A series exploring the media “input” of a group of people — our commercial semiotician colleagues, from around the world — whose “output” we admire.

Gainesville…

SEMIOVOX

What forms of media do you “take in” the most regularly/frequently, during a typical day or week?

BRIAN KHUMALO

Quite a diverse range, but mostly visual media.

For personal entertainment, I usually watch and listen to a lot of podcasts and tv shows. I love early programs that ran from the ’80s through the early 2000s. I am currently rewatching Charmed, The OC, and Beverly Hills 90210. I grew up watching these shows, so their attractiveness is partly nostalgia. However, some of them are new discoveries and I am drawn to them because there’s something about that aesthetic I am fascinated with. I watch those kinds of shows growing up, and for whatever reason they inspired me to put my life together. I think they are a big part of why I moved to the United States and love this country so much, despite its flaws. There was something about those shows and the lives projected that was deeply inspirational to me.

As for contemporary media, I would say about half of the content I consume is more ‘academic’ and ‘intellectual’ and the other half is more ‘lifestyle’ on YouTube and Spotify. The lifestyle content I consume ranges from cooking to chit-chats about how to improve communication in romantic relationships. The sheer breadth of options with online media is incredible. It is remarkable just how much of my life is now intertwined with social media, given I am just old enough to remember a time where it did not really exist.

SEMIOVOX

How do you use social media, these days?

BRIAN KHUMALO

I use social media to keep abreast of my friends and colleagues’ activities. I go down the ‘professional metrics’ spiral more often than I would like to admit, jumping between LinkedIn, Academia, ResearchGate and a few others to see if there has been any activity regarding my work outputs. I also find social media is a great way of working through the intellectual problems I am interested in by allowing me to ‘offshore’ my own thinking to others who, indirectly, help me refine my thoughts usually by observing where people’s attention sits.

I do not have any personal social media accounts to speak of, apart from WhatsApp. I was on Instagram and really enjoyed it, but I recently deactivated my account because it got too distracting and I was addicted. The silence is peaceful.

I would say that YouTube is my everything app. Outside LinkedIn and the likes, I consume a lot of content through my everything app: music, podcasts, edits of different content, lectures, rain sounds to fall asleep too etc. I even like YouTube Shorts which are, as the name suggests, short TikTok-like videos uploaded to YouTube of people doing everything from mixing paints to cleaning carpets. Before the advent of YouTube, no one would have guessed there would be a market for that kind of content. But there is, and I am definitely a target.

SEMIOVOX

What’s the best TV series you’ve seen recently?

BRIAN KHUMALO

Evil on Netflix. It ran for four seasons but has unfortunately not been renewed for a fifth. The show follows an atheist psychologist, a Catholic seminary, and a skeptical tech wiz/ scientific materialist who work together for the Catholic Church investigating instances of possible demonic and or spiritual activity. The first season straddled the line very well where, as the viewer, you never really knew whether events in the show occurred due to spiritual activity or material/psychological effects. It is a brilliant show, particularly for those who are existentially inclined. I think it does a good job of showing the Western condition, broadly, where there have been and continue to be constant debates about religion/spirituality and scientific materialism. From the anti-theism of the New Atheist movement post 9/11, to the recent rise in Christian conversions in the United States and Europe, it is very interesting to me, philosophically speaking. I particularly enjoyed how the earlier seasons were not partisan and ‘gave explanations’ that the audience could view from whichever worldview they were personally drawn to.

MEDIA DIET: GIANLLUCA SIMI (Brazil) | HIBATO BEN AHMED (France) | MARIE LENA TUPOT (USA) | EUGENE GORNY (Thailand) | YOGI HENDLIN (Netherlands / USA) | INKA CROSSWAITE (Germany / South Africa) | SÓNIA MARQUES (Portugal) | ĽUDMILA LACKOVÁ BENNETT (Czechia) | BRIAN KHUMALO (USA / South Africa) | JIAKUN WANG (Shanghai) | FRANCISCO HAUSS (China / Mexico) | ASHLEY MAURITZEN (England) | STEFANIA GOGNA (Italy) | BECKS COLLINS (England) | ANTJE WEISSENBORN (Germany) | MARIANE CARA (Brazil) | MARTHA ARANGO (Sweden) | PAULINA GOCH-KENAWY (Poland) | COCO WU (Singapore / China) | JOSH GLENN (USA) | JENNIFER VASILACHE (Switzerland) | ANDREA BASUNTI (England) | SARAH JOHNSON (Canada) | MARIA PAPANTHYMOU (Greece) | VICTORIA GERSTMAN (Scotland).

Also see these global semio series: MAKING SENSE (Q&As) | SEMIOFEST SESSIONS (monthly mini-conferences) | COVID CODES | SEMIO OBJECTS | COLOR CODEX | DECODER (fictional semioticians) | CASE FILE | PHOTO OP | MEDIA DIET.