Blindsided | On the Media

Posted April 11, 2020

External Article: WNYC

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media and Communication, was interviewed on WNYC's "On the Media" on April 11, 2020.

The episode of the popular radio program explored the implications of the spread of coronavirus, including on broadcast media. Bogost spoke to how esports broadcasts could – or could not – fill the gap left by live sports, which have almost all been cancelled for the time being.

Excerpt: 

MICAH LOEWINGER: And even Ian Bogost thinks sports fans are ready for it.

IAN BOGOST: It's like the announcers job now to persuade the viewer that everything is normal, even when everyone knows that it's not. But that's kind of what the sports viewer wants. In a way. It's not just the game with a kind of first one is the ritual. I watch sports on the weekends or you know, I watch Monday Night Football, whatever it is, replacing that loss with something that resembles sports enough or where you're play-acting as if it is quote, unquote, real sport. That may actually tick the box.

Listen to or read the transcript of the program here.

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Ian Bogost Headshot Photo 2018