Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies and Chair of the Department
John Capo is Assistant Professor and Chair of Communication and Media Studies at Lycoming College, where has also serves as the College’s NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative. A former media executive, his twenty-year career spans social and digital media, public relations, journalism, politics, and entertainment. Today, his teaching, scholarship, and public commentary examine how media and popular culture shape public opinion.
Capo's commentary has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, NPR, Forbes, Crain’s Business, TMZ, Smerconish, Yahoo Finance, and other outlets. He is an inductee of The Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts, an assembly of professionals dedicated to embracing the evolving nature of interactive media.
Capo served as director of public relations for The Snapple Center in Times Square, co-created the world's first film festival dedicated to movies shot by drones, and amassed 22 million followers on Reddit while helping grow the “Ask Me Anything” community, where noteworthy people engage in real time conversations with the public. Past participants include President Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Edward Snowden, NASA astronauts live from the International Space Station, and Cookie Monster.
He won the New York Television Festival Pitch Contest and his winning pitch was turned into one of iTunes’ first digital series. It received one win and another nomination at the Independent Series Awards. He produced the musical versions of Saved By The Bell and the cult classic flop film Showgirls. Both are New York Times Critics Picks that have been featured on MTV and spent years playing to audiences in New York and across North America. He also handled media relations for Katdashians, a parody of the Kardashians that reimagined the family as cats.
He created FEARnyc, praised by Entertainment Weekly and called “a huge, authoritative horror film festival” by Time Out New York. He has created events at Citi Field and the New York Stock Exchange, and his past clients have won or been nominated for the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards.
He presented at the 84th Pennsylvania Communication Association Conference at Penn State. His presentation, “Storytelling in Advertising: From Blair Witch to Barbie,” detailed the evolution of brand storytelling. He has delivered lectures on communication surrounding the 9/11 attacks and collaborated with a student on the creation of an episode of the College’s podcast funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. At Stony Brook University, Capo studied the characteristics and motivations of post-millennials.
Born and raised in New York City, Capo previously taught at New York University, the City University of New York, and the Fashion Institute of Technology. He is an avid fan of baseball, horror movies, and napping.