Bob Garfield

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Bob Garfield (b. ca. 1955) is the co-host of the On the Media show on National Public Radio.[1] Until 2010, he wrote the "Ad Review" TV-commercial criticism feature in Advertising Age.[2] Garfield was a frequent contributor to All Things Considered and a longtime advertising analyst for ABC News. He has also been employed as an on-air analyst for CBS News, CNBC, PBS, and the Financial News Network.

Contents

Career [edit]

Garfield began his career as a reporter for the Reading Times from 1977 to 1981.[3] He has been a columnist for USA Today and contributing editor for Civilization and the Washington Post Magazine. He has also written for The New York Times, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, Wired,[4] and many other publications.

A collection of his work, titled Waking Up Screaming from the American Dream, was published by Scribner's in 1997. A second book, And Now a Few Words from Me, appeared in 2003. Garfield co-wrote "Tag, You're It," a country song performed by Willie Nelson, and wrote an episode of the situation comedy Sweet Surrender. In 2009, he published a book about the collapse of the media landscape called The Chaos Scenario. His first novel, Bedfellows, was published in October 2012.[5] In 2013, he co-authored a novel with Doug Levy called Can't Buy Me Like. [6]

In October 2007, Garfield launched the ComcastMustDie.com WWW site to protest Comcast's customer service.[7]

In 2010 Garfield announced that he would stop writing the "AdReview" column after 25 years.[8] Currently, he is a bi-weekly columnist for both the Guardian[9] and MediaPost,[10] writing on the subjects of media and marketing. He also appears in a weekly podcast with Mike Vuolo called "Lexicon Valley" on Slate about the English language.

On January 2, 2013, Slate posted a Lexicon Valley podcast on 'creaky voice'[11] in young females, which Garfield criticized in emphatic terms. The episode dramatically increased the number of downloads over previous subjects by a factor of ten, becoming the most-listened episode of the series,[12] and brought strong disapproval on Garfield from some sources.[13][14] Since the two following episodes, featuring changes in the New York City accent, there have been no more Lexicon Valley episodes as of April 21, 2013.

Honors and awards [edit]

In 1997, Garfield's "Ad Review" won a Jesse H. Neal Award for best column in its classification.[15]

Garfield's work with On the Media has won several awards. In 2003, he received the National Press Club’s Arthur Rowse Award for Media Criticism in Best Body of Work, TV and Radio and an Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association for investigative journalism.[16] In 2004, On the Media won a Peabody Award for excellence.[17] In both 2012 and 2013, the show won the 2012 Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism from the College of Communications at Penn State.[18]

Personal life [edit]

Garfield has called Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, "a hometown of my youth".[19]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Bob Garfield". On the Media. Retrieved 2012-02-10. 
  2. ^ "Garfield Says Adieu, AdReview". Crain Communications. 2010-04-05. Retrieved 2012-08-07. 
  3. ^ Farrell, Joseph N. (1992-11-03). "Perot ads get vote as winner". Reading Times. Retrieved 2012-08-07. 
  4. ^ "YouTube vs. Boob Tube". Condé Nast Digital. 2006-12. Retrieved 2012-08-07. 
  5. ^ "Bedfellows". Retrieved 2012-08-07. 
  6. ^ "Can't Buy Me Like". Retrieved 2013-04-12. 
  7. ^ Donohue, Steve (2007-10-08). "Media Columnist Launches ComcastMustDie.com". Multichannel News. Retrieved 2008-02-05. 
  8. ^ Bob Garfield, "Garfield Says Adieu, AdReview", Advertising Age, April 5, 2010.
  9. ^ "Bob Garfield". Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 2012-08-08. 
  10. ^ "Bob Garfield is editor at large for MediaPost". MediaPost Communications. Retrieved 2012-08-08. 
  11. ^ http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley/2013/01/lexicon_valley_on_creaky_voice_or_vocal_fry_in_young_american_women.html
  12. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2013/02/07/creaky-voice-draws-huge-audience-to-lexicon-valley-podcast/
  13. ^ http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/01/creaky-voice-yet-another-example-of-young-womens-linguistic-ingenuity/267046/
  14. ^ http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/01/07/vocal_fry_and_valley_girls_why_old_men_find_young_women_s_voices_so_annoying.html
  15. ^ "19 MAGAZINES CAPTURE NEAL AWARDS; ONE BOWS OUT: GRAND NEAL GOES TO 'SALES & MARKETING MANAGEMENT' FOR DIVERSITY PIECE". Crain Communications. 2012-03-17. Retrieved 2012-08-07. 
  16. ^ "Programs Events NPC Award Winners". 2010-06-16. Retrieved 2012-08-07. 
  17. ^ "PEABODY WINNERS BOOK" (Press release). see 2004 winners. Retrieved 2010-09-26. 
  18. ^ "Bart Richards Award honors 'On the Media'". Penn State Website. 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-06. 
  19. ^ Bob Garfield, "The Paleozoic Internet", On the Media, June 10, 2011.

External links [edit]