Some Thoughts on Media, Political Communication & Crosshairs

There’s been a lot of over-the-top rhetoric about the use of crosshair (gun sight) imagery in last year’s campaign and what that might have to do with the shootings that took place in Arizona over the weekend.  Here are three commentaries worth looking at on how the press and politicians have responded:

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Link Ch. 10 – Some Great Twitter Feeds

In many of my classes, I require my students to use Twitter.  While I hope each of them will come up with their own list of people to follow, here are a few that make up a good starting point:

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“Silence equals consent….”

“We know that silence equals consent when atrocities are committed against innocent men, women and children. We know that indifference equals complicity when bigotry, hatred and intolerance are allowed to take root. And we know that education and hope are the most effective ways to combat ignorance and despair.” ~ Gabrielle Giffords

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A Tragedy Through the Eyes of Social Media

This evening Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is recovering from surgery for being shot in the head as part of an attack that killed six people, including a federal judge.  Reports say that a total of 18 people were injured.

As with so much of the news these days, I first learned about it from Twitter.  In this case, it was a message from the media news site Mediaite.

Even in the midst of such a tragedy, it is always interesting to me to see how news spreads.  Here are a number of links that look at how social media, the web, and legacy media have handled this story today.

More later

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We Wants It

What was once a April Foolsie is now real:

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Media Trends for 2011

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Questions Worth Asking (Maybe)

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Twitter, Hashtags, and Media News

Welcome back after the holiday break.

As many of you know, I’ve been tweeting on media news for the last several months.  I’m now tagging the tweets that directly apply to content from my textbook with the hashtag #liamw.  (liamw = Living in a Media World)  Feel free to label your own tweets on course related materials with this same tag so we can all make use of the great content people are generating.

If you are following me, you will also see occasional news about humor, policy, technology, and diabetes. But all the hard-core media news will have the #liamw tag.

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Holiday Potpourri

  • Target takes an edgier approach in advertising to new moms
    Cute no longer cuts it.  New Target ad uses head, “I just had a 20-minute conversation with a stranger about nipples.”  Figuring out how to target (lower case) a narrow market can be tricky.
  • Sinclair and Time Warner fight over retransmission fees
    This is a fight that seems to be never ending.  Broadcasters want to be compensated for cable companies carrying their programming.  Cable companies say they are providing a service to broadcasters.  Viewers just want to be able to get all their local programming via cable or satellite.
  • Univision telenovela finale draws 7.3 million viewers
    Don’t doubt for a minute that Spanish-language broadcasting is becoming an important part of Americans’ media mix.  The final episode of Univision’s telenovela  Soy Tu Dueña drew an audience of 7.3 million.  That’s enough to win its timeslot in several urban areas and ranks it ahead of numerous programs on the Big Four networks.  Great example of Truth 3 – Everything from the margin moves to the center.
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No take-down order for Yogi Bear parody

Tech Dirt reports that Warner Brothers has declined to issue a take-down order for the brilliant Yogi Bear parody posted to You Tube in which BooBoo does not behave like a true friend.

Lots of tweeters were expecting an immediate disappearance of the video, but I figured enough work went into it that whoever did it would put up a good fair-use fight.

(As a sidenote, why is my local theater, the Kearney Cinema 8, showing Yogi Bear in 3D instead of Tron?)

Here’s the video, though not for the sensitive….

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