I’ve not tried this before, but after a week of teaching in the aftermath of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, I wanted to share some of what we talked about in class and offer glimpse of how I’m connecting the work we do in my field with a way to understand what happened this week.
Covered here is:
Topline ways to see the reaction this week
A survey of the broken media system and economy that got us here
A way to figure out how to see this broken structure as a call to action on rebuilding our civic information infrastructure
BTW there is a graphic that was supposed to be ons screen and it didn’t show up, so it’s here:
So I’d look at this as partly how I lectured this week, with an eye on turning it outward and making it an explainer.
This is long. It might not be for everyone. It’s not bullet-pointed because it’s layered and contextual.
I also should note this isn’t comprehensive, and I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to even try that. This is how I see the situation as a media scholar and a mentor.
I have been thinking about doing short explainer videos in this space from time to time. If you think that’s worth doing (taking a video this long and imagining something shorter and snappier), let me know. It’d be helpful to know if there’s an audience for it.
Jeremy Littau is an associate professor of journalism and communication at Lehigh University. Find him on Bluesky for short-form commentary and analysis about digital media and society.
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