The second edition of Mass Communication: Living in a Media World is now available at the very student-friendly price of $45. (Yes, the new edition sells for less than used copies often do of the first edition.) It features a newly strengthened media literacy focus, greater depth on a number of topics, extensive coverage of "long-tail" media, and new chapters on media effects and global media. For more information, visit the CQ Press website.
Chapter Links Go Live!
The chapter-by-chapter readings and links for the book Mass Communication: Living in a Media World are now active! Thanks for your patience. Watch for updates and added features in the near future.
Wednesday - November 28, 2007
Questions Worth Asking (Maybe)
Was Minority Report Really Science Fiction? Well, yeah, the whole see into the future bit was pretty well made up. But the being able to track people everywhere they go bit? It's already happening with your cell phone. Nobody's going to have to plant a miniature tracking device on you to track you. You're carrying one with you all the time. This article is about the government using your cell to track you, but think about the implications for advertising that could appear on your phone's screen depending on where you are and where you've been. (Washington Post)
Will The FCC Regulate Cable TV? FCC Chairman Kevin Martin says the commission has the right to regulate it, but the industry is really opposed. The consequences might include limiting how much of the market a single company could control and enforcing a la carte pricing of channels.
Transformers v. Live Free or Die Hard Is it just me (it isn't), or did it seem like the latest Die Hard movie had virtually the same plot (about a "fire sale" attack) as the Transformers movie had? (Except for the part about giant robots....) Yes, as a matter of fact, I did just get around to seeing those two summer blockbusters over Thanksgiving Break. Mac Guy was charming in the Die Hard flick.
Beowulf v. American Gangster
There really is no competition. Beowulf is clearly a ground-breaking film when it comes to bringing computer animation into films targeted at adults, but American Gangster is the best dramatic film I've seen in a long time. Imagine, a nearly 3-hour crime film without a car chase! Ridley Scott and Denzel seem shoe-ins for Oscar nominations, and Russell Crowe seems likely as well. (As far as that goes, Beowulf should be strongly in the running for best animated film. As much as I loved Ratatouille, Beowulf actually broke new ground in animated storytelling.)
Guard Music Video Making The Rounds at Theaters Alt rockers 3 Doors Down have a new music video about the National Guard called Citizen/Soldier that's been showing before every movie I've seen in the theater as of late. It traces the history of the Guard from the Revolutionary War, through WWII, up to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What isn't clear to me is whether the song and video existed on their own before becoming a Guard promo film.
Erik Goes To Germany Video Erik Goes To Germany won the battle of the bands in Morgantown Saturday night. All five video clips from their portion of the show are now posted. Sorry for the poor quailty. It was shot using the video mode of my Canon still camera.
Why I am posting this here? So my son Erik, who went to Germany, can see his friends perform. But if I need an excuse, I talked about EGTG earlier in an entry about long-tail media.
What's the Fallout Been From Anderson's Mau-Mauing of the Flacks? Well, there's a flame war going on, cool t-shirts for sale, and a debate over in Britain. And what did Anderson do in the first place to raise all this fuss?
Where Has Questionable Content Been All My Life? Emo boy, goth girl, AnthoPC, the indie music scene... If you are either the parent of a teen or have friends who are indie rockers, you will love this web comic. I've spent way too much time reading the archives of this strip over the last week. BTW, QC contains lots of rude humor. But it's a web comic. You should have figured that out already. (And you can enjoy it even if you have only a vague idea of who Good Charlotte is....)
Long Tail Dude Mau Mau's The Flacks Every few years a media moment comes along where someone breaks all the unspoken rules that allow our Media World to function.
The most prominent of these occurred a couple of years ago when Daily Show host Jon Stewart appeared as a guest on CNN's Crossfire to promote his history book satire America. He was supposed to be a standard guest on the show, exchange some quips about the book and the news, and then move on to the next guest appearance. Instead, he questioned the hosts of the show about what they were actually accomplishing on their show, and said in no uncertain terms that political debate shows like Crossfire were "bad for America." It was as though Timmy had bitten Lassie!
The fallout from his appearance was enormous. CNN ended up cancelling Crossfire following Stewart's devastating attack, and Stewart became one of the nation's most listened-to media critics.
Two weeks ago we had another of those game-changing moments when author, Wired editor and blogger Chris Anderson took on the public relations industry in his blog. In an entry titled "Sorry PR People: You're Blocked," Anderson proclaims:
I've had it. I get more than 300 emails a day and my problem isn't spam (Cloudmark Desktop solves that nicely), it's PR people. Lazy flacks send press releases to the Editor in Chief of Wired because they can't be bothered to find out who on my staff, if anyone, might actually be interested in what they're pitching. Fact: I am an actual person, not a team assigned to read press releases and distribute them to the right editors and writers (that's editor@wired.com).
So fair warning: I only want two kinds of email: those from people I know, and those from people who have taken the time to find out what I'm interested in and composed a note meant to appeal to that (I love those emails; indeed, that's why my email address is public).
Everything else gets banned on first abuse. The following is just the last month's list of people and companies who have been added to my Outlook blocked list. All of them have sent me something inappropriate at some point in the past 30 days. Many of them sent press releases; others just added me to a distribution list without asking. If their address gets harvested by spammers by being published here, so be it--turnabout is fair play.
There is no getting off this list. If you're on it and have something appropriate to say to me, use a different email address.
In essence, he has said, "PR Flacks: I'm going to stick my fingers in my ears and go 'Nanner, Nanner, Nanner' everytime you try to say anything to me unless you can be bothered to find out what I'm actually interested in."
The battle is over revenue from DVD's, digital downloads, and streaming web content.
The issue is this: Writers have an erratic income. They'll make a lot of money for a period of time while they have a hit on the air, and then they depend on residuals, or a fee they are paid every time an episode they wrote is rerun. For example, the creator of Desperate Housewives had to live on his residuals from the Golden Girls for years until he had another series. Without that residual income, he would have had to have quit the TV business.
So the existing scheme worked great when shows did all their replays on broadcast or cable. But now a show is as likely to sell a season's worth on DVD, or be streamed on the Internet. And writers are very concerned about how this will affect them.
So writers are picketing now over establishing favorable terms for them over these rights.
Among the big issues facing the industry is that a lot of the big producers of shows are also writers for the shows -- these are people known as "showrunners." Many of them have decided that they can't keep working as producers and editors on their programs while they are striking as writers. They also feel that it is unfair for them to be collecting big producing fees while the more plebeian writers are not bringing in any income.
The implications of this strike are pretty serious for the industry. Fox has already announced they are putting the season of 24 on hold because they don't want any pause in the series once they start airing it. And the lead writer/producer for Lost is on the writers' negotiating team. There will likely also be major fallout for the movie industry as well.
The last time there was a writer's strike, the show Cops went on the air as a replacement series that didn't need Guild writers. 20 or so years later, it's still on the air. What shows might we gain or lose this time around?
Tomorrow - Long Tail Dude Mau Mau's The Flak Catchers!
News in the News A quick round-up of news stories that have piled up in my in-box over the last week.
Biology in the News Dept. -- How Did HIV Reach the U.S.? For the last year or so, I've been working with the biology department here at WVU on integrating news coverage of science into the Intro to Biology for non-majors class. Conventional wisdom tells us that the HIV virus first started spreading in the U.S. due the actions of a promiscuous gay flight attendant. Only one problem with the story...... It isn't true. The Washington Postlooks at the latest evidence of how HIV entered the country.
Free Speech Suspended in Pakistan On Sunday,Pakistan's government imposed emergency rule, which included suspension of free speech and freedom of the press. Among those arrested in the crackdown were opposition party members, top lawyers, and activists.
Explain This To Me One More time: Exactly How Is It "The Media" Are Biased? Bill O'Reilly says it's the liberals; Keith Olbermann says it's the conservatives. Jon Stewart says the press are patsies of those in power. Me, I find it fascinating that one of the best, most thoughtful press critics works for Comedy Central. Interesting observations on the bias wars from Howard Kurtz as he progresses on his book media tour. All I can say is, remember Truth #6!
Chapter Links Go Live!
The chapter-by-chapter readings and links for the book Mass Communication: Living in a Media World are now active! Thanks for your patience. Watch for updates and added features in the near future.
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