Michael Buozis Assistant Professor, Media & Communication |
Education
Teaching Interests
Education, for me, means broadening horizons. Whether those horizons are economic or intellectual, I strive to create real opportunities for my students to do and think things they might not have done or thought if it weren’t for the space I provide in my classes. In designing my courses to offer students these opportunities, I always keep in mind that different students come to college coursework with different backgrounds and expectations that will shape how they experience my teaching.
In courses I have taught, my goals have always been twofold: to foster the critical thinking skills that will serve each student in various contexts of their lives and to teach practical communication skills that will help them in any career trajectory they pursue. To this end, I aim to create a classroom environment where students feel comfortable making connections between the course material and their own experiences and prior knowledge. Media and communication courses, which make space for so many cultural perspectives and interests, offer many opportunities for making these connections.
Before coming to Muhlenberg, I taught journalism history, ethics and reporting courses at Temple University.
Research, Scholarship or Creative/Artistic Interests
My research agenda has explored how different forms of media and digital communities shape public understandings of contemporary and historical social problems, from police violence to epidemics to crises in journalism. I am primarily interested in how media is shaped by the structures of power in society.
Tying together all of my research projects is a commitment to exploring how diverse communities can be better served by social practices in general and media practices specifically. My research has explored various problems of social justice, such as counterproductive and divisive representations of race and class in journalism narratives about police violence as well as the potential for emerging forms of true crime narrative to challenge traditional notions of criminality and authority and the formation of techno-cultures which use threats of doxxing to control online narratives about public events.
I strive to always use my research to highlight how media can work for better outcomes for otherwise marginalized communities.