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Media Studies Graduate Student 鈥� Researches Government Surveillance Programs

Tyler Rollins got his master鈥檚 degree in sociology at a school that, as he puts it, 鈥渉as a reputation for being a somewhat radical campus.鈥� Environmental activists sometimes slept in tree canopies to deter loggers. Others drove metal spikes into trees, ensuring any trespassing chainsaws would snap. 听The sociology department placed a big emphasis on social movements and their organization.

But 鈥渙ne of the things I always found lacking,鈥� Rollins remembers, 鈥渨as an understanding of the role the media played in these social movements.鈥�

That type of understanding鈥攖he ability to think about and analyze the role and the impact of the media in society鈥攊s just what CMCI鈥檚 Department of Media Studies offers, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

鈥淭here鈥檚 always something fun about disrupting people鈥檚 preconceptions.鈥�

- Tyler Rollins

Rollins came to CU as a doctoral student. His research focuses on American domestic surveillance projects between the end of World War II and 1975. Unknown to most Americans, U.S. intelligence agencies during this time intercepted and read the mail and telegrams of many citizens. Rollins uses historical and legal techniques to discover how these covert, questionably legal projects were operated, justified and criticized at the time.

Ultimately, he hopes that his work will help Americans grapple with recent revelations that the National Security Agency continues to collect the personal information of many American citizens. 鈥淚f you can understand what was truly going on in the past and then compare that to our present issues, it gives you a new perspective,鈥� he explains.