I often aspire to help my students realize the difference between flawed characters and flawed scripts, but recently realized I had sometimes neglected to apply this notion to my own cultural criticism. My thoughts about How To Get Away With… Read More ›
In September 2019, Chick-fil-A opened its first location outside of the United States in Toronto, Canada. The problem — this is a lie. Chick-fil-A actually opened its first location in Canada in the mid-1990s but was unsuccessful. Chick-fil-A attempted another,… Read More ›
NBC Entertainment currently has a number of high-quality, status-quo-challenging programs. As previously written, in its twenty-first season now, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit brings attention to the systemic problem that is sexual violence. In contrast to rhetoric spoken and… Read More ›
Please read and then share my latest publication: “Yes, you should have free speech on Facebook“ found on History News Network. Thanks! Dr. Andrew Joseph Pegoda
Parasocial relationships form easily. Carefully-scripted and highly-rehearsed, people see fictional characters people on their screens from the comfort of their homes and almost naturally come to believe they really know and very much like them. People are not able to internalize that… Read More ›
I have previously written about ABC’s How To Get Away With Murder here and here. With the current season, I am growing more and more frustrated because of the constant twists (within twists, within twists, within yet more twists), the very… Read More ›
It is impossible to be unarmed when our Blackness is the weapon that they fear. The Hate U Give (2018) is a powerful movie. Its ultimate power stems not so much from its indictment of institutional and systemic racism but from its… Read More ›
