Campus Talk: Season 1 - Episode 4

Synopsis

David and Colin open the fourth episode of Campus Talk by welcoming Dr. Joseph Ashcroft, chair of East Stroudsburg University’s Speech Communication Studies Department. Dr. Ashcroft discusses his forthcoming book, The Fertility of the Word: How Writing Affected the Change from Goddess Worship to God Worsh.

Drawing upon his studies in media ecology, Dr. Ashcroft explains how the invention of writing may have fundamentally changed human consciousness. He contrasts oral cultures, whose deities were often perceived as present within nature, with literate cultures that developed increasingly abstract ideas of supernatural and transcendent gods. He argues that writing allowed people to separate ideas from their immediate physical context and contemplate concepts such as creation from nothing, heaven, hell, and realities beyond the natural world.

The conversation also explores Dr. Ashcroft’s theory that this transition from immanent to transcendent religious thought may have contributed to the historical shift from goddess worship to male creator gods. He describes the ancient myths, translated texts, and scholarship on oral and literate cultures that informed his research while acknowledging the more speculative elements of his conclusions.

In the second interview, David speaks with Pete Fagan and Holli VanHook of ESU News. Pete, the outgoing news director, explains that the program began as an idea several years earlier but was delayed because its organizers lacked students with the technical skills required to produce it. Inspired by similar college news programs he encountered during an internship at Newswatch 16, Pete helped revive the project and organize its staff.

Pete and Holli discuss the challenges of establishing ESU News as an officially recognized student organization, producing its first programs, and maintaining a dependable staff. Although the group began with only a small number of active members, its broadcasts developed into professional-quality productions that students could use when applying for media positions after graduation.

As the incoming news director, Holli outlines plans to recruit students during orientation, produce an introductory film about the organization, increase the number and length of its broadcasts, and eventually experiment with live programming. Pete also hopes the program will pursue campus issues more deeply and possibly simulcast its broadcasts over WESS-FM. Together, they describe their goal of building ESU News into a lasting student media organization capable of training anchors, writers, technicians, and future broadcasters.