The Vampire Diaries has a set of surprisingly complex and even more astoundingly likeable characters who consistently are depicted as real friends. They fight and disagree; they forgive and make up.
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Smart Girls; Or, Why Do People on TV So Rarely Act Like We Would?
Something’s Rotten in the State of Heterosexual Love?
The Second City's "Sassy Gay Friend" Shakespeare videos have received over 2 million hits to date. Why are they so popular?
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What Are You Missing? Mar 28-Apr 10
Ten (or more) media industry stories you might have missed recently
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My Deaf Family, My New Web Series?
Oscar-winning deaf actress Marlee Matlin is producing a new reality show, My Deaf Family. It follows the Firl family - father Leslie and mother Bridgetta are both deaf, and they have four children, two of whom are hearing and two of whom are deaf
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We’re Running Out of Time!
With only eight hours left, 24 dies as it lived--made up as it goes along.
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Spelunking for Gayness in Glass Closets
Ricky Martin’s decision to come out last week elicited collective yawns from many who had long suspected that the recording artist was gay, sparked rumors that Martin’s coming out was a publicity stunt designed to promote his book and jumpstart his musical career, and provoked some LGBT observers to say it was about time.
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Letting Go of Criticism: Only in America?
Has Hollywood's dominance of the international film market led other countries to inoculate themselves against the decline of film criticism? If so, perhaps only America will "let go."
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Lost Wednesdays: Our Scottish Savior
Will Desmond deliver the payoffs we've been hoping for? Or are we still searching for The One?
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Letting Go of Criticism
Is popular film criticism dead or, worse, can anybody make money out of film criticism anymore?
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The Best Remote Control $700 Can Buy: First Impressions of the Apple iPad
I beta tested the first generation of the Apple iPad, so that you don't have to.
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Discursive Disintegration
Politically engaged, “discursively integrated” comedy has become quite the buzz topic both within the television industry as well as the academy, with all sorts of attention being paid to programs like South Park, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show etc. Nowhere is this expectation for up-to-the-minute political satire made more apparent than in...
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SCMS + SXSW = ?
Media studies stands to gain from the consideration and analysis of new media and vice versa. Bringing two major conferences together, SCMS and SXSW Interactive, and seeing what that gets us seems like as good a place to start as any.
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It’s Not Your Regular TV, It’s Bindass TV
UTV Bindass' "What I Am" campaign works to counter stereotypes of young people as immature and irresponsible, and to promote an image of youth culture as hip, cool and responsible.
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Putting the American Back in Idol
American Idol contestant Siobhan Magnus is a veritable original who typifies the American spirit--and watching her succeed is really what the show is all about.
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Lost Wednesdays: A Bug and a Package
Does the package contain a giant red V? And which will annoy fans more - the plot or the promotion?
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The Dark Side of YouTube Politics
While YouTube offers the opportunity for unprecedented political participation through user-crafted videos, it can also house the performance of political lies mascarading as truth. Can citizens resist the attractions of such visual truthiness?
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