The German-born sociologist/philosopher first examined the mechanisms that producers use to get us to binge-watch streaming series — which are really no different than the ones used for decades to catch and keep TV viewers — in his 1954 scholarly article “How to Look at Television.” Writer Jake Pitre surveys Adorno’s ideas about the medium and those of later scholars who have applied his ideas to digital viewing. – JSTOR Daily
Category: media
This Director Made A Film About Young Lesbians In Kenya, And Her International Career Is Soaring. At Home, She Gets Death Threats.
Wanuri Kahiu’s Rafiki won raves at Cannes and beyond, and she’s now become the first African woman to get a major Hollywood studio deal. In Kenya, “Kahiu has been trolled on social media, threatened with arrest and suffered endless offensive comments, sometimes from members of her own family. ‘I have seen the vilest of comments come out of people I love,’ she says.” – The Guardian
How An Unlikely Art House Film Beat Superhero Blockbusters To Win China’s Box Office
How did such a strange project make an astounding $38 million on its release day of December 31, 2018? In the same way so many of its big-budget rivals did throughout the year—with good marketing. – The Atlantic
Keeping Endangered Mexican Languages Alive On A California Radio Station
“Radio Indígena (indígena means indigenous in Spanish) is one of the first indigenous Mexican radio stations in the United States. The community-run station [in Oxnard] boasts 40 hours of original programming every week, broadcasting music and talk shows in a handful of indigenous languages, as well as Spanish programming too. The station is a welcome cultural lifeline for thousands of farm workers who speak Mixteco or other indigenous Central American languages.” – NBC News
Amazon Prime India’s New Series Goes Where No Bollywood Saga Gone Before
“Centered on Karan (Arjun Mathur) and Tara (Sobhita Dhulipala), two friends who run a wedding-planning business, [Made in Heaven] takes on a wide array of issues that a burgeoning generation of South Asians is facing, including class, homophobia and sexual harassment. At the helm are three acclaimed Bollywood directors and screenwriters, who also happen to be women.” – The New York Times
Rushing Restrictive Laws About Internet Content After Terrorist Tragedy Is A Bad Idea
There are vile things on the internet. And after what happened with shootings in New Zealand, there are calls to clamp down on digital content. That may be a bad idea, argues David Sullivan. – Slate
The Aretha Franklin Doc ‘Amazing Grace’ Is To Documentaries What Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote Movie Is To Features
Which is to say that, like Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, it was eagerly anticipated, took decades to get done, got stopped immediately before a premiere screening by a lawsuit, and generally ill-starred if not cursed. Reporter Natalie Rinn tells the tale. – The New York Times
Designing An Arena Specially For Video-Game Tournaments
The Fusion Arena, a $50 million, 65,000-square-foot venue dedicated to esports, is set to open in 2021 in Philadelphia’s sports district. Primarily, “[it] will host home games for the Philadelphia Fusion, the professional nine-person team in the 20-team Overwatch League, … but the arena will also host occasional outside events.” – CityLab
UK Gov’t Considers Punishing Social Media Companies For Failing To Take Down ‘Harmful Content’
“The ‘harms’ that companies could be penalised for include failure to act to take down child abuse, terrorist acts and revenge pornography, as well as behaviours such as cyberbullying, spreading disinformation and encouraging self-harm. Senior social media executives could be held personally liable for failure to remove such content from their platforms.” The move comes just a few days after Australia’s Parliament passed a similar law. – The Guardian
Biopic Of India’s Prime Minister To Be Released On Election Day After Commission Declines To Intervene
“Opposition parties, including the Indian National Congress, had petitioned the Election Commission to delay the film’s release until after the polls close on May 19, on the grounds that it was propaganda for the incumbent prime minister and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Producers announced that the film” — titled simply PM Narendra Modi — “will release simultaneously in 38 countries.” – Variety