Anthony J. Pennings, PhD

WRITINGS ON DIGITAL ECONOMICS, ENERGY STRATEGIES, AND GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS

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 […]

Determining Competitive Advantages for Digital Firms, Part 2

In a previous post on competitive advantages, I discussed some structural characteristics for digital media firms. Using the framework laid out in Curse of the Mogul: What’s Wrong with the World’s Leading Media Companies as a point of departure, I was able to extend their analysis of traditional media companies to the more dynamic realm […]

Determining Competitive Advantages for Digital Media Firms, Part 1

In the Curse of the Mogul: What’s Wrong with the World’s Leading Media Companies, Jonathan A. Knee, Bruce C. Greenwald, and Ava Seave provide a general critique of upper media management. The authors argue these moguls are preoccupied with “fantastical factors” that do little to provide high returns on capital, market share stability or shareholder […]

Licensing Creative Properties – Merchandise and Characters

One strategy for digital media growth is the licensing of creative intellectual property, a $150.8 billion industry that is increasingly global. Intellectual property law provides protection for creative content and licensing is required when a desired property such as an animated character is controlled with a copyright, trademark or even a patent. Licensing is giving […]

Apollo 13: The Write Stuff

The cybernetic process of guiding a spacecraft to the Moon is exemplified by some clever F/X and acting, but more than that it tells the story of a certain break with “reality” and a new trust in the techniques and instrumentalities of hyperreal simulation.

Electric Money Never Sleeps

Money used to sleep a lot. It would nap while waiting for a telex message to go out. It would doze off while waiting for a telephone connection. It would slumber on railroad routes. It would hibernate on transoceanic crossings. By the mid-20th century, money developed insomnia. Computers and telecommunications were being used together to […]

All Watched Over by Heroes of Loving Grace

I took an interest in the BBC documentary by Adam Curtis called All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, named after American poet Richard Brautigan’s publication of the same name. What was emerging was a new cultural era of self-based “heroic” philosophies espoused by a divergent group of proponents. These included: authors such as Rand and George Gilder (Wealth and Poverty); economists such as Arthur Laffer, who championed supply-side economics and Milton Friedman of the Chicago School; and Self-help gurus such as Scientology’s L. Ron Hubbard, est’s Werner Erhard and fire-walker Tony Robbins. Even heroic popular culture icons in Star Wars and the Superman movies helped characterize the new era.

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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.

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    apennings70@gmail.com
    anthony.pennings@sunykorea.ac.kr

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    The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of my employers, past or present.