Mediating the Past

On the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination, this post considers how fictional depictions of Kennedy represent history and engage cultural memory.
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Jennifer Lynn Jones explores dieting episodes in the classic family sitcom, The Goldbergs.
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By licensing—and disciplining—history, the Assassin's Creed series seeks to turn cultural capital into gaming capital.
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Treme does not simply revisit a post-Katrina sequence of events. It tracks the mediated versions of them, underlining, commenting and critiquing previous formulations, re-inventing the story and becoming part it.
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For viewers too young to remember, moments of common historical importance are increasingly being inflected with the flippant attitude of sick humor.
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The popular WNYC public radio program Radiolab weaves together interviews, historical records, artifacts, and music in the episode "Crossroads," which explores the cultural history surrounding blues musician Robert Johnson.
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Some of the most compelling episodes of NBC's Who Do You Think You Are? are those where relatively little information about a celebrity’s ancestors can be found.
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We not only need to engage with historiographical ideologies and methods in times of shifting temporality and materiality; we need to protect physical media.
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While this media surge contributed to this season’s premiere becoming Mad Men’s highest rated episode ever, ratings are not really the point. Mad Men sustains AMC's brand, providing a specific and prestigious visibility that extends beyond those who actually watch. Mad Men also offers viewers the opportunity to feel simultaneously nostalgic for and superior...
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