About Me

I observe the world, reach conclusions, and this blog is about sharing my insights. Sometimes it is politics.  Sometimes media.  Sometimes science or other things. My eclectic subject matter stems from my background:

I am an emeritus professor of mass communication/electronic media at Wayne State College, Wayne, Nebraska. USA (tenured full professor before retirement).  I taught audio/radio and video/TV courses, writing, marketing communications, photojournalism, media management, communication law, and film criticism, among other subjects.

I have 68+ published or accepted scholarly publications/presentations. My academic papers have been cited by other authors close to 2,000 times.

I am commander of South Dakota Wing, Civil Air Patrol. CAP is the civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, with responsibilities that are part of the USAF’s support to civil authorities to save lives, relieve suffering, prevent property damage and provide humanitarian assistance. South Dakota Wing has close to 400 members and units in Brookings, Custer, Pierre, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Spearfish, and Tea. 

The wing can deploy its six aircraft, ground teams, and small search/photography drones to assist in disaster response and other support to local, state, tribal and federal agencies. 

For over a decade I was in a national leadership role in the CAP Command and Control 

Communications directorate, volunteer roles at the national headquarters of the US Air Force Auxiliary. As such, I have long been central to the process of visioning and strategic planning for the two-way command and control radio communications systems used by CAP, the only kind of communications systems like to be survivable in major disaster situations. I am also an Amateur Extra radio operator. 

My INTJ personality and background make me particularly suited for strategic planning and seeing the secondary and tertiary ramifications of policy decisions, as well as my years as an award-winning working journalist, exercising news judgment, asking pointed questions, and presenting information in a form that is engaging to the audience, yet balanced and factually accurate.

Some places where I spend varying amounts of time:

     https://www.facebook.com/mimarek1

     https://twitter.com/MiMarek1
     https://masto.ai/@mimarek1 (Mastodon)

     https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael_Marek

     https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=LuRsgEoAAAAJ