A few concerns about open access, and especially about the predatory journals that swim in them.
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Archive for January, 2013
Phishing in Open Access Waters
Two Futures for Football
The new findings on player concussions have caused an onslaught of negative media attention for the NFL, and may soon bring the sport of professional football to a crucial crossroads.
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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?
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The Soaps Rise Again?
Despite hard times and dire predictions for U.S. daytime soap operas in recent years, the present moment has in fact turned out to be one of the more exciting and promising in the genre's history.
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Mutants from the Cultural Gene Pool: Reality Parodies on Kroll Show
Comedy Central's new sketch comedy program Kroll Show offers an infinite regression of media industry meta-discourses, recreating a dominant reading position that masquerades as oppositional.
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“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.
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Production Mythology, Release Reality: Syfy’s Defiance
While a complex production mythology makes Syfy's ambitious transmedia series/game Defiance unique, the first of two parts explores how this mythology also breeds uncertainty as the franchise's April debut nears.
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What Are You Missing? January 6-19
Ten (or more) media industry news items you might have missed recently.
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On Radio: FM Campus Radio and Community Representation
By broadcasting exclusively online and abandoning space-based FM or AM broadcasting, college radio stations run the risk of losing the local focus that has been integral to the programming and operations of the campus and community radio sector.
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Booth Babe Backlash
A year of misogyny in geek culture resurrected the booth babe debate that has contributed to a backlash against female fandom.
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Golden Globes 2013: Going Home With Jodie Foster
Amy Poehler and Tina Fey's co-hosting of the 2013 Golden Globes was one in a number of prominent moments for women at this year's awards ceremony. Some might be tempted to claim that the event helped raise the banner for women. Not so fast.
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The Domestic Apolitics of 1600 Penn
NBC's new First Family sitcom, 1600 Penn, is surprisingly devoid of conventional political engagement, instead relying on traditional domestic comedy in the form of interpersonal conflict.
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Ads as Content: Ford’s “Escape My Life” Series
As audiences migrate away from live TV viewing and advertisers become increasingly concerned about how to get their messages out, series like "Escape My Life," which invite viewers to engage more directly and deeply with a brand (while being entertained!), might just be the wave of the future.
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The Real Housewives of (“the New”) Miami—Revisited
A few months ago I examined the re-launched Real Housewives of Miami(RHOM) series, part of Bravo’s immensely popular Real Housewives franchise, in another Antenna post. Now that the season has officially ended with the airing of the second part of the cast’s explosive reunion special, I would like to return to this text once...
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The Other Dramatic Transformation of NBC’s “Up All Night”
It has been a really hard fall for a feminist TV lover. Problems abound with both the character of Julia Braverman-Graham of Parenthood, and Mindy Kaling's character on her new show, The Mindy Project. But nothing–nothing–has exceeded my disappointment more than the transformation of Up All Night.
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