Was Katy Perry's Super Bowl ride on a star resembling one made famous by a series of 1990s PSAs an example of cross-promotion? We don't know and NBC doesn't care--but the incident tells us something important about the logics of contemporary media industries.
Read more »
While failing to sell SUVs, the commercial offers visions of wartime American citizenship with which spectators are to identify: the forlorn dog, the crying wife, and the praying child.
Read more »
Ten media news items you might have missed recently.
Read more »
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.
Read more »
I love the SuperBowl, but not for the reasons you’d expect. I usually don’t know who’s in it, don’t care who wins it, and don’t watch it. I do, however, love to use it in class when I teach TV Criticism because I’ve found the Super Bowl’s ads are useful texts with which to...
Read more »
When NBC aired its "Brotherhood of Man" promotion before the Super Bowl on Sunday, it provided a useful take on the network's biggest strength...and its potential weakness.
Read more »
What does Madonna’s half-time performance mean?
Read more »
Ten (or more) media industry stories you might have missed recently
Read more »
In an era of fragmentation it's the only media program left that has any kind of mass ritual component. Which, of course, is not only why so many debate its contents but why and how we , as scholars, should approach the program.
Read more »
The CBS sports commentator who concluded, “Tonight the City of New Orleans embraced football,” doesn’t know the first thing about television reception. On Superbowl Sunday 2010, viewers saw how a football team has embraced a city and its culture for decades.
Read more »
