Flow – A Critical Forum on Media and Culture

Combatting Crunch from the Margins: How Hierarchies of “Realness” Complicate Video Game Production
Amanda C. Cote and Brandon Harris / UNIVERSITY OF OREGON

Amanda C. Cote and Brandon Harris discuss the myth of high-quality video games coming as a result of overworked video game developers.

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Remediating Liveness
Alyx Vesey / University of Alabama

Drawing on examples such as NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert and Instagram’s Verzuz battles, Alyx Vesey explores how musicians have utilized online platforms as alternatives to live concerts in the age of COVID-19.

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“It Feels Right to Me”: Epiphanies, Erotic Power, and Eve’s Bayou
Christina N. Baker / University of California, Merced

Through the work of Judylyn Ryan and Audre Lorde, Christina N. Baker explores filmmaker Kasi Lemmons’s films, Eve’s Bayou and Harriet, through epiphany, intuition, spirituality, and the erotic.

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Guillermo del Toro: From Mexico to the World
Orquidea Morales / State University of New York, Old Westbury

Using Mexican director Guillermo del Toro as a case study, Orquidea Morales discusses how his films are shaped by transnationalism and consequently exemplify the contested nature of the genre of Latinx Horror.

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Pepsi Is Back in the Game (Show)
Cynthia B. Meyers / College of Mount Saint Vincent

Cynthia Meyers explores several Pepsi advertising campaigns dating back to the 1940s to contextualize the company’s latest venture: sponsoring a new game show, Cherries Wild.

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Crossing the Sonic Color Line: TV Voiceover Narration in Never Have I Ever
Crystal Camargo / Northwestern University

Crystal Camargo grapples with how the cultural specificity of Mindy Kaling’s Netflix comedy Never Have I Ever is diluted by the sonic whiteness of the show’s narrator, John McEnroe.

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Reactionary Influencers and the Construction of White Conservative Victimhood
Erika M. Heredia and Mel Stanfill / University of Central Florida

Erika M. Heredia and Mel Stanfill examine “reactionary influencers,” who combine right-wing politics, reality-TV style provocations, and new social media opportunities for fame and fortune.

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Creative and Participatory Responses to Disinformation: The Case of the Bees 🐝 in the 2018 Colombian Presidential Elections
Andres Lombana-Bermudez / Universidad Javeriana

Recounting the case of the bees during the 2018 Columbian Presidential Election, Andres Lombana-Bermudez shows how digital participatory culture can effectively debunk disinformation.

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Ugly Crying, This is Us and the Discursive Construct of Emotional Excess
Eleanor Patterson / Auburn University

Eleanor Patterson analyzes how the emotional excess of This is Us connects it to historically feminized theorizations of mass culture and melodrama.

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