For the most part, fan fiction is like porn—we know it when we see it. And yet when asked to delineate its boundaries, the genre is surprisingly hard to categorize.
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Perspectives
Derivative By Any Other Name; or, A Cultural Approach to Fan Fiction Genre Theory
The Profound Danger of Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck may say he is simply an entertainer with little interest in politics, but that is a lie. He has proven himself a political demagogue who employs a variety of well-worn rhetorical techniques, all of which, as history has shown, are dangerous.
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Egregious Product Placement: Toyota & Bones
The inclusion of Angela's Toyota Sienna in the script of a recent Bones episode demonstrates an unusual alignment of product placement and ad campaign.
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Smart Girls; Or, Why Do People on TV So Rarely Act Like We Would?
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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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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Letting Go of Criticism
Is popular film criticism dead or, worse, can anybody make money out of film criticism anymore?
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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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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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Sports Guy Bill Simmons: Journalism’s Future?
Is ESPN.com's Bill Simmons, also known as Sports Guy, the future of journalism?
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MMO Trek, MMO Problems
Star Trek Online fails both in making the television universe an inhabitable virtual space and engendering community and participation within it as a massively-multiplayer game.
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