Ten (or more) media industry news items you might have missed recently.
Read more »
Politics
What Are You Missing? Apr 28 – May 11
Letterman’s “Stooge of the Night” and Late Night Politics
Within the context of network late night television, David Letterman's shaming of senators opposed to gun control is startlingly bold.
Read more »
WWE vs. Glenn Beck: Potshots to Publicity, Controversy to Cash
While the issue is ostensibly about the negative portrayal of the Tea Party, Glenn Beck and WWE have taken advantage of the situation for publicity.
Read more »
Current TV, Al Jazeera America, and the Experience of the Foreign
The sale of U.S. cable station Current TV to the Qatar-based news network Al Jazeera raises questions about how a foreign network might explain Americans to themselves. Might Al Jazeera provide a foreign lens for Americans to examine themselves? What would that even look like?
Read more »
“Depiction is not Endorsement”: Representing Torture in Zero Dark Thirty
Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty has ignited a virtual powder keg of controversy regarding its depictions of the use of torture as a means of getting information during the ten-year hunt for Osama bin Laden. Despite complaints that it justifies the use and effectiveness of torture, the film cannot be dismissed so easily.
Read more »
Fox News’ Post-Election Post-Mortem?
With election results now in, attention has inevitably turned to the one media source that has seemingly dedicated itself, 24/7, to making sure Obama was defeated and Republicans would take control of the Senate: Fox News.
Read more »
Methods of Failure: How Political Journalism lost the US Presidential Election to Nate Silver
Wednesday morning left both the electoral map and Republican politicians feeling a little blue, yet there was another group in need of collective introspection: political journalists, commentators and pundits.
Read more »
That’s Debatable: Truth and Values in the Vice-Presidential Debate
How fact-checking and the win/lose paradigm may distract voters from the more important moments in a debate.
Read more »
Revisiting the Political Dimensions of John Fiske’s Work
Part one in a series on "The Wisconsin Discourses."
Read more »
It’s Showtime: Mitt Romney’s Speech to the NAACP
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's boo-worthy comments demonstrate his--and by extension, the Republican party's--stubborn incomprehension of the political, cultural, and historical issues within the African American community.
Read more »
What Bill Nye Should Have Said
The problem with Carol Costello and other purveyors of manufactroversies is not that they are engaging in debate about climate change, but that they're debating the wrong thing.
Read more »
Diet by Disney?
The new "Mickey Check" logo for "Disney-approved" licensed food and beverage products is merely a new take on an old (and problematic) approach.
Read more »
Is HBO Making a Turn Toward Relevance?
HBO's Veep may have a veneer of frivolity, but it's part of HBO's larger move towards politically relevant material in 2012.
Read more »
SOPA: Just Say NOPA
Whatever you’ve been doing on the internet in the last few weeks, chances are you ran across something about SOPA. And for good reason—SOPA might just be the most dangerous internet legislation the US government has ever considered.
Read more »
Nativist Stylebook Dictates News Writing
New immigration laws in Alabama are forcing schools to report the immigrant status of children and making unenforceable most contracts between citizens and undocumented immigrants and impacting Latina/o populations in the process. In this context, we must move away from the "i" word--illegal--when discussing undocumented workers and citizens.
Read more »
