ABOUT.

I grew up in Amish Country, watching plain-clothed farmers bring vegetables to market by horse and buggy. And I’ve lived in far-flung places like France, England and China as well as the East Coast, Midwest and Pacific Northwest of the United States. Diverse environments like these shaped my perspective as a writer, scholar and educator. I view cultures from the outside, question assumptions about how things “should” be done, and know that another way of life is possible.

Before earning a Ph.D, I was a soup-to-nuts journalist: a writer, editor, photographer and page designer for alternative newsweeklies, daily papers, nonprofit organizations, and universities. As a teenager, I got involved with community broadcasting at WMUH 91.7 FM (“the only station that matters”) and later interned with Tony Michaelides, a British music promoter who plugged for 4AD, Factory and other indie labels.

My research on relationships among alternative media, social activists, zines and communication technologies has appeared in academic and popular venues, including peer-reviewed journals and books from Oxford, Routledge, Sage, Taylor-Francis, and Wiley-Blackwell. I’ve written for HuffPost, Medium, Thrive Global, and Urban Audubon along with the blog “Slow Media” and online guide “Unplug Your Class.”

I get inspiration from the musings of Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman. Scholars like James Carey, George Gerbner and Robert McChesney have left indelible marks, too. Another source is Slow Food, where I found a framework for thinking about the influence of media on human well-being and environmental sustainability that spurred my book, Slow Media: Why Slow is Satisfying, Sustainable & Smart (Oxford University Press, 2018).

I live in Portland, Oregon, with my husband, Michael Fanuzzi — a musician and gardener who moonlights as a creative technologist. We are endlessly entertained by our cats Violet and Jasper as well as Hannah, the Anna’s hummingbird who visits our feeders. She’s part of the family and doesn’t know it.

To learn more, please look me up on Academia or contact me at jennifer-rauch at slow-media dot org.