Jack Fennimore

I am a critical digital media studies scholar who uses his extensive background in academia and several years covering news in the video game industry to inform my courses and my research on the video game industry. I am currently an Adjunct Instructor of Communication at Carroll University. I am a graduate of the Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media Ph.D. program at North Carolina State University with a graduate certificate in digital humanities. 

During my entire life I have sought out game trivia and game development facts for fun. During my time learning the craft of media studies as an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, I also studied journalism. I was a part of award-winning projects such as when my colleagues and I traveled to Flint, Michigan to cover the water crisis. For over four years I covered video game news for Heavy, writing over 1,000 articles and earning over 11 million pageviews. Now I use my knowledge of and experience with the game industry to guide my teaching for communication and media studies courses as well as my research on video game journalism and video game production. 

My main research interest is how ideologies shape video game production, which in turn shapes a game’s messages. I am also interested in how these messages inspire action in players. I am especially concerned with intervening in modes of production in the games industry that reproduce systemic inequalities. Game production is unavoidably linked to infrastructures of power, and I explore the many ways these systems continue to influence game development. 

I have found that my student-centered teaching prepares students to be critical thinkers that eagerly explore new ideas and confront real-world challenges. I calibrate the class environment and develop clear course objectives but encourage my students to contribute their diverse interests, goals, and experiences relevant to the course. I embrace practice-based teaching that prepares students to not only be effective communicators but also critical thinkers who can make the world a better place. I teach students the same principles and practices of effective communication that guided my career at Heavy. My six years of experience teaching includes game studies, virtual world design, communication media history, electronic media writing, public speaking, and critical analysis of communication media in online, hybrid, and in-person settings. 

I have presented at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, the Society of the Philosophy of Technology conference, the Popular Culture Association's annual conference, the Rhetoric Society of America biannual conference, and the Digital Games Research Association conference. I have been invited to speak at Red Hat, Inc., North Carolina State University, and Duke University.

In my spare time, I play video games (of course), watch YouTube videos, bike, walk with my coonhound mix Georgie, and cook (I'm not one to brag, but I make a mean spaghetti with oil and garlic).

You can read my dissertation on how video game journalists talk about sexual misconduct at Activision Blizzard, Inc. here.

If you are interested in hiring me, please take a look at the following pages:

CV

Teaching Philosophy

Research Agenda