FUNK !T | Mindful Media & Communication

Sascha Funk
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Join Sascha H. Funk, the current head of media studies at Thammasat University, as he explores the impact of media on our lives. Dive into thought-provoking discussions on mindful media consumption, digital trends, and effective communication strategies. Discover how to navigate the digital landscape with intention, cultivate a healthy relationship with media, and stay ahead in the ever-changing media landscape. Tune in for insights, strategies, and real-world examples on Mindful Media and Communications by FUNK !T.

  1. Never Gonna Give You Up Pt. 2 — re:publica Debrief: Hope, Haters & the Coalition Problem

    May 30

    Never Gonna Give You Up Pt. 2 — re:publica Debrief: Hope, Haters & the Coalition Problem

    I'm back from Berlin. Three days at re:publica — Europe's biggest digital culture conference — and I have thoughts. The good news: the room was packed. People sat on the floor and stood in the doorway to hear a talk about digital dissent in Southeast Asia. People genuinely care about the open internet, democracy, and what happens when platforms eat themselves. There was even a hater in my Q&A, which means at least someone was paying attention. The complicated news: caring about the right things and building a coalition big enough to actually change them are two different skills. This episode is about the gap between them — and why the people who understand the game best sometimes struggle most to grow the team playing it. Also: Cory Doctorow, enshittification, and why I'm still wearing the entrance wristband a week later.

    22 min
  2. Never Gonna Give You Up

    May 13

    Never Gonna Give You Up

    This past week three things happened. The Devil Wears Prada 2 opened globally to $234M — a film about an industry that sacrifices craft for speed, made by sacrificing craft for speed. The first half and second half feel directed by different people, because the production more or less was. Ted Turner died, aged 87 — the man who invented 24-hour news in 1980, closed the gap between events and their broadcast to zero, and accidentally created the model that turned urgency into a default register rather than a signal. And re:publica, Europe's largest digital culture conference, announced its 2026 theme: Never Gonna Give You Up. The Rickroll. Inverted. You know it's Rick Astley. That's the point. In this episode, Sascha connects all three — using auteur theory, Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, Walter Benjamin, and the political economy of media ownership — to ask what it looks like when media gives up on coherence, depth, and craft. And what it looks like when it refuses to. Recorded before heading to Berlin to speak at re:publica on gamification, dissent, and the digital frontlines of Southeast Asia. FUNK !T — media and communication theory for what's actually happening this week.

    23 min
  3. How Censorship Works in 2026 (It Looks Like Accounting)

    May 6

    How Censorship Works in 2026 (It Looks Like Accounting)

    We're heading into the final weeks of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert - CBS' number one show for nine straight seasons. The official reason: "purely a financial decision." Two weeks earlier, Colbert had criticised a settlement between Trump and Paramount, CBS's parent company, which is currently seeking White House approval for a $110 billion merger. David Letterman called CBS "lying weasels." Also this week, Reporters Without Borders released the 2026 World Press Freedom Index: the lowest score in 25 years. In 2002, 20% of the global population lived in countries with good press freedom. Today it's less than 1%. These are not two separate stories. In this episode, Sascha unpacks how press freedom actually erodes in democracies - not through arrests or bans, but through ownership structures, regulatory dependencies, and "financial decisions." Chomsky's Propaganda Model. Agenda-setting theory. The political economy of who controls what gets said. FUNK !T - media and communication theory for what's actually happening this week.

    15 min
  4. The Therapy Aesthetic: Decoding Bieber's 2026 Coachella Set

    Apr 14

    The Therapy Aesthetic: Decoding Bieber's 2026 Coachella Set

    Justin Bieber’s 2026 Coachella headline set wasn't just a concert; it was a real-time renegotiation of the performer-audience contract. This week on FUNK !T, we analyze the most polarizing performance of the year. We explore the stark divide between the physical attendees—who experienced a stripped-down, 45-minute acoustic set that actively rejected the traditional festival spectacle—and the digital audience on TikTok, who celebrated the performance as a profound and vulnerable "healing journey." By pivoting from standard choreography to a highly intimate MacBook karaoke session on the biggest stage in the world, Bieber successfully tapped into the modern "therapy aesthetic." We break down how this strategy effectively shielded the performance from traditional critique, neutralized the internet's impulse to mock, and proved that you no longer need a pyrotechnic pop show to win the attention economy. The era of the transactional pop spectacle might be over. Have we replaced the pop star with the parasocial avatar?

    17 min
  5. Is Political Communication Dead? Inside the New Era of State Normalization

    Apr 5

    Is Political Communication Dead? Inside the New Era of State Normalization

    In this episode of the FUNK !T podcast, we are tackling the profound shift in political communication defining 2026. Forget traditional propaganda designed to change your mind. Today’s governments, domestic agencies, and foreign militaries are working from a completely different playbook. They are no longer trying to persuade you; they are trying to control what looks normal. The goal isn’t to win the argument - it’s to become the environment. Change the environment, and you change what people think is possible. In this special episode, we dissect three critical case studies that reveal this new reality: DHS & The Extremist Aesthetic (4:00): Why official government social media now uses the exact same visual and rhetorical grammar that extremism researchers flag as fringe. We discuss Framing Theory, Visual Rhetoric, and the visual shift of the Overton Window. Voice of America (12:00): VOA journalists are suing their own outlet, alleging White House talking points have replaced objective journalism. We look at Agenda-Setting Theory and the fragile line between public broadcasting and state propaganda. Iran’s Meme War (20:00): How a nation-state is deploying English-language memes as military communication tools targeted at Americans. We break down information warfare and the horizontal spread of peer-to-peer political "osmostis." We tie these threads together to reveal the underlying logic: when governments don't argue with the environment, they become it. We conclude with "The Funk" (32:00): A crucial shift in how we approach media literacy. The question isn't "Is this true?" but rather, "What is this making normal?"

    26 min
  6. The Pentagon Learned from TikTok

    Mar 29

    The Pentagon Learned from TikTok

    The US military released footage of the Iran strikes this week. It was edited. It had music. It cut like an action trailer. 40 million impressions in 24 hours — before most people thought to ask what they were actually watching. In this episode: why governments in 2026 don't need to manage journalists anymore, what Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle has to do with a Pentagon post on X, and how propaganda stopped asking you to believe things — and started asking you to share them instead. FUNK !T is media theory for the stuff actually happening right now.

    19 min
  7. Why We Can't Legislate the Algorithm (A Media Theory Analysis)

    Mar 1

    Why We Can't Legislate the Algorithm (A Media Theory Analysis)

    You cannot build a 19th-century border wall around a 21st-century cloud. Body:This week, the German government (CDU) pushed a motion to strictly ban social media for youth under 14, requiring digital ID verification to log into platforms like TikTok. In this episode, Sascha Funk breaks down why this isn't child protection—it's a bureaucratic panic attack. Applying Michel Foucault’s theories of Disciplinary Power and spatial control, we dissect the state's cognitive dissonance: attempting to become a tech superpower while legally mandating digital blindness for its youth. We explore how these bans don't create safety, but rather drive behavior underground, turning a generation of kids into "digital smugglers." Finally, we discuss why "Digital Sparring" and media literacy are the only real defenses against the algorithm. Topics: The CDU's Under-14 Social Media Ban and Digital ID. Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish applied to digital spaces. The "Boomer Illusion" of legislative control over tech paradigms. Digital Smugglers vs. Digital Citizens: The necessity of sparring. Keywords: Michel Foucault, Disciplinary Power, German Politics, CDU, Social Media Ban, Digital ID, Media Ecology, Bureaucracy, Tech Policy, FUNK !T Podcast.

    11 min
  8. The Bangkok Simulation: Why Global Cities Are Becoming "Non-Places"

    Feb 25

    The Bangkok Simulation: Why Global Cities Are Becoming "Non-Places"

    Recording from the streets of Bangkok, Sascha Funk analyzes the city not as a tourist destination, but as a living motherboard. Using the framework of "Splintering Urbanism" and Marc Augé’s concept of the "Non-Place," we examine how global capital has bypassed local geography. When a luxury condo and a slum occupy the exact same GPS coordinates but exist in entirely different dimensions, what happens to our shared reality? We apply Jean Baudrillard’s theory of the Simulacrum to understand how economic desperation is turned into a "cyberpunk aesthetic" for the global elite, and why the physical friction of a Muay Thai ring is one of the last remaining antidotes to the digital void. Topics: Splintering Urbanism: How infrastructure bypasses the physical street. Marc Augé’s "Non-Place" and the erasure of geography. Baudrillard’s Simulacra: The aestheticization of poverty. The Fighter's Mindset: Why we need physical gravity in a frictionless world. Keywords: Splintering Urbanism, Marc Augé, Baudrillard, Simulacra, Bangkok, Hyper-capitalism, Media Theory, Muay Thai, Non-Places, FUNK !T Podcast.

    15 min
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About

Join Sascha H. Funk, the current head of media studies at Thammasat University, as he explores the impact of media on our lives. Dive into thought-provoking discussions on mindful media consumption, digital trends, and effective communication strategies. Discover how to navigate the digital landscape with intention, cultivate a healthy relationship with media, and stay ahead in the ever-changing media landscape. Tune in for insights, strategies, and real-world examples on Mindful Media and Communications by FUNK !T.

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