At a time when genuine personal connection is considered a premuim, storytelling has become a strategy for engaging audiences and communicating information. Multimedia content, which once demonstrated presence and experience, may now be synthetically produced using generative artificial intelligence.
Synthetic content has further eroded distrust in media and skepticism towards authentic experience, while exacerbating the division between individuals and communities. What is required now – more than ever – is not only a critical view of media but an earnest desire to help communities and organizations cut through the noise and disinformation.
The good news is that digital production tools have also empowered communicators with the means to efficiently produce and distribute messaging that connects with desired audiences in numerous ways: content creation tools provide free and accessible means to create everything from visual designs to podcast recordings; virtual and augmented reality platforms can engage through immersive placemaking; community events and workshops that encourage dialog and empower organizations to develop skills and understanding.
My name is Kristopher Purzycki, a media and communications professional currently working with the English department at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay. Through both my professional and academic backgrounds, I have developed an expansive expertise in media literacy as well as a multivalent creative practice. It has been through public engagements – whether in a classroom, a workshop, or community auditorium – that I have also established myself as a communicator of communities.
This site offers a curated collection of professional and academic work, peppered with personal bits. For social media, my professional presence may be found on LinkedIn. Although my Facebook and Instagram accounts are not used much, my more active personal social media profile may be found on Bluesky.
My Story (in brief)
Like many of us, my professional path has been non-linear. Perhaps it was growing up with video games and, later on, having access to the early internet, that made me a distractible person. These early experiences with digital, networked technologies instilled a sense about the potential of these new spaces for expression and connection.
After acquiring an Associates degree in graphic and web design from MATC, I worked at a global printing company for several years. Although the work was a grind, I learned a great deal about client relations and interpreting expectations. The implementation of novel, digital production techniques began to undercut conventional methods which created a great deal of uncertainty for clients as well as within our own department.
I was eventually invited to head up a new production team in Virginia Beach, a significant move for me and my young family. Like the disruption of digital tools I saw at my previous employers, my new job was unable to meet the new opportunities afforded by the smartphone. Coupled with the Recession, the business that my family and I had moved for, the business shuttered. It didn’t take long to find a new position with a small agency that was busy creating websites to complement their print productions.
Working with a smaller, more flexible agency granted me a greater ability to try new things. In addition to advertising design, I acted as publication manager for a handful of titles and began writing again. These experiences (which coincided with a mid-career plateau) also catalyzed a critical view of advertising and communications. Search engine optimization (SEO) was becoming a key strategy for engaging audiences, influencing my writing to include elements (“more exclamation marks!”) that seemed manipulative. Compelled by this new perspective, I decided to complete my bachelors degree.
Thanks to Old Dominion’s fast-track graduate program, I was able to complete two degrees in short(er) time. It was during my master’s program that I encountered critical approaches to digital media (referred to then as “new media”). These approaches were wonderful excuses to look back on 10 years of digital work in a new way; I had always enjoyed video games but had never considered their literary qualities, for instance. This was also a time privileged with the opportunity to consider how social media technologies might impact the world.
It was during this time that I began working at the Virginia Department of Transportation as a contracted public communications officer. Early on, this was about as ill-fitting a position as I could have imagined. Despite years of design and web work, and a growing expertise in social media management, I was not trained in working with media and citizens. I was also not prepared to help engineers and technical experts communicate with the general public! This job had its share of frustrations (more with my own shortcomings than anything) but it was one of the most formative roles I had had.
After a thirteen-year career in advertising and public communications, I was presented with the opportunity to continue my graduate education, and pursue a doctorate at UW-Milwaukee in digital rhetoric and the influence of media. This shift from public to academic work positioned me as a “seasoned” professional within an environment that had little experience with the world off-campus. I continued to use my experience with multimedia composition to produce publications like cream city review but also develop a pedagogy built on multimodal composition and digital literacy. Over my time at UWM, I developed a critical approach towards the rhetoric of subcultures and placemaking as a radical practice. Both were highly influenced by my work in the digital humanities and the arts, play theory, and game studies. My dissertation project was the culmination of these interests: I argued there that video games, as the dominant media, had a capacity for placemaking that could be compelling, yet seductive and dangerous.
There wasn’t much time to decide what to do after graduation due to the pandemic. During lockdown, I taught from my dining room table. Although I didn’t know it at the time, I had also acquired an expertise in instructional technologies which were crucial in creating engaging courses that focused on flexibility and collaboration. The affects of COVID continue to impact education, socialization, and other skills once taken for granted.
I continue to see this at UW-Green Bay, where I have worked as a professor since 2021. My course design has been an outlet for my array of skills as well as acquiring new ones. I designed the Professional and Technical Writing emphasis to help creative writing students anticipate future trends in the field. From document design to augmented reality and UX, I wanted students to apply their writing strengths to applied uses.
Then ChatGPT was released. Artificial intelligence had been of minor interest until November of 2022 when I first demonstrated this odd interface to students. Within a year, GAI had become a focus of my research as well as most department meetings. After three years of conducting workshops, lecturing, and presenting on GAI, I see the tools as having some utility. I agree that students should be taught the ability to use these tools critically and ethically. But I have critical concerns about privacy, data security, and intellectual property that are a personal priority.
I cannot pretend to know – with confidence – what the effects of this sea-change will be. But I believe that building a foundation rooted in authenticity, empathy, and transparency is vital to navigating these uncertainties. I take inspiration from my own sons, one who is still in college, and how they engage with a world that is asking more of them than of me.
In the meantime, I continue to hike, take pics, and paint. Having moving to Door County, Wisconsin almost two years ago, I have become involved in local organizations and enjoy exploring up-and-down the peninsula.
