Author Archives: Ralph Hanson

Ignoring partisan rhetoric, what is critical race theory? Making sense out of what critical race theory (CRT) is and is not, Part II

Posted on July 14, 2021 by Ralph Hanson

There’s been an awful lot of loose talk about “critical race theory” (CRT) and how it is being taught in everywhere from grade school to college.  Most of the people who use the term have little idea what CRT actually … Continue reading →

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Making sense out of what critical race theory (CRT) is and is not – Meet critical theory

Posted on July 10, 2021 by Ralph Hanson

There’s been an awful lot of loose talk about “critical race theory” (CRT) and how it is being taught in everywhere from grade school to college.  Most of the people who use the term have little idea what CRT actually … Continue reading →

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In The Heights, Returning to Theaters, and the Importance of Representation

Posted on June 18, 2021 by Ralph Hanson

While I’ve always been a big fan of action and sci-fi flicks, the movie I’ve been most excited about seeing this summer has been Lin-Manuel Miranda’s (Hamilton) and Jon Chu’s (Crazy Rich Asians) musical extravaganza In The Heights.  In the Heights … Continue reading →

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Riding with Team Strange – Fun with Motorcycles

Posted on June 9, 2021 by Ralph Hanson

For the last six or seven years, every summer I do a national-scale motorcycle scavenger hunt run by a  motorcycle club out of Minnesota known as Team Strange. Each year it has a theme. One of my favorites was “On … Continue reading →

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Bezos, Jeff Bezos Meets Bond, James Bond – Reconfiguring the Media Landscape Part 1

Posted on May 26, 2021 by Ralph Hanson

Huge transitions and consolidations are happening in the media business right now as the COVID pandemic winds down.  We’re going to take a look at a number of these changes over the next week or so. Today we start with … Continue reading →

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Time to reboot after pandemic spring

Posted on May 17, 2021 by Ralph Hanson

For the last few months I’ve been down to posting about once a month with everything going on. Now that the semester is over it’s time to get back to thinking about where our media have wandered off over the … Continue reading →

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Guest Blog Post: The other George Floyd story: How media freedom led to conviction in his killer’s trial

Posted on April 23, 2021 by Ralph Hanson

Editor’s Note: Thanks to my friend Dr. Michael Socolow, University of Maine, for letting me reprint his article from The Conversation. Near v. Minnesota is such an important media law case that highlights the importance of defending unpopular speech. When … Continue reading →

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Is Broadcast TV Done and Over? Or is it Just Awards Shows?

Posted on March 16, 2021 by Ralph Hanson

Last evening I was reading reading CNN’s Brian Stelter’s nightly media news newsletter that had just shown up in my mailbox. The lead story was about how television habits have changed during the pandemic. Stelter notes that one of the … Continue reading →

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Director James Gunn takes on critics of “cancel culture”

Posted on March 9, 2021 by Ralph Hanson

Movie director James Gunn has had his own personal run-in with the so-called “cancel culture,” aka being held accountable for things you have said. As you may recall, long before Gunn became a big-time Marvel Cinematic Universe director of the … Continue reading →

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Is streaming the new a la carte cable? Or is it just more of the same?

Posted on February 15, 2021 by Ralph Hanson

Back in the the late 1980s, early 1990s, the television business started going through some big changes. For the first time ever, the original Big Three television networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) started changing ownership, going from the founders to … Continue reading →

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