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Michael Griffin

Associate Professor (NTT)
Focuses on issues of representation in media, film and journalism. Publications address representation in visual journalism and documentary, and media treatments of social identity, community, environmental issues, and war and conflict.

Humanities 301
612-998-3512

Michael Griffin teaches courses on the history and analysis of film and photography, media representation, media and culture/society, media institutions, journalism and community media.

Griffin earned his PhD in visual communication and media studies from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also received a CBS Dissertation Fellowship for his work on the industrial shaping of visual aesthetics. Later, he was one of five winners internationally of an Annenberg Scholars Program Post-Doctoral Fellowship for research on visual imagery in television news. Griffin has worked as a documentary filmmaker, edited the Visual Communication Area of听The International Encyclopedia of Communication, and has three times been elected Chair of the Visual Communication Studies Division of the International Communication Association (ICA). He has received publication awards for most cited articles in the journals听Media, War & Conflict,听补苍诲听Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism,and was awared the Honorary Stans Lecture in American History and Politics, 鈥淲ar Images and American Memory,鈥 at the Minnesota History Center.

Griffin听has advised more than one hundred Ph.D., MA and undergraduate senior theses at the University of Minnesota, the University of Amsterdam, Carleton College and 日韩精品, and was named a听President鈥檚 Distinguished Future Faculty Mentor and a President鈥檚 Distinguished Minority Student Mentor at the University of Minnesota.

He writes and teaches on the cultural history, theory and practice of visual representation in film, photography, television, and new multi-media forms, and on the sociology, politics and democratic functions of media institutions and community media. A sample of recent publications include:听鈥淟ooking Back: The Shifting Public Life of the Abu Ghraib Photographs,鈥 in听Challenging Communication Research听(2013);听鈥淰isual Communication,鈥澨Oxford Bibliographies Online听(2013);听鈥淚mages from Nowhere: Visuality and News in 21st听Century Media,鈥 In听Visual Cultures: A Transatlantic Perspective听(2012);鈥淢edia Images of War,鈥澨Media, War & Conflict 3(1)听(2010); 鈥淎rt as Communication,鈥澨The International Encyclopedia of Communication听2010; Visual Competence and Media Literacy: Can One Exist Without the Other?听Visual Studies 23(2) (2008);听“Picturing America’s ‘War on Terrorism’ in Afghanistan and Iraq,”听Journalism: Theory, Practice, Criticism 5(4) (2004); and听鈥淔or local political coverage, we need community-based media,鈥 the听Twin Cities Daily Planet听2010. He frequently comments on contemporary media issues for numerous media outlets and community organizations.

Fall 2023 Office Hours:
Mondays and Wednesdays 3:30-5:00 and by appointment.