Category: media

Network news is heading for a crisis, with fewer and fewer young people using it as their primary information source. Why rush home for the six o’clock news when there are online papers, blogs, and cable available ’round the clock? A recent Pew Research Center survey revealed that only 23 percent of young people 18-29 get their campaign news from network anchors.” Into this landscape, MTV News is gaining more and more influence.

The US government crackdown on content of TV and radio is having an effect. “Broadcasters may stage a retreat from risky shows over the next few seasons as a regulatory campaign to clean up the airwaves gains momentum from election-year politics, media analysts said on Monday.”

“If you want to make your own flop film, it is not simply a case of throwing money at a poor script and hoping no-one will come. Flops can generally be said to misjudge the public mood. A number of big movies have become big flops for very different reasons, however.”

The modern American soldier carries his/r pop culture along to war, toting, MP3 players, satellite dishes, and DVD players. “When a day’s combat patrol or reconstruction mission is over, the troops join the global consumer culture, retreating into the the privacy of headphones to recapture a bit of territory in the war zone, free from the collective of military life. The new technologies have had a potent impact on the military, ending its monopoly over the supply of news and entertainment for American troops serving in a foreign land whose borders include a language barrier.”

The annual Victoria’s Secret televised fashion show has been canceled this year. Why? “The furor over indecency on the air, which has already led to a massive crackdown – including big fines against shock jock Howard Stern – is being blamed in part for the end of the sexy TV fashion show.”

The differences between movies and video games? Well, the differences are getting less and less. “Advances in technology since the ’80s enable game developers to model extremely lifelike figures — an imperative if you are using recognizable, A-list actors. Some of the newest technology even allows figures to show signs of emotion. As movies and games move ever closer, even the improved sound capabilities of game consoles are a factor, allowing the nuances of dialogue to come across more clearly. All of this has pushed the use of movie and celebrity tie-ins to new heights.”

Last year Oliver Stone went to Cuba and produced a movie portrait of Fidel Castro. When he presented the finished product to HBO, the network refused to air it because they said it was too fawning and flattering. So Stone went back to Cuba and reshot. This time his movie has been accepted…

No show gets a chance to find itself these days. Debut as a hit or you’re gone off the schedule. “Forget about “finding an audience” — there just isn’t time. If you’re not doing Friends numbers right out of the box, you’re not going to last long enough to accumulate the episodes for a decent DVD retrospective release. Used to be, 100 episodes was the magic number to shoot for, to accommodate five-night-a-week strip syndication. Now, you’re lucky to get through “the front nine” of a typically 23-episode network season.”

There’s a new wave of zombie movies. Zombie movies date back to the 1930s, and though they sometimes go away for a decade, they always seem to return. And what makes zombies such attractive horror fare? “They can be anything you want them to be. They can carry any metaphor you like. They can stand for man’s environmental meddling, or of our alienation from each other. They are there to be controlled.”

Legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman admits he can’t watch his own movies because they’re too depressing. “I don’t watch my own films very often. I become so jittery and ready to cry… and miserable. I think it’s awful,”