- La Salle University, 1900 W. Olney Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19141
- 215-951-1631
Mark Lashley
La Salle University, Communication, Faculty Member
- Digital Media, New Media, Television Studies, Participatory Culture, Online Media, Youtube, and 22 moreMedia and Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Communication, Web 2.0, Media Convergence, Postmodern Literary Theory and Popular Culture, Social Media, Platform Studies, Digital Storytelling, Performance Studies, Reality television, Television Reviews, Digital Culture, Critical Media Studies, Produsage, Global Media Studies, Media History, Podcasting, Science and Technology Studies, Computer Networks, Databases, and Software(Media and Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Communication, Web 2.0, Media Convergence, Postmodern Literary Theory and Popular Culture, Social Media, Platform Studies, Digital Storytelling, Performance Studies, Reality television, Television Reviews, Digital Culture, Critical Media Studies, Produsage, Global Media Studies, Media History, Podcasting, Science and Technology Studies, Computer Networks, Databases, and Software)edit
- Mark C. Lashley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at La Salle University, specializing in ... moreMark C. Lashley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at La Salle University, specializing in digital media, telecommunications, and participatory culture. His current research focuses on YouTube and other social-oriented video services as sites of cultural practice. Mark holds a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia (2013). In each of his projects, he has relied on the traditions of cultural studies, critical television studies, technology studies, and the postmodern. In addition to his academic work, Mark has served in a valuable support role for the Peabody Awards program, and his television criticism appears regularly on the Huffington Post.(Mark C. Lashley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at La Salle University, specializing in digital media, telecommunications, and participatory culture. His current research focuses on YouTube and other social-oriented video services as sites of cultural practice. Mark holds a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia (2013). In each of his projects, he has relied on the traditions of cultural studies, critical television studies, technology studies, and the postmodern. In addition to his academic work, Mark has served in a valuable support role for the Peabody Awards program, and his television criticism appears regularly on the Huffington Post.)edit
Founded in 2004, Trendrr.tv (formerly Trendrr.com) is a subscription-based analytics service specializing in graphical representations of social media traffic relating to television networks, programs, and advertisements, both... more
Founded in 2004, Trendrr.tv (formerly Trendrr.com) is a subscription-based analytics service specializing in graphical representations of social media traffic relating to television networks, programs, and advertisements, both historically and in real time.
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This dissertation discusses three popular YouTube video bloggers (vloggers), Mr. Chi-City, Shaycarl, and iJustine, and their relationship to the site as a vehicle for cultural production. It employs a framework for studying cultural... more
This dissertation discusses three popular YouTube video bloggers (vloggers), Mr. Chi-City, Shaycarl, and iJustine, and their relationship to the site as a vehicle for cultural production. It employs a framework for studying cultural production on YouTube that focuses on its key components: authorship, performance, and narrative. It discusses the significance of the interaction between the YouTube space (conceptualized as a platform) and its users, both of which are imbued with their own agency to negotiate the dynamics of the space. The dissertation contends that vloggers, using the tools made available by the platform as a site of cultural possibility, produce work that is sophisticated and variable, all while being constantly engaged with feedback solicited from and offered by other users. It uses the language of participatory culture and produsage to draw out this relationship and suggests ways in which the elements of cultural practice on the platform play themselves out on the increasingly influential space.
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In the phenomenon of lip dubbing online, music fans throughout the world mime along with their favorite (usually Western) pop songs, and distribute videos of the performances to web video sites like YouTube. Two popular examples of the... more
In the phenomenon of lip dubbing online, music fans throughout the world mime along with their favorite (usually Western) pop songs, and distribute videos of the performances to web video sites like YouTube. Two popular examples of the form are examined: China's Back Dorm Boys, and Moymoy Palaboy, from the Philippines. The dozens of videos produced by each group speak to issues of cultural imperialism and globalization, as well as broader concerns about participatory culture within the YouTube space.
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This thesis examines the ways in which reality television portrays the treatment of drug and alcohol abuse through analysis of two television series, Intervention and Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew. The only two reality series that... more
This thesis examines the ways in which reality television portrays the treatment of drug and alcohol abuse through analysis of two television series, Intervention and Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew. The only two reality series that directly address addiction, one serves as a traditional life intervention program, while the other exists within the new milieu of Celebreality. The thesis explores the way in which the structural elements of the two series, and the processes of celebritization, influence the portrayal of addicts on screen, while the reality television participants use sophisticated methods of performance to define themselves. This thesis contends that, while both programs purport to operate as public service, that goal is undermined by a number of structural and theoretical factors.
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This paper presents a framework for textual analysis of YouTube videos. First, it conceptualizes the collective output of video bloggers (“vloggers”) as forms of cultural production. Second, it breaks these cultural productions/cultural... more
This paper presents a framework for textual analysis of YouTube videos. First, it conceptualizes the collective output of video bloggers (“vloggers”) as forms of cultural production. Second, it breaks these cultural productions/cultural practices into three component parts that can be used for analysis: the role of authorship in the YouTube space, the nature of the performances that can be read as textual analysis, and the narrative that is presented through an individual’s YouTube creations. It is hoped that this framework will be useful to scholars who are studying creative works within YouTube’s independent production apparatus.
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This presentation examines social media and new media strategies for marketing television programs on OTT services, including Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Instant Video.
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This project examines the state of the late night television talk show, as it has both aged out of comfortable genre conventions and reacted to audience segmentation. With the departure of Tonight Show host Jay Leno and the anticipated... more
This project examines the state of the late night television talk show, as it has both aged out of comfortable genre conventions and reacted to audience segmentation. With the departure of Tonight Show host Jay Leno and the anticipated retirement of David Letterman in the near future, the talk show is becoming less of a populist endeavor, and is becoming geared toward more loyal and specific audiences. This project looks at the production aesthetics of three recent late night talk shows that, in unique ways, are using the age old conventions of the late night talker against itself: The Pete Holmes Show (TBS), which reverentially plays with tried and true talk show ideas, Comedy Bang-Bang! (IFC), which satirizes the late night format through the deployment of surreal elements, and The Eric Andre Show (Adult Swim), which aims to smash (often literally) every conceit endemic to the form. Interestingly, the hosts and casts of all three shows represent a range of comedic and ethnic backgrounds (though, just as interestingly, all are men). And all three shows have their roots in online media, interpreting televisual forms through the eyes of outsiders.
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This paper argues that discussions of user interactions with YouTube can be framed around theories of participatory culture, and brings to light how Montfort & Bogost’s (2009) work in “platform studies” might be applicable to explain how... more
This paper argues that discussions of user interactions with YouTube can be framed around theories of participatory culture, and brings to light how Montfort & Bogost’s (2009) work in “platform studies” might be applicable to explain how YouTube operates as a space where computing is enabled. To tie together these two conceptual frames, a number of postmodern precepts from Deleuze & Guattari (1987) are applied, most notably the concept of “nomadology” as it applies to users of the video sharing site. It is hoped that, in the future, this theoretical language can be used in analysis of YouTube content in order to better understand the interactions between space and user.
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Justine Ezarik (iJustine) is a popular video blogger and “lifecaster,” a term given to those who stream large sections of their personal lives in real time over the Internet. This paper examines iJustine as an interactive storyteller,... more
Justine Ezarik (iJustine) is a popular video blogger and “lifecaster,” a term given to those who stream large sections of their personal lives in real time over the Internet. This paper examines iJustine as an interactive storyteller, using the work of Marie Laure-Ryan and literature on narrative constructions on digital platforms. Ryan (2006) posits that digital media have had far ranging effects on many spheres of social life, and interrogates the so-called “new media” landscape to uncover its storytelling potential, refusing to acquiesce to easy notions that these forms have media have undercut traditional forms of narrative. Instead, she claims, the interactive capabilities of digital texts, which remove the traditional creator-reader hierarchy present within old media, allow us to discuss the Internet as a site of “interactive narratology.” As yet, the literature on interactive narratives fails to consider YouTube as a site of story creation, but its precepts (exemplifying, chiefly, gaming and virtual realities) are worthy of application to the YouTube platform. And as a “lifecaster” and storyteller, iJustine works as a perfect exemplar. This paper discusses how narrative operates in vlogging, how it relates to the making of online culture, and asks whether YouTube forces us to reconsider storytelling even as it has been framed within “new media.”
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This paper looks at user-produced YouTube video through the lens of Michel Foucault and his detailed analysis of the “author function.” Using a textual study of popular YouTube documentary series “The Shaytards,” along with a... more
This paper looks at user-produced YouTube video through the lens of Michel Foucault and his detailed analysis of the “author function.” Using a textual study of popular YouTube documentary series “The Shaytards,” along with a consideration of the “produser” (as popularized by Axel Bruns), this paper examines the way in which the author functions as a new and novel kind of subject in the YouTube environment, and probes Foucault’s question, resituated for the contemporary mediascape: “What is an author?”
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Through a critical engagement with legislation, relevant case law, and legal literature on the subject of online defamation, as well as a critical appraisal of the procedures used by three major social networking platforms (Twitter,... more
Through a critical engagement with legislation, relevant case law, and legal literature on the subject of online defamation, as well as a critical appraisal of the procedures used by three major social networking platforms (Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube) to regulate defamatory and harassing speech, this paper seeks to unpack the ways courts and site administrators have handled defamatory speech online. By examining the social media apparatus from the inside out, this paper argues for a procedure that will protect the interest of personal reputation, clarify the potential liability of social networking sites, and outline the best practices for effective jurisprudence of defamation law in our online world.
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Since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, there have been countless televisual narratives that have attempted to make sense of the storm’s aftermath. Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke used archival footage and... more
Since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, there have been countless televisual narratives that have attempted to make sense of the storm’s aftermath. Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke used archival footage and hundreds of personal interviews to reconstruct the history of hurricane preparedness in New Orleans, and the U.S. government’s belated response to Katrina. Taking a different path, David Simon’s series Treme weaves a fictional tale around the recovery efforts in New Orleans, centering on the experiences of a handful of fictitious Louisianans, who frequently interact with real-life figures and reenact real-life events. While both narratives are quite different (one documentary and one fictional), they share some commonalities: they both attempt to reckon with the storm’s aftermath by taking a holistic look at New Orleans culture, and they both feature Katrina survivor turned actress Phyllis Montana-Leblanc. In Lee’s film, Montana-Leblanc, an engaging figure with a fascinating survival story, anchors the narrative, serving as Lee’s key informant in reconstructing the first few days after Katrina’s landfall. Upon Lee’s recommendation, Montana-Leblanc was cast in Treme, playing a supporting role that mirrors her own experience. Despite their differences in narrative style, for both Simon and Lee, establishing truth (reality or realism) is paramount. Taking a critical approach to both texts, this paper considers the way in which Montana-Leblanc becomes an essential figure in establishing both filmmakers’ truth claims, and engages the slippery continuum of fact and fiction on which both films operate.
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Much recent inquiry has taken place into the role of YouTube and other web video outlets, with a number of distinct studies addressing the role of identity performances within this new mass medium. As this new cultural form is accessible... more
Much recent inquiry has taken place into the role of YouTube and other web video outlets, with a number of distinct studies addressing the role of identity performances within this new mass medium. As this new cultural form is accessible to anyone with a video camera and internet connection, its role as a site of identity production is significant. The present paper considers Mr. Chi-City, a 20-something African-American Chicagoan who has achieved internet notoriety, and the ways in which his YouTube persona relates to ritual, self-presentation, contemporary notions of celebrity, and the performance of black masculinity in cyberspace.
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This paper looks at three reality television series (The Real World, Starting Over and The Osbournes) through the lens of Goffman’s Presentation of Self in Everyday Life and Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale. Techniques of casting and... more
This paper looks at three reality television series (The Real World, Starting Over and The Osbournes) through the lens of Goffman’s Presentation of Self in Everyday Life and Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale. Techniques of casting and performance of reality television participants are examined. It is argued that reality television comprises a performative “sphere of action” where archetypes are continually reproduced, through institutionalized casting techniques and participant performance.
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This paper examines the body of literature on social media and online social networking as they relate to expression of individual identity. The paper argues that, while many theoretical approaches have been taken to the study of identity... more
This paper examines the body of literature on social media and online social networking as they relate to expression of individual identity. The paper argues that, while many theoretical approaches have been taken to the study of identity in online spaces, the work of Goffman and the theory of Impression Management provide the most useful and versatile framework for ongoing inquiry in this area.
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This paper explores how interpretive methods of textual analysis, as espoused by cultural theorists like Stuart Hall, might be used to read the burgeoning media form of web video. Through a thorough examination of textual analysis as a... more
This paper explores how interpretive methods of textual analysis, as espoused by cultural theorists like Stuart Hall, might be used to read the burgeoning media form of web video. Through a thorough examination of textual analysis as a poststructuralist intervention into how the text (defined here as products of the written word, or of audio or visual culture) functions as a sense-making practice, this paper reckons with the business of interpretation: how issues of truth, vision, and our own methodological processes can all fail us as researchers. Moreover, this paper deals with the conceptual issue of naming video content from sites like YouTube as a form of data, and how such data might be managed: by eschewing coding practices and allowing the text to speak for itself. As the text exists as a physical vestige of how we make sense of the world, researchers must be cautious and deliberate as to how texts are interpreted.
Mark Lashley discusses "Fuller House" and the current trend of resurrected television nostalgia, and how the notion of television as an ephemeral or disposable media form is diminishing.
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The influence and overlap between the worlds of podcasting and television (and live comedy) is expanding as visual and audio media continue to fragment. Issues of narrative construction and narrative influence are ripe for questioning, as... more
The influence and overlap between the worlds of podcasting and television (and live comedy) is expanding as visual and audio media continue to fragment. Issues of narrative construction and narrative influence are ripe for questioning, as are issues of economic viability and the longevity of both of these forms as the landscape continues to change.
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Stewart took the reins of The Daily Show as a goofy parody of local news, and turned it into something smart, influential and useful. It transcended mere entertainment. And it has done its job.
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Network television has largely gotten out of the tastemaking business, reliably coasting on established formats, letting the niche markets of cable and the web test out new trends before stealing them. That a network as large as the... more
Network television has largely gotten out of the tastemaking business, reliably coasting on established formats, letting the niche markets of cable and the web test out new trends before stealing them. That a network as large as the National Broadcasting Company has been reduced to providing niche programming on one of the industry's most profitable viewing nights is, like many changes in the media business, unprecedented.
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A review of two Adult Swim series.
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A review of the IFC comedy series.
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A review of the HBO drama series.
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A review of the Comedy Central sitcom.
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A review of the television series.
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A review of the HBO comedy series.
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Judging from some of Gervais' more recent television projects, the mastermind behind The Office and the similarly brilliant entertainment industry satire Extras has become so mired in self-satisfaction that any ironic distance between... more
Judging from some of Gervais' more recent television projects, the mastermind behind The Office and the similarly brilliant entertainment industry satire Extras has become so mired in self-satisfaction that any ironic distance between Gervais as performer and Gervais as character is all but lost. To put it another way, there exists a fundamental divide between what Gervais is doing and what he thinks he's doing. Which is a shame, because while his material can often still be very funny, it's a bit harder to laugh along with the school bully than it is with the class clown.