MEA @ NCA 2023
The Media Ecology Association will sponsor a mixture of four paper and panel sessions during the 109th Annual Convention of the National Communication Association. The convention will take place from November 16–19, in National Harbor, Maryland, and will include the from scholarship that relates media ecology to the overall convention theme of freedom.
Please see the paper and panel sessions listed below for dates, times, room locations, and further details. Contact the division organizer, Austin Hestdalen, at ahestdal@pnw.edu with any questions.
1. Top Papers in Media Ecology
When: Saturday,11/18, 2:00–3:15 p.m. EST
Where: Gaylord National Harbor Convention Center, Rm. 15 (2nd Floor)
Chair: Austin Hestdalen, Purdue University Northwest
Respondent: Michael Plugh, Manhattan College
Presentations
“Choosing Reproductions of the Real: Lewis Mumford for Technology Today” Margaret Mullen, East Stroudsberg University
“From Church to Tribe: Why Its Important to Speak Freely About McLuhan”
Marcel O’Gorman, University of Waterloo Canada
“Media Theory: The Turn From Humanism to Anti-Humanism” Peter Zhang, Grand Valley State University
“Personal Freedoms and Its Perilous Mediations in Bernard Charbonneau’s Critique of Mass Society”
Christian Roy, Independent Scholar
“That’s So Meta! The Media Logic of Metatextuality in Contemporary Popular Culture”
Charles E. Soukup, University of Northern Colorado
Christina R. Foust, Metropolitan State University
2. Top Student Papers in Media Ecology
When: Saturday, 11/18, 3:30–4:45 p.m. EST
Where: Gaylord National Harbor Convention Center, Rm. 15 (2nd Floor)
Chair: Austin Hestdalen, Purdue University Northwest
Presentations
“Not Just Monkeying Around: Play, Proliferation, and Meme Coin Speculation ” Maximilian Brichta, University of Southern California
“Cyberspace, the ‘Discarnate Being,’ and the Unchaining of the Will”
Mariana Rose Orth, Duquesne University
“Power in the Flow: Binge-Watching and Interpretive Offloading in the Age of Information”
Sascha Nemself Villagran, University of Pittsburgh
3. The Freedom from Social Media?: Media Ecological Perspectives on Memory, Cities, Friendships, and Security
When: Sunday, 11/19, 9:30–10:45 a.m. EST
Where: Gaylord National Harbor Convention Center, Rm. 15 (2nd Floor)
Chair: Matthew P. Mancino, Indiana University South Bend
Presentations
“Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Relationships or Augmented Intelligence Augmented Relationships?: The Case for Correcting the Artificial Misnomer”
Tiffany A. Petricini, Penn State University, Shenango
“Disinformation and Cybersecurity: Social Media and the Appearance of Safety”
Matthew P. Mancino, Indiana University South Bend
“Objectifying Spaces of Abjection: Social Media Ecology, Ruin Porn, and Gary, IN”
Austin Hestdalen, Purdue University Northwest
“‘Freeing’ Your Mind: Online Permanence and Human Memory”
Kati Sudnick, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
4. Platonic Psychology and Media Ecology: How to Act Freely in a Technological World
Co-Sponsored with the Communication Ethics division
When: Sunday, 11/19, 11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m. EST
Where: Gaylord National Harbor Convention Center, Chesapeake B, Ballroom Level
Chair: Clara Paloucek, University of Wisconsin Madison
Presentations
“Of Plato and Popes: Platonic Psychology, Free Will, and the Pontifical Council for Social Communications”
John Joseph Jasso, Ave Maria University
“Stochastic Chariots: Platonic Rhetoric and the Eloquence of LLMs”
Doug Kulchar, Pennsylvania State University
“The Freedom of Erotic Rhetoric: Plato on the Arts of Love and Logos”
Andrew Beer, Christendom College