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Josh Braun

@josh@sciences.social

mastodon 4.6.6

Associate Professor at UMass Amherst studying the civic impacts of media distribution. I work in our Journalism Department and also co-edit the Distribution Matters series for The MIT Press. Opinions mine.

Profile photo by Beth Wallace
Banner text from "The Hook-Up" by F.E.D. McDowell

Keywords:
#Commodon #Communication #MediaStudies #AcademicChatter #MediaDistribution #ScienceJournalism #Emacs #Zettelkasten #Linux #ica23

3396 Followers

1992 Following

17 Posts

Joined November 13, 2022

Website:

https://joshbraun.umasscreate.net

University Profile:

https://www.umass.edu/journalism/facultyStaff/bio/braun

Distribution Matters:

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/series/distribution-matters

Pronouns:

he/him

Posts

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · May 19, 2026

So, the front page of yesterday's Wall Street Journal…was an ad.

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Apr 05, 2026

Watching all four #Artemis II astronauts don their spacesuits simultaneously reminds me of the changing room scene from “The Cameraman.” 😂

https://youtu.be/4Tv8rG-3oq8

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Jan 25, 2026

Updating my media criticism class for a new academic year and it's astonishing to me the night-and-day contrast between the number of accessible explainers on the finances and workings of US public media available before and after the US defunded it all.

I mean, I'm not mystified. I get the structural reasons *why* the topic was ignored until there was a crisis to cover—hence my teaching the class. Still, there's a real Big Yellow Taxi vibe to all this.

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Dec 19, 2025

Aymar Jéan Escoffery's (@ajescoffery@aoir.social) new book, Reparative Media: Cultivating Stories and Platforms to Heal Our Culture, is now out! An incredibly important title that reimagines how movies, TV, and a broader array of media can be made and distributed in ways that include more people and move beyond the extractive models so common to contemporary streaming and social media. #OpenAccess

https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262553261/reparative-media/

#commodon #mediaStudies @communicationscholars@a.gup.pe

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Oct 19, 2025

Reading Marshall Rosenberg, then logging into any social media app will give you whiplash. 😅

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Aug 26, 2025

Each year, when I teach Media, Technology & Culture, students select a book for their final project from a list of relevant titles. I always have a great time assembling the list and discovering cool new work. It's also fun to share the result.
So here it is, the 2025 book list!

The pic is of my favorite cover from this years additions, which belongs to Seth Long's "The Last Mixtape."

https://umass-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/jabraun_umass_edu/EaG3u7flf6pDkHMnvnArnYkBcwE-xXjdnHKciz3V9tUMeQ?e=jcWgv4

cc #academicchatter #commodon #mediaStudies @communicationscholars@a.gup.pe @academicchatter@a.gup.pe

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Jul 19, 2025

Journal spammers really putting their back into it.

#academicChatter @academicchatter@a.gup.pe

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Apr 09, 2025

I greatly appreciate everything that Christopher Eisgruber says in this interview, but, more than that, it's increasingly a relief to hear someone in a position of authority willing to be sane in public.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/podcasts/the-daily/princeton-university-trump.html

cc @academicchatter@a.gup.pe #academicChatter

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Apr 02, 2025

U.S. media history is pretty straightforward, honestly.

#mediaStudies #commodon @communicationscholars@a.gup.pe

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Mar 18, 2025

Posting for no particular reason.

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/capturing-news-capturing-democracy-9780197768488?lang=en&cc=us

#commodon @communicationscholars@a.gup.pe

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Nov 10, 2024

If you’re a communication or media studies scholar migrating to Mastodon, I recommend you check out the #commodon, #mediaStudies, and #academicChatter hashtags, join the @communicationscholars@a.gup.pe and @academicchatter@a.gup.pe groups (by following said accounts), and add your name to the directory of comm scholars I administer through the @commodon@sciences.social account. Welcome!

https://joshbraun.umasscreate.net/commodon/

#Introduction #mastodonMigration

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Oct 12, 2023

Replying to @josh@sciences.social

^^^ Just a reminder! We start reviewing applications for the open-rank Media Law and Ethics position upthread on October 15th. @communicationscholars@a.gup.pe @phdstudents@a.gup.pe #commodon #mediaStudies

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Sep 05, 2023

🚨 ACADEMIC JOB ALERT 🚨

Open-Rank TT Position in Media Ethics & Law | UMass Amherst Journalism Department

Posting is flexible regarding approach to the subject matter. Please spread widely within your networks. Feel free to direct questions to me, as I'm chairing the search. I'm happy to call UMass home. I ❤️ my colleagues and students. A lovely, exciting place to work.

https://careers.umass.edu/amherst/en-us/job/520380/open-rank-tenure-track-journalism-ethics-and-law

@academicchatter@a.gup.pe @communicationscholars@a.gup.pe @phdstudents@a.gup.pe #commodon #mediaStudies #academicChatter

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Jul 18, 2023

I would like a four-year sabbatical to read everything that's accumulated on my bookshelf.

@academicchatter@a.gup.pe #academicChatter

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Nov 29, 2022

Replying to @dbellingradt@mastodon.social

@dbellingradt@mastodon.social ^^^ @inquiline@union.place Relevant to our exchange today. 😂

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Nov 23, 2022

Replying to @mathew@mastodon.social

@mathew@mastodon.social @ubiquity75@dair-community.social @dansinker@omfg.town There was an executive once on the other site who said something along the lines of, “All the academics and opinion writers nattering on about content moderation don’t understand the intractable complexities of billon-scale platforms.” And my immediate thought was, “Maybe the problem isn’t the academics, but billon-scale platforms, then?”

Josh Braun @josh@sciences.social · Nov 22, 2022

Replying to @dansinker@omfg.town

@dansinker@omfg.town Indeed! @ubiquity75@dair-community.social wrote the book on this and is here. Looking forward to her continued insights.

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