Category: media

It’s pledge time again, and Steve Wiecking is disgusted by the programming fare KCTS uses to try to lure pledges. “KCTS supposedly has the world of culture at her fingertips—something she brags about all during her pleas for me to give her money—and what is she airing in order to con me into believing her high-toned hooey? Infomercials. She’s helping hucksters sell their wares and then asking me to pay for it.”

Animation has come a long way in the last couple of decades. From the eye-popping (at the time) Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, through the pioneering computer work in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, to today’s cutting edge ‘toons like Pixar’s Monsters, Inc., technology is changing the way animated films are made, marketed, and viewed. A new Oscar category devoted to the genre sprang up last year, and increasingly, audiences seem to be more accepting of the idea that cartoons aren’t just for kids anymore.

When American public TV hods pledge drives, it abandons regular programming and spews out entertainment or special-interest shows calculated to grab more viewers to watch and make a contribution. But “all this pledge-time stunt-programming is enough to make a longtime public-TV booster wonder if somebody has lost sight of its mission. It seems disingenuous, if not dishonest, like a bait and switch. Meanwhile, people who appreciate public-TV’s staple programming have the option of griping through stress tips or another Andrew Lloyd Webber tribute for a week or more or slip-sliding over to the History Channel and C-SPAN, from which they may never return. Apart from being aggravating, this strategy seems self-defeating in the long run.”

The National Organization for Women studies the American primte time TV schedule to see how women are portrayed. “How accurately did the 2002 television season reflect real life? What conclusions might one make about gender, race, sex, violence and social issues in the United States after watching the six major networks?” The NOW Foundation attempted to answer these questions.”

The movie version of “Chicago” wins three of five 2002 Screen Actors Guild awards.

A new study reports that “boys and girls who watch a lot of violence on television have a heightened risk of aggressive adult behavior including spouse abuse and criminal offenses, no matter how they act in childhood.”

“This week they’re celebrating the 10th anniversary of the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival, a nine-day event that started off as a mere offshoot of the longer-running SXSW Music Festival, but that has quietly proven itself as a must-do stop on the film circuit. SXSW Film now has more genuine buzz behind it than Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival, which a decade ago was a lot like SXSW is today (a cautionary note, perhaps).”

All the movies nominated for this year’s Best Picture Oscar were released in December. “If this becomes the only way to get an Oscar nomination, it could mean Hollywood solely releases its ‘quality’ movies in December from now on. But if that occurs, what will happen the other 11 months? “Jackass” knockoffs?”

Should media companies be allowed to own newspapers, radio and TV stations in the same market? In America, the Federal Communications Commission is considering the idea. In radio, relaxing limits on how many stations one company can own has resulted in mass consolidation of the industry. Critics are concerned: “I don’t think it exaggerates a bit to say that fundamental components of democracy are at stake when the airwaves belong to the public. This is about how we discuss issues and how we disseminate them.”

Bollywood is not just an Indian, but a global, phenomenon. ‘Our films have reached half the world. The Middle East, all of Africa, all of Russia, the Far East, and the Indian diaspora everywhere — the half of the world that Hollywood has not yet recognized.’ The typical Indian commercial movie today is probably handsomer than it has been at any time since the 1950s, the so-called Golden Age of Bollywood — or, more precisely, the Expressionist Chiaroscuro heyday of noir-inflected auteur directors like Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt.” Now Bollywood is making its move on America.