Perspectives

Pepsi appears to be redefining the relationship between consumerism and (corporate) citizenship together with the emerging Pepsi generation
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As avid mediavores and media scholars, how should we consider our consumption of media products in light of the labor and environmental conditions of production?
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To the series’ credit, it often “goes there”—into those contentious waters of clearly gendered dilemmas about women’s work, motherhood, and guilt that were a mainstay of a lot of 1980s and 1990s drama.
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The town names of callers allow listeners to construct an imagined regional map, an extended network of communication of which they are one point in their material environment that they comprehend through the car window
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What does it mean to have a beloved character's tastes change in favor of product placement opportunities? Fan backlash to product placement might disrupt the narrative, but it's probably not a bad thing for the advertiser.
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Is the virtual watercooler making timeshifting impossible? Can you have your DVR and Twitter too?
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It appears that in season six the world inside The Hills has effectively merged with the world outside The Hills. For this jaded fan, The Hills is once again must-see TV.
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It is not that I harbor ill will toward the television industry—far from it. Rather, I’d hoped that some of the desperation of recent years might be enough to create the momentum needed for some real change. This remains a seriously strange way to allocate billions of dollars.
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24 crosses the finish line with a return to form - and further resources to question and negotiate its assumed reactionary politics.
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The upfronts may seem like a vestige of a dying regime. However, given that this is also an era of brands - i.e., hot shows, and in theory, hot networks - the upfronts also serve to launch anticipation on multiple fronts. Derek Kompare takes a look at the NBC upfronts in this media context.
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I came away from Console-ing Passions with ongoing questions regarding why feminism seems lost at times in contemporary media scholarship and the place of feminism in my own work and life.
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Joss Whedon and Neil Patrick Harris come to Glee; the results may not be what you think. Last week the glee club found its voice; this week Glee shows us its own.
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Dramatic television has rarely shown much affinity for musicians, and neither has it shown much artistry for dealing with musical performances within the narrative. This time, David Simon and HBO finally get it right.
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I like active viewers/readers, and while I don’t think that authors are dead, I don’t think they should run after their texts telling us what they mean. A good text should show me its myriad meanings, and great texts tend to contain multitudes.
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Bill Simmons' organization of a series of live fan chants during the Celtics game underscores his unique power as an internet star to turn commentary into real life action.
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