February 23, 2012

Drexel Culture and Communications Professor Ron Bishop’s recent book, More: The Vanishing of Scale in an Over the Top Nation, looks at Americans’ increasing desire to cram as many significant experiences as possible into their lives, and the media’s role promoting this ideal. From hyper-parenting, food crazes, education, politics, self-help, and home repair, Professor Bishop looks at how the simple pleasures of everyday have been replaced by a media effort to intensify even the most trivial parts of life. The loss of scale has serious consequences relating to how human beings react when matters are truly important.

Professor Bishop will sit down with Rudman Institute executive director, Karen Curry, for a discussion followed by a book signing on Monday, February 27th at 2 PM in MacAlister Hall room 2019/20. The talk is for anyone obsessed with being obsessed. It will focus on the media’s attention to triviality and its contributions to society’s out-of-scale behavior.