Virginia Heffernan

Last updated

Virginia Heffernan
VHeff cropped.jpg
Virginia Heffernan in 2016
BornVirginia Page Heffernan
(1969-08-08) August 8, 1969 (age 54)
Hanover, New Hampshire, U.S.
OccupationAuthor, columnist
Education
GenreInternet
Pop culture
Media

Virginia Heffernan (born August 8, 1969) is an American journalist and cultural critic. Since 2015, she has been a political columnist at the Los Angeles Times and a cultural columnist at Wired . From 2003 to 2011, she worked as a staff writer for The New York Times , first as a television critic, then as a magazine columnist, and then as an opinion writer. She has also worked as a senior editor for Harper's , as a founding editor of Talk , and as a TV critic for Slate . Her 2016 book Magic and Loss: The Internet as Art argued that the Internet is a "massive and collective work of art", one that is a "work in progress", [1] and that the suggested deterioration of attention spans in response to it is a myth.

Contents

Early life and education

Virginia Heffernan was born in Hanover, New Hampshire. She is a 1991 graduate summa cum laude of the University of Virginia. She is also dual graduate of Harvard University with a master's degree in English literature in 1993 and a Ph.D in 2002. [2]

Career

Journalism

Heffernan began her career as a fact checker with The New Yorker magazine. [3] She served as a senior editor at Harper's magazine, a founding editor of Talk magazine, [4] and as a television critic for the online magazine Slate.[ citation needed ]

In June 2002, the Columbia Journalism Review named Heffernan one of its "Ten Young Editors to Watch." [5] In September of the following year, Heffernan departed Slate to join The New York Times. While there, she started the blog "Screens" for the New York Times website, which eventually became "The Medium" blog (named after her column). [6]

In February 2012, Heffernan became a national correspondent for Yahoo News, [7] where she covered the 2012 presidential election and wrote about subjects related to media, technology, politics, and culture. In June 2013, Heffernan began a series of articles for Yahoo News entitled "Glass Menagerie," which involved her experiences using Google Glass OHMD. [8]

Heffernan is a regular contributor to The New York Times, as well as The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Mother Jones, Politico, and many other publications.

In her journalism, Heffernan writes about culture and technology using methods of literary criticism. [2] Her work often centers on the human side of technology and culture in general, and she advocates broader and more critical thinking regarding newer technologies. [9]

In parallel to writing on the subject, Heffernan also participates actively in social media. She openly befriends her readers on Facebook, tweets frequently, [10] and maintains an active Tumblr account. [11]

In July 2013, Heffernan published an article entitled "Why I'm a creationist," [12] saying she was "considerably less amused and moved by the character-free Big Bang story ("something exploded") than by the twisted and picturesque misadventures of Eve and Adam." [12] Heffernan received much criticism for her column. [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] Critics responded to her postmodern stance, [17] [19] several quoting Daniel Patrick Moynihan: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts". [20] [15] However, writing in The Guardian , Andrew Brown dismissed Heffernan's critique of evolution, but noted that: "[s]he is certainly not a young-earth creationist ... [b]ut she wants stories where people find hope and courage in the events of the world around them, and she finds them in religion, not in science". [16]

In 2014 Ben Yagoda in the Chronicle of Higher Education named Heffernan among his top candidates for "best living writer of English prose." [21]

On February 5, 2021, Heffernan published an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times entitled "What can you do about the Trumpites next door?" in which she wondered, self-critically, how to respond to kindness from rightwing neighbors. [22] Heffernan received criticism from right-wing pundits like Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly.

Podcasts

From October 2018, Heffernan was the host of Slate's Trumpcast podcast. In it, she evaluated and critiqued the presidency of Donald Trump, interviewing guests like Yascha Mounk, Fareed Zakaria, David Corn and more. [23] On January 30, 2021, the final episode was released. [24]

In April 2021, Heffernan began a new podcast, After Trump with Lawfare following on from her work on Trumpcast. [25]

Books and TV

Heffernan has contributed to a number of books, covering topics that include depression, television and the impact of the internet.[ citation needed ]

In 2005, Heffernan published The Underminer, a comic novel she co-wrote with Mike Albo. She also scripted Matthew's Murder, an Emmy award-nominated, MTV documentary on the murder of Matthew Shepard. [26]

Magic and Loss

Heffernan has been online since the age of ten, when she used a Zenith computer terminal and dial-up modem at home to play a MUD at Dartmouth College. [27] Simon & Schuster published her book about digital culture, Magic and Loss: The Internet As Art, in June 2016. [1] [28] In this, Heffernan argued that the Internet is "the great masterpiece of civilization, a massive and collective work of art". [29] The book was well received, earning a starred Kirkus review [30] and appearing on the summer reading lists of Gwyneth Paltrow and Lenny Letter. [31] Paltrow called Heffernan, "One of the writers I most admire." [32] The New York Review of Books called Heffernan's book "an ecstatic narrative of submission," [33] while The Wall Street Journal described the book as "(a)n illuminating guide to the internet." [34] In The New Yorker, Louis Menand wrote that "Heffernan is smart, her writing has flair, she can refer intelligently to Barthes, Derrida, and Benjamin—also to Aquinas, Dante, and Proust—and she knows a lot about the Internet and its history. She is good company." [35]

Bibliography

Books

Essays and reporting

Theses

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gwyneth Paltrow</span> American actress and businesswoman (born 1972)

Gwyneth Kate Paltrow is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.

<i>Wired</i> (magazine) American technology magazine

Wired is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and has been in publication since March/April 1993. Several spin-offs have been launched, including Wired UK, Wired Italia, Wired Japan, and Wired Germany.

<i>The Atlantic</i> Magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C.

The Atlantic is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.

<i>Harpers Bazaar</i> American monthly womens fashion magazine

Harper's Bazaar is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly Harper's Bazar. Harper's Bazaar is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the style resource for "women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture". Since its debut in 1867, as the U.S.'s first fashion magazine, its pages have been home to talent such as the founding editor, author and translator Mary Louise Booth, as well as numerous fashion editors, photographers, illustrators and writers. Harper's Bazaar has a targeted audience of women ranging from their twenties to sixties. Its goal is to influence readers in wanting to spend money on what they see in fashion magazines to feel and look their best. Harpers's Bazaar annual Icons Party where your favorite celebrities wear their best look. This event has become a staple in the fashion world.

<i>Slate</i> (magazine) U.S.-based online magazine

Slate is an online magazine that covers current affairs, politics, and culture in the United States. It was created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. In 2004, it was purchased by The Washington Post Company, and since 2008 has been managed by The Slate Group, an online publishing entity created by Graham Holdings. Slate is based in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xeni Jardin</span> American weblogger, digital and tech culture journalist

Xeni Jardin is an American weblogger, digital media commentator, and tech culture journalist. She is known as a former co-editor of the collaborative weblog Boing Boing, a former contributor to Wired Magazine and Wired News, and a former correspondent for the National Public Radio show Day to Day. She has also worked as a guest technology news commentator for television networks such as PBS NewsHour, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and ABC.

Yahoo! News is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo!. The site was created by Yahoo! software engineer Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such as the Associated Press, Reuters, Fox News, Al Jazeera, ABC News, USA Today, CNN and BBC News.

<i>Teen Vogue</i> American fashion and culture magazine

Teen Vogue is an American online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003, as a sister publication to Vogue, targeted at teenage girls and young women. Like Vogue, it included stories about fashion and celebrities. Since 2015, following a steep decline in sales, the magazine cut back on its print distribution in favor of online content, which has grown significantly. The magazine had also expanded its focus from fashion and beauty to include politics and current affairs. In November 2017, it was announced Teen Vogue would cease in print and continue online-only as part of a new round of cost cuts. Other publications would also follow and go digital, such as InStyle. The final print issue featured Hillary Clinton on the cover, and was on newsstands on December 5, 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quinn Norton</span> American journalist

Quinn Norton is an American journalist and essayist. Her work covers hacker culture, Anonymous, Occupy movement, intellectual property and copyright issues, and the Internet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nina Burleigh</span> American writer and journalist

Nina D. Burleigh is an American writer and investigative journalist, She writes books, articles, essays and reviews. Burleigh is a supporter of secular liberalism, and is known for her interest in issues of women's rights.

<i>Breitbart News</i> American far-right news and opinion website

Breitbart News Network is an American far-right syndicated news, opinion, and commentary website founded in mid-2007 by American conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart. Its content has been described as misogynistic, xenophobic, and racist by academics and journalists. The site has published a number of conspiracy theories and intentionally misleading stories. Posts originating from the Breitbart News Facebook page are among the most widely shared political content on Facebook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garance Franke-Ruta</span> American journalist

Garance Franke-Ruta was most recently the executive editor of GEN by Medium. She has worked as Washington editor of Yahoo News and editor in chief of Yahoo Politics, Voices columnist and politics editor of The Atlantic Online, national web politics editor for the Washington Post, senior editor at the American Prospect and senior writer at the Washington City Paper, D.C.'s alternative weekly newspaper. Her work has also appeared in Medium magazine, New York, TheWall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Slate, Salon, The Washington Monthly, Legal Affairs, Utne Reader and National Journal. After first attending Hunter College, she transferred to Harvard University, where she graduated magna cum laude in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marina Orlova (YouTuber)</span> Russian philologist and broadcaster (born 1980)

Marina Vladimirovna Orlova is a Russian host of a popular YouTube channel, HotForWords and a corresponding website. In 2012 she started an online series of videos for a personal finance website Bankrate.com where she explains the meaning of commonly used financial and economic terms.

Dwight Garner is an American journalist and longtime writer and editor for The New York Times. In 2008, he was named a book critic for the newspaper. He is the author of Garner's Quotations: A Modern Miscellany and Read Me: A Century of Classic American Book Advertisements. In 2023 he published his memoir, The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roxane Gay</span> American writer (born 1974)

Roxane Gay is an American writer, professor, editor, and social commentator. Gay is the author of The New York Times best-selling essay collection Bad Feminist (2014), as well as the short story collection Ayiti (2011), the novel An Untamed State (2014), the short story collection Difficult Women (2017), and the memoir Hunger (2017).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessica Grose</span> American novelist

Jessica Ebenstein Grose is an American journalist, editor, and novelist. She is the author of the 2012 novel Sad Desk Salad, the co-author of the 2009 book LOVE, MOM: Poignant, Goofy, Brilliant Messages from Home, and the 2016 novel Soulmates. Since October 2021, Grose has written for The New York Times opinion section.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenna Wortham</span> American journalist

Jenna Wortham is an American journalist. They work as a culture writer for The New York Times Magazine and co-host The New York Times podcast Still Processing with Wesley Morris. In 2020, with Kimberly Drew, Wortham published Black Futures, an anthology of Black art, writing and other creative work.

Jia Angeli Carla Tolentino is an American writer and editor. A staff writer for The New Yorker, she previously worked as deputy editor of Jezebel and a contributing editor at The Hairpin. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine and Pitchfork. In 2019, her collected essays were published as Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Jeong</span> American journalist (born 1988)

Sarah Jeong is an American journalist specializing in information technology law and other technology-related topics. A member of the editorial board of The New York Times from 2018 to 2019, she was formerly a senior writer for The Verge and a contributing editor for Vice Media's Motherboard website. She is the author of The Internet of Garbage, a non-fiction book about online harassment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aisha Harris</span> American writer, editor, and podcaster

Aisha Harris is an American writer, editor, and podcaster. She was a staff writer, editor and podcast host at Slate before moving to the New York Times in 2018 as an editor. Since 2020, she has been a co-host and reporter for the NPR show Pop Culture Happy Hour.

References

  1. 1 2 Magic and Loss, Simon and Schuster.
  2. 1 2 Lambert, Craig (October 2007). "Savant of Screens". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  3. ↑ Skurnick, Lizzie (2003-04-01). "So What Do You Do, Virginia Heffernan?" Media Bistro. Retrieved 2008-04-16.
  4. ↑ Heffernan, Virginia. "About Virginia". The Medium. The New York Times. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  5. ↑ Cox, Ana Marie (2002-06-01). "Ten Young Editors To Watch". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2008-04-16.
  6. ↑ Heffernan, Virginia (October 17, 2007). "So Long, Screens; Long Live The Medium". The Medium. The New York Times. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  7. ↑ Byers, Dylan (February 2, 2012). "Yahoo Steals NYTimes' Virginia Heffernan". Politico. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  8. ↑ Heffernan, Virginia (June 4, 2013). "Glass Menagerie: Initiation". Yahoo! News. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  9. ↑ Tebaldi, David (2013). "The Information Sage: An Interview with Virginia Heffernan". The Valley Advocate. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  10. ↑ Heffernan, Virginia. "Virginia Heffernan, @page88". Twitter. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
  11. ↑ Heffernan, Virginia. "Page88". Tumblr. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
  12. 1 2 Heffernan, Virginia (July 11, 2013). "Why I'm a Creationist". Yahoo News. Yahoo. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  13. ↑ Nolan, Hamilton (July 12, 2013). "Yes Virginia, There Is a Darwin". Gawker. Retrieved August 12, 2013.
  14. ↑ Helmuth, Laura (July 15, 2013). "Virginia Heffernan's Shameful Confession". Slate. Retrieved August 12, 2013.
  15. 1 2 Chivers, Tom (July 16, 2013). "You don't get to choose your own facts: however 'moving' you find the creation story, evolution is still true". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on July 19, 2013. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  16. 1 2 Brown, Andrew (July 18, 2013). "Virginia Heffernan's creationism is wrong but makes good sense". The Guardian. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  17. 1 2 Schulson, Michael (July 19, 2013). ""I'm a Creationist," Says Former Times Tech Writer, Heffernan". Religion Dispatches. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
  18. ↑ Timmer, John (August 3, 2013). "Science education vs. high-profile ignorance". Ars Technica. Retrieved August 27, 2013.
  19. ↑ Giberson, Karl; Linder, Douglas O.; Wax, Trevin; Gafney, Wil; Al-Marayati, Salam; Tucker, Mary Evelyn; Redlawsk, David P. (August 15, 2013). "Should Creationism Be Controversial?". The New York Times. Room for Debate. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
  20. ↑ Heffernan, Virginia; Zimmer, Carl (July 2013). "Conversation with Heffernan and Zimmer". storify.com. Retrieved August 12, 2013.
  21. ↑ Yagoda, Ben (October 30, 2014). "Wordsmith Bingo". The Chronicle of Higher Education – Lingua Franca - Blogs. Archived from the original on November 1, 2014. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  22. ↑ Heffernan, Virginia (February 5, 2021). "What can you do about the Trumpites next door?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 12, 2021.
  23. ↑ Weisberg, Jacob (July 23, 2019). "Trumpcast". Slate.
  24. ↑ "Time to Turn off the Lights on the Trump Era". January 30, 2021.
  25. ↑ "The Lawfare Podcast: After Trump, Episode 1: Follow the Money". April 12, 2021.
  26. ↑ Hooper, Joseph (May 14, 2000). "It's Not All Dazzle: MTV Has a Conscience, Too". The New York Times. Retrieved April 16, 2008.
  27. ↑ Heffernan, Virginia (October 5, 2016). "Behold the Zenith Z-19". Medium. Retrieved August 13, 2017.
  28. ↑ "Virginia Heffernan - Bio - Speaker Profile". lavinagency.com. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  29. ↑ Staff, Wired (June 3, 2016). "This Summer's 14 Must-Read Books". Wired– via www.wired.com.
  30. ↑ "MAGIC AND LOSS by Virginia Heffernan | Kirkus Reviews" – via www.kirkusreviews.com.
  31. ↑ "Lennyletter.com".
  32. ↑ "Gwyneth Paltrow: By the Book". The New York Times. March 31, 2016.
  33. ↑ Mendelson, Edward (June 23, 2016). "In the Depths of the Digital Age" – via www.nybooks.com.{{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  34. ↑ VANDERKAM, LAURA. "Through the Looking-Glass". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  35. ↑ Menand, Louis (June 12, 2016). "The New Yorker". newyorker.com. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.