How the blogosphere spawned a popular series

By Joe Sheller / Guest Column

The 2017 Fall Faculty Series is underway at Mount Mercy University, and it has generated lo­cal media buzz. There is some magic here at play, which I admit I do not fully understand.

This is the fourth year that Mount Mercy has had faculty select a topic of public concern and present a series of fall events to foster conversa­tion about it. The 2017 series is “Divided We Fall: Finding Common Ground in a Fractured Age.”

I spoke in the series, delivering a lecture on “Fake News vs. The Free Press” on Sept. 7. The Flaherty Community Room was packed with more than 100 people – standing room only.

The experience struck me as interesting and exciting for several reasons.

First, the crowd included many communi­ty members, several of which said they had learned about the topic via local media. While faculty and students at Mount Mercy do attend the series, something about this topic is drawing others, too. I don’t know if it’s because our polit­ical climate is creating anxiety, or if marketing on online venues like Facebook is having a positive impact. But something is at work.

Second, the crowds have been surprisingly civil. I wondered what I would do should a dis­pute break out at my event, but I need not have worried. The crowd was polite and receptive to what I had to say. There are thousands of Trump voters in the Corridor, and were likely some in attendance that night, but if they believe the media are “fake news,” as the president so often states, they were very quiet.

Third, it illustrated how the series, now in its fourth year, has been helped by the unusu­al connections that can spawn from unforeseen corners of our global network.

That’s partly because the concept was not only accidental, it was originally driven by an obscure corner of the media world – the blogo­sphere. On Nov. 10, 2013, a Canadian blogger, a high school English teacher and author named Shawn L. Bird, published a post about Remem­brance Day, coming up Nov. 11.

I happened to see the post at bit.ly/green­fieldsblog, and clicked on a link to a YouTube video of a song by Scottish-Australian singer Eric Boggle. “The Green Fields of France” is a heart-wrenching rumination on the pointless cost of World War I, and this particular video mixes historic and contemporary images in a potent, poignant way.

I was awestruck, partly because I teach media history and know how large World War I looms. In historic turns, it is arguably the key event of the 20th century. It shattered the 19th century world order and unleashed monumental politi­cal, economic and cultural forces that shape our lives today.

The week after I saw the video, I stood up at a faculty meeting and noted that 2014 was the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I. Would anybody be interesting in having events in fall 2014 to mark that? Thus began a 2014 series called “A Century of Glory and Shame: Mount Mercy Reflects on How World War I Made Today.”

That’s when the media magic kicked in. The series was featured by WMT, the Gazette and oth­ers, generating some local resonance and creating an unexpected reaction. When I hosted Mount Mercy’s first talk, I knew something odd and wonderful was happening. Campus venues were packed, and dozens of community members who had never stepped foot on the Mount Mercy campus made the arduous climb up our hill.

After that series, the question came up: Was this a one-time thing or an idea we should repeat? We tried again in 2015 with a series on the legacy of the Vietnam War and followed that up in 2016 with the theme of immigration. Each one proved popular, and the series is still going strong.

This year we’re talking about our divisive public discourse and how to meet it with cour­age and compassion. On Monday, Sept. 25 at 3:30 p.m. in Betty Cherry Heritage Hall, David Klope, associate professor of communication, will speak on “Let’s Talk: Finding Common Ground,” about strategies for civil discourse with people you disagree with.

I hope you come. If you do, you may want to arrive early. If history is a guide, there may not be many empty chairs. For more information, visit mtmercy.edu/common-ground.

Joe Sheller is an associate professor of communication and journalism at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids. He can be reached at jsheller@mtmercy.edu.