John M. Culkin

John M. Culkin, SJ, PhD (1928-July 23, 1993), leading media scholar and critic, educator, writer and consultant.

Religious career

At Jesuit seminary, John Culkin first became interested in media studies. Later, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Father Culkin’s dissertation was a curriculum to study film. There he also met Marshall McLuhan and they became lifelong colleagues because of their mutual interest in mass media and its effect on society. McLuhan appointed Father Culkin to a position at the University of Toronto. In 1964, Father Culkin came to Fordham University, convinced them to hire McLuhan for a year, and earned a reputation as an intellectual for his interest in media studies. [ [http://www.variety.com/article/VR109095.html?categoryid=25&cs=1 John M. Culkin] , obituary in Variety Magazine, July 28, 1993]

Media studies career

In 1969 Culkin left the Jesuit priesthood and formed the Center for Understanding Media, named after a McLuhan book. At Antioch College he started a master’s program to study media, then moved in 1978 to the New School for Social Research. There his Center for Understanding Media administered the film portion of the Artists in Schools program of the National Endowment for the Arts and created a forum for filmmakers in the education field to preview important films, the Metropolitan Area Film Instructors Association.

Culkin advocated media studies in public school systems. He observed that children watch TV thousands more hours than they study. [ [http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article430.html Why Study the Media?] Culkin, John M., SJ Introduction to his doctoral dissertation, "Film Study in the High School: An Analysis and Rationale," Harvard Graduate School of Education, 1964]

Culkin knew that films, radio and TV profoundly affect young people. Culkin believed that even young children should be taught to analyze mass media, that new means of communication should enhance education, that programming quality should be improved and focused on childhood development. He came to believe that children should examine the arts as experience, to develop their own positive value system. [ [http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article408.html John Culkin, SJ: The Man Who Invented Media Literacy] . Kate Moody, Center for Media Literacy.]

Culkin advised the creators of Sesame Street. In 1964 he helped organize parochial school instruction in TV. In 1970 he proposed a special cable TV channel for children. [ [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/learningresources/fic_intro.html PBS Guide Introduction to Film in the Classroom: "Why Study Film in the Classroom?] ]

After 1973, he promoted Unifon, a 40-character phonemic English alphabet, to combat illiteracy. [ [http://www.helium.com/tm/143142/knowledge-power-follows-empower Comparing phonics and see-and-say for teaching kids to read] 2007]

On October 7, 1974, he testified before the House Select Subcommittee on Education, which later decided to create the American Film Institute as an independent agency. [ [http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED103934&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&accno=ED103934 ED103934 - To Create the American Film Institute] ] Culkin formed Hearth Communications, a private consulting firm, with business partner Frank Maguire. [ [http://www.goodmanspeakersbureau.com/biographies/maguire_frank.htm Speaker biography for Maguire] .] Their consulting client list soon became a who’s who of international corporations and organizations.

Indicative of his varied interests and expertise, Culkin published many articles and wrote several books. He analyzed how a story might be told in print, film and television in a book called “Trilogy”. Other topics for his articles included theology, the Chicago Cubs, Trachtenberg system of Math, the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, and how to make our calendar more accurate. [ [http://www.unifon.org/culkin-nyt.html 40 characters, 40 sounds] . Culkin, John M., The New York Times, July 20, 1977]

The Media Ecology Asssociation annual awards includes The John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in the Field of Media Ecology. [ [http://media-ecology.org/awards/ Media Ecology Asssociation awards] ] [ [http://lancestrate.blogspot.com/2007/04/in-footsteps-of-ted-carpenter.html In the Footsteps of Ted Carpenter] . Blog post by Lance Strate, April 11, 2007]

elected works

*Films Deliver: Teaching Creatively with Film. Anthony Schillaci and John M. Culkin, Editors. New York: Citation Press, 1970. ISBN 0590091557
*"Quality and the True Cost of Child Care", Journal of Social Issues, Volume 47, #2, 1991, Mary Culkin, John Morris, and Suzanne Helburn
*Film study in the high school: An anlysis and rationale (1995) ISBN 0964972301
*Doing the Media: A Portfolio of Activities, Ideas, and Resources (1978) (as editor?) ISBN 0070103364

Quotes

Culkin summarized the driving force behind his life work in a 1981 interview with Maria P. Robbins, then a Contributing Editor for Television and Children Journal.

“So trying to keep certain things off television or out of books is futile. That same energy should be applied to helping children develop their own capacities for judgment, taste and sensitivity, so that they know how to make decisions that are based, we hope, on positive values.” [“In Conversation with John Culkin,” Maria P. Robbins, "Television and Children Journal", Summer, 1981.]

References