Category: media

“Long before our modern age — of television, computers, computer games, and the Internet — it was possible to ignore or to forget our humanness. The powerful seductions of Technology make it even easier to forget. Does the Net that snares so many of our waking hours make us more human, or less?”

“Over the last 10 years, the average share of Americans listening to radio at any given time has shrunk about 14 percent, or 2.3 percentage points. Teenagers account for a well-recognized chunk of that decline.”

“For anybody with cable — and that includes most of us — television is in something of a golden age. Cable networks other than the fancy subscription services like HBO and Showtime used to be the realm of stupid human tricks and commercials for six-minute abs, but networks have shot by them in the race to the bottom.”

“Since it ended, Buffy The Vampire Slayer has spawned enough academic books on the philosophy surrounding the roles of friendship and feminism to fill a 15-foot-wide bookshelf at the college in Arkadelphia.” Now a conference…

The Screen Actors Guild criticizes the deal made by rival AFTRA with Hollywood studios. “In an e-mail to members Sunday, SAG president Alan Rosenberg outlined what he called contract gains that AFTRA did not get, and said that he and the union’s negotiators are trying to win for SAG members.”

“Why do so many critics and commentators have Sex on the brain? Are they unable to accept a movie about four successful women?”

The fire at Universal Studios las week “I hope, will prompt Universal and its fellow majors to better preserve not just key titles but also the other 90 percent of their inventories, the less famous and therefore more vulnerable titles that the studio may not feel justify spending thousands to save. These are exquisite samples of 20th-century American culture and deserve to always be seen in their extravagant, sensual, big-screen glory.”

“Canadian broadcasters that meet certain targets – which have yet to be determined, but would likely be based on TV ratings – would see their eligible funding increase each year. Those that fell short of the Hit Factor would see their dollar amount decrease.”

“Despite its enduring legacy as one of Hollywood’s most legendary movie studios — and a seemingly stubborn refusal to disappear — MGM hasn’t fit the profile of a full-fledged production company in years.”

The WGA strike will cost the California economy a projected 37,700 jobs and $2.1 billion in lost output through the end of 2008, according to a report from the Milken Institute.