To Shift the Center: To Center the Shift

Miriam Petty discusses how Change/Constant is always in play with respect to the media in ways that can make profound changes particularly difficult to achieve from within. Yet because the entertainment business is subject to the demands of the market, learning to demand something new is an important power that still lies in our hands.

Miriam Petty is an assistant professor in the Department of Radio/Television/Film and African American studies at Northwestern University. She writes and teaches about stardom, reception, genre, race, and media, and the history of African American representation in Hollywood film. Her forthcoming book, Stealing the Show: African American Performers and Audiences in 1930s Hollywood (University of California Press, 2016) explores the complex relationships between black audiences and black performers in the classical Hollywood era.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx