Oliver Stone’s Platoon: Jesus Christ Superstar vs. the Marlboro Man
In Oliver Stone’s award-winning film, Platoon (1986), Charlie Sheen plays Chris Taylor, a “coming of age” infantry soldier trying to reconcile his identity between the influences of two sergeants in his US Army platoon. I refer to these two men and the contrasting themes they represent as “Jesus Christ Superstar” vs. “the Marlboro Man.”
Digital Disruption in the Film Industry – Gains and Losses – Part 1: The Camera
In this post I introduce some of the issues in the move to digital cameras, within the context of disruptive innovation theory. The transition, which has taken decades, is worth examining through the lens Clay Christensen provides through his theory of innovative disruption. His theory examines how technology can start out “under the radar” with an inferior and cheaper version that is continuously improved until it disrupts a major industry.
Four Futures: One Humanity
This post looks at a few of my favorite futurists and a book I recently found intriguing that presented four visions of the future.
The Cyberpunk Genre as Social and Technological Analysis
I once taught a Freshman seminar at New York University in Information System Management (ISM). The course was introductory and only two credits, so I felt we needed a focused yet comprehensive set of analytical concepts to shape our discussions and assignments about ISM in the modern world. I decided to use the “cyberpunk” genre […]
How Schindler Used the List
When Schindler’s List (1993) was released, I was living in Wellington, New Zealand. But I caught the film during the winter holidays in Hawaii. When I got back to Wellington, I read the book Schindler’s Ark and wrote this article for the city’s newspaper in anticipation of the movie’s NZ premiere in March. It appeared in The […]
Robin Williams, Dead Poets, and Symbolic Investments in the Virtual Classroom
Like most of us, I was saddened by the loss of Emmy, Grammy, and Golden Globe winning actor Robin Williams. Here is an excerpt from one of my PhD essays, “Dead Poets and the Lawnmower Man,” that drew on the movie, The Dead Poets Society and his excellent performance to investigate virtual reality as an […]
Technologies of Democracy
I’m rereading a book, Technologies of Power: Information Machines and Democratic Prospects by one of my mentors from graduate school. Majid Tehranian was a Professor of International Communications at the University of Hawaii and Founding Director of the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research. I do believe that it is one of the […]
Revisiting Huxley and Orwell on Technology and Democracy
One of the faces I miss most from my days on the NYU campus is that of Neil Postman, a professor of media ecology at the Steinhardt school. Professor Postman died a few years ago but not without leaving behind a legacy, including one of my favorite books, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in […]
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About Me
Professor at State University of New York (SUNY) Korea since 2016. Moved to Austin, Texas in August 2012 to join the Digital Media Management program at St. Edwards University. Spent the previous decade on the faculty at New York University teaching and researching information systems, digital economics, and strategic communications.
You can reach me at:
apennings70@gmail.com
anthony.pennings@sunykorea.ac.kr
About me
Writings by Category
- automatrix
- books and films
- characteristics of digital media
- creative cities
- creative industries
- crisis communications
- cultural Industries
- data analytics and meaning
- democratic political economies
- digital coordination
- digital destruction
- digital geography
- digital media economics
- digital media management
- digital monetarism
- digital spreadsheets
- disruption
- dystopian economies
- educational innovations
- electric money
- enterprise systems
- financial news
- financial technology
- food policy and security
- geopolitical risk
- global communications
- global e-commerce
- health IT
- how IT came to rule the world
- intellectual property
- journalism
- meaning makers
- meaningful play
- media strategies
- mobile technologies
- multimedia
- political economies in sf
- political economy of media
- science and technology studies
- smart new deal
- social media
- space systems
- strategic communications
- sustainable development
- technologies of meaning
- technology management
- telecom policy and net neutrality
- telegraphic political economy
- telelearn/telework
- the cold war
- the smith effect
- uncategorized
- visual literacy and rhetoric