Josh Heuman
Get to know some of our College of Media faculty. Josh Heuman is a teaching assistant professor in the Department of Media & Cinema Studies and the Department of Journalism. He received the 2022 College of Media Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching by a Specialized Faculty Member.
What is your favorite class to teach?
We're not supposed to have favorites, like you don't have a favorite child. Usually, we get to teach courses that we want to teach. Even when you are teaching something that you didn't necessarily pick yourself, you find the interest in each class you teach.
I do enjoy all the courses I teach, but Creative and Information Economies (MACS 264) is probably my favorite because it's a material that's closest to my own work and it is always changing. This course gives a broad introduction to media industries. We take a really close look at film, music, and television industries. I think part of the fun of the course is looking at things that cut across all different kinds of media industries. So before too long in the course, we'll talk about things like labor markets and geographies of media industries, allowing lots of interesting comparisons.
What are some other classes that you teach?
I usually teach the History of American Journalism course (JOUR 205), and then this semester I've just started the Media Law course (JOUR 311), which is really exciting for me; that's what I taught at other universities in the past.
What are some projects that you are involved in?
The big project that I'm interested in pursuing over the long term is looking at the historical development of radio and television and writing, and especially the way that we come to the role of the radio and television writer as a professional. I think in a lot of cases, when we do look back on the history of radio and television writing, or other kinds of writing as well, we’re telling the stories of the triumph of art or the defeat of art, as if that's what that kind of work should be.
When you go back to the beginnings of the field, they were very ambivalent about this ideal of art. I think looking more closely at how early radio and television writers imagine themselves, how they were shaped by outside forces, gives a much more complicated picture of what that role was at the time.
What are some past projects of yours?
I think a lot of my projects revolve around questions of industry and regulation. By looking at television writers' contracts and the idea of the figure of the showrunner is really interesting. This really reflects specific transformations in television. I am also interested in writers as it relates to authorship and ownership of series formats.
How do you conduct your research?
I think with different projects, it works out in different ways. Usually, I find myself looking at documents from a particular time period. I'm really thinking about radio and television writing. I was just flipping through Writer's Digest—the writer magazines with amateur writers from the '20s through the '60s, and just seeing what they're saying. I was thinking about two questions: How does one do radio and then television writing? What are the characteristics of a radio or television writer and the way that that gets defined in those materials for aspiring writers?
What made you want to teach?
I think going to graduate school and having the excitement of looking at these complex systems that shape our world and the interest of working within those systems was something that has always been present in my life. Media is incredibly interesting. I also think that when I was entering into graduate school was a particular moment when media and cultural studies were colliding. If you wanted to know about the world, the field of media and cultural studies was and is an especially exciting place to work. I’m really glad to be in Illinois and teaching the kind of students who are really engaged, really interested.
What is some advice you want to give to students?
Be curious. Sleep well. Watch and listen and play and read as much as you can. I think we forget that part of our cultural citizenship is not watching everything, but try to watch and listen widely, you have to be in it to win it. I think too often when opportunities are put in front of us, there's a tendency to say, “Oh, that's not for me.”
Talk to your teachers. I feel like it doesn't happen a lot, but if things are going wrong, better communication would help solve those problems. If things are going right, we can help you reach that next level.
—Interview by Paige Terando, New Voices Intern
