Funferal

Thoughts from the midwest #6 – study, travel, and observation

Greetings and Salutations,
We’re definitely back into class work. I’ve got what a colleague rightly called ‘a theory laden semester’ with philosophy of technology, sociological theory, and (social) history of telecommunications. It seems the reading for class takes the entire week. Of course, the standard advice here is that actually trying to read the assigned readings is naive – you should instead aim to appear that you have read the readings. So yes, I am gaining a valuable education in how to bluff well.

It’s going to be a busy month here. Noam Chomsky was in nearby Normal yesterday, which was a fascinating experience. Next week I’m heading to Toronto for the Association of Internet Researchers conference, and a fortnight later to Wisconsin for the Media Reform conference. In a sign of just how active my unit is, both conferences are largely organised by ICR professors, while a major cultural studies conference will happen on campus next April.
Unfortunately, that’s not enough to avoid the scrutiny of university administration, and a report published recently has led to a lot of soul searching. It raises the possibility of major restructuring of the college of communications, and this has prompted the creation of a ‘task force for the future of the college,’ and protests from graduate and under-graduate students. [I suppose it doesn’t help that neither of the university’s two new Nobel laureates come from the college).
I’ve been following the debate over the shameful proposed by-laws in Galway – glad to see such active opposition. I garnered an interview with Kieran Cunnane of the campaign against the laws earlier this week, and you can read it on my site.
I was glad to see new of Flirt FM’s new studio – it has been in the works for a while, so good to see it finally emerge. I hope that it encourages more input from GMIT students – and that this in turn will improve interaction between students in the two institutions. How far the station has come from the days of operating out of Seán’s studio on a part-time basis! When you look as well at the proposal (from Flirt FM volunteers Steve and Shauna) for a local cable channel, the prospects for community media in Galway seem bright.
We’re continuing with plans for the Flirt FM alumni group, so if you haven’t already done so, I would encourage former volunteers to get in touch with me, so I can add you to the mailing list when everything (finally) comes together.