Category: media

Arts journalists have been buzzing about NPR’s decision to sever its relationship with arts reporter David D’Arcy. Why is D’Arcy out? “An NPR spokesman who asked not to identified said the reporter was fired not for the substance of his report but for failing to observe two of the network’s reportorial guidelines: He allegedly interviewed Lauder on one topic — the general issue of art seized by the Nazis — then used it in a piece about another specific issue, the Schiele case. Moreover, according to the spokesman, D’Arcy made no direct effort to secure MOMA’s response to “specific attacks on its integrity that he intended to broadcast in the piece. NPR requires that the most strenuous efforts be made to do just that and he didn’t do it.”

The time between theatreical release to DVD is getting shorter for movies. “These days the turnaround time from cineplex to DVD is 4 1/2 months, on average, with movies becoming available for rental and sale on the same day. A few recent films made the trip in fewer than 90 days. (Five years ago, the typical Hollywood flick didn’t show up on home video for at least six months.) It’s no secret that movie studios, which generally earn more money from home video than box office returns, are eager to capitalize on DVD dollars as soon as they can.”

The Genie Awards, Canada’s film-industry equivalent of the Oscars, are held this week. “But is, as some would suggest, the “brightest and best in Canadian filmmaking” an oxymoron? Should we just engrave beer steins and hand them out at a Frick & Friar pub? Or should we just not bother? After a quarter of a century in business, the Genies still have a branding problem.”

The way American TV networks schedule their programs makes many viewers nuts. “Scheduling is one of those gigantic industry blind spots. Those who engage in it like to believe they understand the wishes, motives and tendencies of viewers, but history has proven this to be a grand lie of the mind. The most accepted theories of scheduling have more to do with tried-and- allegedly-true industry beliefs or archaic reasoning than they do with the actual needs of real people.”

Audiences for America’s evening newscasts has been declining for some time. It’s not difficult to see why. Maybe it’s time to try something different. “Nightly network news no longer needs to emphasize the day’s breaking news. The Internet and audience that has fled there graze on mainstream media, blogs, and other information nuggets throughout the day.” For a better model? How about CBS Sunday Morning – a thinking person’s news program…

The BBC will cut 1,500 jobs, on top of cuts already announced. “Details of the latest cuts were leaked to the BBC’s Labour Affairs Correspondent Stephen Cape, by a senior well-placed source. The source said that every BBC department would be affected by the job losses, including news, sport, children’s programmes and new media.”

A new study says that college students watch an average of three hours, 41 minutes of television each day. Viewing peaks in the late-night hours for college males, interrupting any cramming for exams. But it’s less, by about an hour, than the amount of time an average American spends watching TV each day.”

Chicago Public Radio plans a major expansion of programming. It will “operate two full-time services, turning WBEZ into a 24-hour news and talk station and launching a second 24-hour format of music programming. The ambitious plan, which has been approved by the non-profit station’s governing body, would end the “split personality” that has plagued WBEZ throughout most of its 63-year existence. It now airs 16 hours a day of public affairs (encompassing news, talk, arts, culture and National Public Radio information programming) and eight hours a day of music (mostly jazz during evening and overnight hours).”

For the first time in two decades, “family-friendly” movies grossed more at the box office in 2004 than R-rated films. Whether this is an indication that Americans are moving away from more violent and sexually explicit content is up for debate, though, since 2004 happened to be an unusually strong year for animated films, not to mention that Harry Potter kid…

“Indian film makers called on Tuesday for a ban on actor Shakti Kapoor after he was filmed offering a woman help with her acting career in exchange for sex and later implying the practice was common.”