We may be several decades removed from the emotional upheavals of the culture debates, but popular studies remains a readily mocked area in mainstream media, especially as universities are often asked to produce efficient and effectual employees rather than well rounded individuals.
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Tags: fandom, fans
Posted in Celebrity/Stardom, Internet, Perspectives, TV | 15 Comments »
Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy is a detailed storyworld in which crimes of sex trafficking, rape, and domestic abuse are acknowledged and exposed, and men who perpetrate violence against women are made to suffer. So, what does this mean for "feminism"?
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Tags: feminism, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Lisbeth Salander, Stieg Larsson
Posted in Film, Perspectives, Print | Comments Off on Men Who Write About Men Who Hate Women
The narrowly decided 1978 Pacifica decision was, from one perspective, a battle over pig metaphors. Sadly, there are no new pig metaphors in Fox Television Stations, Inc. v. FCC, though the Pacifica case looms large in the decision.
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Tags: FCC, FOX, indecency, Pacifica, policy
Posted in Industry, Perspectives, TV | 1 Comment »
Bryan Lee O’Malley’s indie comedy/action/romance series Scott Pilgrim has cultivated a rabid fanbase quick to shove the first book into the hands of any non-comics reader expressing even the vaguest interest in the medium. As they should. Because it’s glorious.
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Tags: comic books, Scott Pilgrim, Summer Media
Posted in Columns, Perspectives, Print, Summer Media | 2 Comments »
After the exciting new sets, haircuts, fashions, and even a new, chastened, Don of the season opening, episode two shows us that it’s not so easy to escape the familiar grooves of custom and habit.
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Tags: Mad Men, race/ethnicity, TV
Posted in Columns, Mad Men, Perspectives, TV | 2 Comments »
Maybe it was time to leave the safe haven of sci-fi niche nerdom and dip my toe into a mass program. BBT had just won a People’s Choice award. Could all the people be wrong all the time?
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Tags: Big Bang Theory, fanboy, gender politics, Klingon Boggle, Leonard Nimoy, nerd, science fiction, sitcom, Summer Glau, Will Wheaton
Posted in Perspectives, TV | 20 Comments »
Mad Men gears up for its fourth season with a big public relations push. What makes the show so special and can it continue to live up to its buzz?
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Tags: Drama, Mad Men, marketing strategies
Posted in Columns, Mad Men, Perspectives, TV | 1 Comment »
The fifth season of Doctor Who saw the introduction of a new showrunner. In this post, Matt Hills considers his impact on series.
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Tags: "The Big Bang", Doctor Who, Narrative Complexity, Steven Moffat, television
Posted in Columns, Doctor Who & Authorship, Perspectives, TV | 7 Comments »
The music industry may be on hard times, but music festivals are booming. What gives?
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Tags: Indie Music, Live Music, Music Festivals, Recording Industry
Posted in Perspectives | 1 Comment »
The Real World: Back to New Orleans, like Treme, brings to life how "authentic" New Orleans has taken on new and often multiple meanings for tourists, volunteers, and television watchers
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Tags: David Simon, Jonathan Murray, Kermit Ruffins, Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, Real World: Back to New Orleans, The Real World, Treme, verisimilitude
Posted in Current Events, Perspectives, TV | 7 Comments »
As everyone else was drooling over the final episodes of LOST, I fully admit that I was focusing on my weekly fix of Lifetime’s Army Wives. Despite its lack of cultural cachet, to me the show continues to illustrate an interesting tension between niche marketing, media convergence, and politically charged topicality.
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Tags: Army Wives, class, Country Music, cross-promotion, Lifetime, Media Convergence, military drama, series promotion, War
Posted in Industry, Internet, Perspectives, TV | 1 Comment »
Evan Davis reports from New York City on recent developments in French Cinema.
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Tags: film, French Cinema, Nouvelle Vague, Summer Media
Posted in Perspectives, Summer Media | 3 Comments »
What is more remarkable than the accuracy of the predictions made by Paul the Octopus was the absence of compelling onfield stories and game play that allowed for Paul to become the major story of the World Cup.
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Tags: FIFA, hyperreal, Jean Baudrillard, Paul the octopus, soccer, sports coverage, World Cup
Posted in Perspectives | 3 Comments »
True Blood begins its third season on HBO this summer, but perhaps more fun than catching up on the show's previous seasons is reading the series of novels and short stories on which the show is based.
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Tags: adaptation, Charlaine Harris, franchise, HBO, narrative, Narrative Complexity, seriality, Sookie Stackhouse, Southern Vampire Mysteries, television, True Blood
Posted in Perspectives, Summer Media | 9 Comments »
The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research hosted a major conference this past week that featured a symposium on broadcasting in the 1930s, several thought-provoking keynote addresses, and presentations on all manner of issues pertaining to archives and the historical past.
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Tags: archives, film, radio, reality television
Posted in Film, Perspectives, Radio, TV | 2 Comments »