Bob Stepno

  
  • Retired academic & former journalist
  • UNC-CH, UTenn, Radford University, Va.
  • Website: jheroes.com
  • Twitter: @bobstep

A newspaperman turned anthropologist, musician and software industry tech writer, I wrote an M.A.L.S thesis about hypertext in 1987-88 (using OWL Guide, Storyspace, HyperTIES, HyperCard, IRIS/Intermedia etc.), before the Web convinced me to re-enlist for a Ph.D.

With some A.B.D. teaching, the doctorate took me most of a decade to complete ('94-'03). Taught mostly Web skills & writing in four journalism/media programs before retiring from tenure track in 2012 to lower my blood pressure and get more music back into my life.

My interests include journalism, popular culture, cross-media adaptation (e.g., news & biography to fiction, novels to film, film to radio, comics to & from radio & film), digital archiving of pre-digital media, and social creation of media & media-focused associations -- including YouTube music sharing, lessons, and online networking of traditional (folk, old-time, Irish) music venues, events, players, dancers, and listeners.

See http://jheroes.com for my historical research project using digital audio archives and print archives, drawing on archive.org, Smithsonian, Google and elsewhere. See http://boblog.blogspot.com for my musical explorations.