Professor and Department Chair
College of Letters & Science | Department of Communication Arts
Hometown: Rockford, IL
Derek Johnson is Professor and Department Chair in Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of the books Media Franchising: Creative License and Collaboration in the Culture Industries as well as Transgenerational Media Industries: Adults, Children, and the Reproduction of Culture.
Talks:
Disenfranchised: The Fight Over Remakes and Reboots
While media “franchises” enable entertainment industries to recycle the past, consumer activists, advocacy organizations, and political movements also see this reproductive potential as a way to shape the future. The struggles of those who feel “disenfranchised” reveal how power and privilege are secured and defended in corporately-reproduced cultures.