Douglas Rushkoff, M.F.A.

Winner of the first Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity, Douglas Rushkoff, M.F.A. is an author, teacher, and documentarian who focuses on the ways people, cultures, and institutions create, share, and influence each other’s values. He sees “media” as the landscape where this interaction takes place, and “literacy” as the ability to participate consciously in it.
 
His best-selling books on new media and popular culture have been translated to over thirty languages. They include Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires, Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Cyberspace, Media Virus!, Playing the Future, Nothing Sacred: The Truth about Judaism, and Coercion : Why We Listen to What “They” Say, winner of the Marshall Mcluhan Award for best media book. He also wrote the acclaimed novels Ecstasy Club and Exit Strategy and graphic novel, Club Zero-G. His latest book is Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out which discusses applying renaissance principles to today’s complex economic landscape.
 
Doug has written and hosted two award-winning Frontline documentaries: The Merchants of Cool looked at the influence of corporations on youth culture, and The Persuaders, about the cluttered landscape of marketing, and new efforts to overcome consumer resistance.
 
His commentaries air on CBS Sunday Morning and NPR’s All Things Considered, and have appeared in publications from The New York Times to Time magazine. He wrote the first syndicated column on cyberculture for The New York Times and Guardian of London, as well as a column on wireless for The Feature and a new column for the music and culture magazine, Arthur.
 
Doug founded the Narrative Lab at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, and lectures about media, art, society, and change at conferences and universities around the world.
 
He is Advisor to the United Nations Commission on World Culture, on the Board of Directors of the Media Ecology Association, The Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, and as a founding member of Technorealism. He has been awarded Senior Fellowships by the Markle Foundation and the Center for Global Communications Fellow of the International University of Japan. He is Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.
 
He regularly appears on TV shows from NBC Nightly News to Larry King and Bill Maher. He is writing a new monthly comic book for Vertigo, and developed the Electronic Oracle software series for HarperCollins Interactive.
 
Doug is on the board of several new media non-profits and companies, and regularly consults on new media arts and ethics to museums, governments, synagogues, churches, and universities, as well as Sony, TCI, advertising agencies, and other Fortune 500 companies.
 
He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, received an MFA in Directing from California Institute of the Arts, a post-graduate fellowship (MFA) from The American Film Institute, and a Director’s Grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He has worked as a certified stage fight choreographer, and as keyboardist for the industrial band Psychic TV.
 
Watch Doug in one of Errol Morris’s Apple Computer Commercials! Listen to him on NPR’s All Things Considered. He spoke about how the role of hackers in society has changed at H2K2. Read his interview by PopImage about his debut graphic novel Club Zero-G. Listen to his interview on NeoFiles by RU Sirius about his latest book, Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out. Read his blog!