviewing Renee was a dream come true for both Adam and myself. Please give it a listen. Have a great week!