My research evaluates how financial news media interact with markets through processes of circulation. I bridge the historic divide between theories of affect as pure movement and affect as ideological by demonstrating how media may direct sensation. This theoretical innovation unearths how media constructs financial markets through uneven currents, though audiences may not always respond as directed. My project comprises case studies of The Wall Street Journal, Marketplace on National Public Radio, and The Closing Bell on CNBC. Through close readings of each, I analyze genre-specific aesthetics as they interact with markets.

My research is in conversation with media scholars who study aesthetics in the context of the media industry, including John Caldwell, Kevin Barnhurst, and John Nerone. When taken together, these case studies move different imagined investing audiences within a single market.

I have also researched the affective registers of Suze Orman, who utilizes post-feminist discourses of individuality to naturalize the inequality of the personal finance industry.

My future research plans include exploring the contested discourses of economic recovery across mainstream news outlets. It is critical to examine these discourses while recovery is tentative in order to imagine new and more equitable futures.

Educational Background & Specialties
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Educational Background

  • Ph.D.: Communication Studies/Critical Media, University of Minnesota, 2011 - present
  • M.A.: Communication Studies/Critical Media, University of Minnesota, 2011
  • B.A.: English & Humanities, Macalester College

Specialties

  • Communication and culture
  • News writing, feature and magazine writing, interactive journalism, creative non-fiction, curriculum development
  • Media literacy and visual literacy
  • Media graphics
  • Television Studies
  • Feminist media and cultural studies