Where did you attend college/university?
“I went to Hofstra University for my BA in Television Production and Hofstra again for my Masters in Comparative Arts and Culture.”
Have you worked anywhere else prior to Molloy?
“Previous to Molloy I was the Director of Web and Digital Media at the Herbert School of Communications at Hofstra and previous to that, I was in the television industry as a camera operator for CNBC and an associate producer for mtvU’s reality shows and gamer shows (and a ton more TV jobs… too many to list.)”
What made you decide to want to teach New Media/Communications?
“I wanted to teach New Media because new and digital media culture fascinate me. My scholarship is in media literacy and online production and New Media studies is exactly where that fits in. I enjoy making students into creative participants, digital savvy users and media literate activists.”
Who or what was your inspiration to take on this profession?
“Wow. Good question. I think it was several people/things. After working in TV, I realized it was my duty to inform people of the way that media is a structure of power. At the time I was getting into graduate school, webseries were just becoming popular so I was heavily inspired by the new field of web television (Shows like “We Need Girlfriends”, “Chad Vader”, and “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog”) and I started researching this material. I’m one of the very few web TV academics in the U.S.”
What’s your favorite class to teach?
“My favorite class to teach is History of Digital Media as it is the most theoretical in nature and talks about the structures of “media deep time”- the concept that our digital media are not recent, but a part of a very long timeline. (For example: your phone is made of minerals 100 million years old- that phone then becomes e-waste for another 100,000 years.) We also explore how we are moving toward A.I., robots and virtual reality in that class.”
Did you always want to go into media?
“My entire life I’ve actually wanted to go into media. I wanted to be a TV producer since the 8th grade. When I become a TV producer for a PBS and mtvU, I realized I’d rather research, study and teach media instead.”
Why is New Media and Communications important?
“New Media is immensely important for everyone to learn. It’s an enhanced skill of becoming aware of hidden messages in our every day lives and how to prepare for emergent media. Learning new media makes you an assest in any field because you can apply the skills learned about digital platforms like social media to create a strong individual brand, learn web languages, read the web better, become a better civic actor and help inform others!”
We’ve heard you’re working on your PhD, what’s it like to be professor and a student at the same time?
“I just finished my first semster of coursework in my PhD in Cultural Studies. I’m studying Media Archaeology which is considering media as a part of our material culture. My dissertation will be about user data and virtual spaces. It is incredibly difficult being a professor and a student at the same time, but I am passionate about both, so I believe I will succeed in both.”
What’s your favorite meme?
“I like image marco memes and my favorite one is Bad Luck Brian. Poor kid.”
We’ve also heard you wrote a book about memes, would you recommend it?
“I co-authored a book called Producing New and Digital Media: Your Guide to Savvy Use of the Web with Tom Kenny. And yes, of course I’d recommend!”
Would you consider yourself a meme?
“Am I a meme? Maybe? It depends. Memes are ideas that manifest in media… so I think sometimes some of the things I do become memetic, but am I one? I don’t know if I wan’t that. LOL.”
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