Archive for January, 2010

The Tester

January 31, 2010
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The Tester

Sony's new reality TV program on the PlayStation Network continues to raise questions about audience/player (mis)perceptions of labor and production in the games industry.
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Posted in Current Events, Games, Industry, TV | 3 Comments »

What Are You Missing? January 24-30

January 31, 2010
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What Are You Missing? January 24-30

Ten things worth checking out online from this past week; feel free to add more in the comments section.
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Posted in Perspectives, What Are You Missing? | Comments Off on What Are You Missing? January 24-30

Egregious Product Placement: The Biggest Loser

January 30, 2010
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Egregious Product Placement: <em>The Biggest Loser</em>

Subway. 24 Hour Fitness. Extra sugar free gum. Ziploc. Muir Glen organic canned tomatoes. NBC's The Biggest Loser is the home of some of the biggest product placement deals on television.
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Posted in Industry, Perspectives, TV | 10 Comments »

Look at Your Hands: Computing, Embodiment, and the iPad

January 28, 2010
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Look at Your Hands: Computing, Embodiment, and the iPad

While much of yesterday’s Internet conversation centered on whether the iPad is a game changer for TV, gaming, publishing, and future of ebooks, I want to address the potentially unnerving aspects of how Apple constructed the user yesterday and point out that while Apple may be a global company, its users are definitely not.
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Posted in Current Events, Industry, Technology | 1 Comment »

What Do You Think? Most Useful Media Studies Twitter Streams

January 28, 2010
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What Do You Think? Most Useful Media Studies Twitter Streams

The list below features Twitter Accounts that I've personally found consistently useful and valuable. So what are yours?
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Posted in What Do You Think? | 5 Comments »

What Do You Think? Apple’s new iPad

January 27, 2010
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What Do You Think? Apple’s new iPad

Apple has a new product. Are the possibilities as endless as the apps in the app store or is it much ado about nothing?
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Posted in Columns, Current Events, Technology, What Do You Think? | 8 Comments »

Lessons From Jay, Coco, and Zucker

January 27, 2010
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Lessons From Jay, Coco, and Zucker

In debriefing what went wrong with the Jay Leno Show, we shouldn’t just ask what Leno’s failure says – we should also ask what the combination of the failure and the momentary ratings spike says.
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Posted in Industry, Perspectives, TV | 2 Comments »

5 Thoughts On: MacGruber

January 25, 2010
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5 Thoughts On: <em>MacGruber</em>

Five thoughts on the film adaptation of the Saturday Night Live sketch MacGruber.
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Posted in Current Events, Film, TV | 14 Comments »

The Plight of the Rockstar Wife

January 24, 2010
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The Plight of the Rockstar Wife

In the past few weeks, a fresh controversy about the working conditions in the industry of game development has arisen, this time centered on Rockstar San Diego.
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Posted in Current Events, Games, Industry, Technology | 7 Comments »

Housewives in Crisis, Economic that Is

January 23, 2010
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Housewives in Crisis, Economic that Is

Though we can always expect a good relationship crisis from the gals, the “Housewife” series on Bravo in 2009 promised all sorts of insights into market crisis.
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Posted in Perspectives, TV | 4 Comments »

What Do You Think? Most Important Films of the Decade

January 22, 2010
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What Do You Think? Most Important Films of the Decade

Continuing with our series, what films would you nominate as the most important of the decade?
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Posted in Columns, Film, Perspectives, What Do You Think? | 16 Comments »

The Role of the Media in Times of Crisis

January 21, 2010
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The Role of the Media in Times of Crisis

The US television coverage of Haiti has me thinking about the role of media in a humanitarian crisis.
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Posted in Current Events, TV | 9 Comments »

The “Down with Democrats” Mood and Our Presentist Media

January 20, 2010
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The “Down with Democrats” Mood and Our Presentist Media

Although the public is notoriously ahistorical about contemporary politics, the news media do little to remind them of how we got here. Political reporting looks more and more like entertainment/celebrity reporting, and Obama will need to return to campaign mode to capitalize on that.
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Posted in Perspectives | 5 Comments »

Important Games of the 00s

January 18, 2010
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Important Games of the 00s

What makes a game important? Is it commercial sales, the ways a game showcases how skilled a designer or studio is at their craft, the visceral response a game gives you, the player communities spawned by a game, the ways designers construct character/story/space, or the ways that games open up new genres, new...
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Posted in Columns, Games, Perspectives, What Do You Think? | 9 Comments »