The Defector (ST:TNG Rewatch; Season Three, Episode 10) Cold War Brinksmanship, via Shakespeare

(Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break.) A Romulan defector exposes a planned incursion against the Federation, in a slow but gripping character study that comments on the Cold War. As I kid, I remember being transfixed by the 1983 TV movie The Day After, which depicts a nuclear attack on America. I doodled mushroom clouds…

Dennis G. Jerz | Associate Professor of English -- New Media Journalism, Seton Hill University | jerz.setonhill.edu Logo

In May, 2000, I was blogging about the ‘I Love You’ virus, hacking URLs, PG Wodehouse, and Pez poetry

In May, 2000, I was blogging about The “I Love You” IRC virus A college that shifted to online applications only A poem about Pez that has lodged this couplet forever in my brain: What art thou, Pez, that must needs be dispensed? T’ be merely wrapped would leave thee so incensed? Hacking the URL…

Kimmel’s Jab at Pence’s “empty box” joke illustrates a bi-partisan #fakenews problem

If, like pollster Matthew McDermott, you shared (or at least chuckled at) that Jimmy Kimmel clip of VP Pence joking about delivering empty boxes because it confirms what you already believe about Pence; or, if you feel the C-SPAN clip that unfairly makes the VP look bad confirms your attitude about the lying America-hating media,…

Seton Hill graduates its last “New Media Journalism” major this year.

The English program is not going anywhere, but Seton Hill is graduating its last “New Media Journalism” major this year. Likewise, students who graduate under the current catalog won’t get diplomas that say “Literature” or “Creative Writing.” This was a step that the English faculty took on our own initiative, in the context of a…

How’s newsgathering during COVID-19 at the state level? Depends on the governor.

Journalists covering state responses to the coronavirus pandemic are hampered as officials reduce seating in briefing rooms, introduce unreliable technology and, in some cases, refuse real-time questions. Governors have also seemingly used the crisis to retaliate for critical coverage, blocking access or reducing press pools to friendlier outlets. But some state governments have pivoted with more…