Writing Bruce into Memory
My last telephone conversation with Bruce took place in June of 2014 as he was recovering from the ravaging consequences of a systemic infection. I had some diffıculty understanding Bruce during that conversation because his jaw muscles had deteriorated during his illness. Yet, he was characteristically cheerful and optimistic about traveling to Iowa City in October for the celebration of his life’s work and his lecture on Jacob Riis. He chatted amiably about his book project on Riis and his frustrations with delays in completing the work. The only concession he made to his weakened condition was his new travel arrangement: “I won’t be going anywhere without Wendy, anymore.” Later that summer, he emailed me to say that he and Wendy had purchased their airline tickets for the 2014 National Communication Association convention in Chicago; we arranged to have dinner on November 21. I entered the date in my calendar and considered it a promissory note that Bruce was going to recover from his near-death experience. I relaxed my vigil. And then he was gone. I fırst met Bruce in June of 1981 when I traveled from Alabama to Iowa City as a newly admitted doctoral student to fınd housing and to acquaint myself with the teaching faculty of the rhetorical studies program. Planning to demonstrate my respect for the occasion, I dressed carefully, much as I would have done for a church service in the Deep South. I recall the homemade beige linen frock and maroon platform heels. Carol Schrage, the venerable departmental secretary, welcomed me to the program and sent me to Bruce’s offıce. On my way there, I passed by an offıce where a heavyset
Media Literacy and Television Criticism
This article argues that the concept of media literacy is strengthened when it is understood as media criticism. After briefly tracing the development from concerns about television in the early 1950s to the Aspen Institute’s 1992 call for media literacy, the article overviews several types of television criticism to illustrate how criticism embraces and moves beyond mere literacy to provide a vehicle for citizen empowerment and engagement. The conclusion reflects on the ethical impulse in media criticism and on how moral engagement with television by literate and critical citizens can serve to democratize public sphere policy debates over communication in the public sphere.
Urban Identities and Catastrophe: Izmir and Salonica at the End of the Ottoman Empire*
Two huge fires dramatically influenced the urban development of Salonica and Izmir, in 1917 and in 1922, respectively. These catastrophes occurred after the Ottoman Empire fell, and Salonica and Izmir had shifted into new national contexts. The fires mainly destroyed the districts that were transformed during the late‐Ottoman period. These districts became the cosmopolitan façades of modern Izmir and Salonica. The post‐fires' tabula rasa provided an opportunity for Greek and Turkish politicians and European planners to change the urban identity of both cities. Moreover, the Lausanne Treaty of 1923 transformed their multicultural societies also. Reconstruction plans had been thought to de‐Ottomanize and remove the previous idea of the towns and their multiplicity, interpreting new cultural and nationalist feeling. Here, I emphasize how modernity was interpreted before and after the fires, and point out contradictions between ideological aspects of planning and how the first urban districts were built during the 1920s.