Dwight DeWerth-Pallmeyer Pro

Dwight DeWerth-Pallmeyer, PhD

Associate Professor of Communications Studies

Widener University

610-499-4632 (office)

610-952-6299 (cell)

ddpallmeyer@widener.edu

Topics:

Pop Culture – TV, Radio and Film
Media Criticism
The Role of the Media Critic
Media Informatics
The “Singularity Movement” How rapid computer growth is changing us. . .
 

Biography:

Dr. Dwight DeWerth-Pallmeyer is an associate professor and director of the Communications Studies program at Widener University.

DeWerth-Pallmeyer currently researches the way people intreract with their cell phones.  As a long-time educator, he notes the dramatic changes in students over the time that cell phones, and particularly smart phones have changed them and all off us who undoubtedly take our cues from their style-setting behaviors.  Much is good about the cell phone, but their are clear dystopian aspects, particularly when we find they begin to  control who we are, rather than the other way around.   That is the nature of my new documentary.  While this film seeks at least $150,000 in funding to trace four students around the globe in their varying uses of cell phones, my last doc was a 75 minute piece made on just $5000 and appears in almost 200 libraries worldwide and is still regularly streamed in college classes.

DeWerth-Pallmeyer currently also focuses on the role of the media critic. He created a feature-length documentary with critic interviews called “The Critics: Stories from the Inside Pages.” He has also written on the critic’s ability to shape media and vice versa.

DeWerth-Pallmeyer also takes on the role of media critic himself. He often analyzes media coverage of current events in both academic journals and on TV and print news outlets. He turned his doctoral thesis into a text on media criticism called “The Audience In the News,” which examines how an audience can shape the work of journalists. He also teaches a class on media criticism at Widener.

A self-proclaimed “pop culture junkie,” DeWerth-Pallmeyer also teaches multiple courses on pop culture and willingly participates in “research” for his classes by watching TV and movies and listening to the radio.

DeWerth-Pallmeyer got his start in radio as a news director, and as an academic, he has continued to work in radio as faculty adviser to Widener’s student-run station, WDNR-FM.

DeWerth-Pallmeyer’s most recent endeavor involves the development of a media informatics major at Widener, which studies the interdependent relationships among humans, computers, and media systems.