According to a new paper from Morten Bay at the University of Southern California’s Center for the Digital Future, a large majority of the social media comments about the film were “deliberate, organized political influence measures disguised as fan arguments.” By analyzing tweets about the movie, Bay found a coordinated effort, similar to the one used in the lead-up to the 2016 election, to weaponize the debate about the movie to further the notion of chaos in American society. “Persuading voters of this narrative remains a strategic goal for the US alt-right movement, as well as the Russian Federation,” Bay writes.
Category: media
After Years Of Decline, Video Piracy Is On The Rise Again. Here’s Why
Sandvine’s new Global Internet Phenomena report offers some interesting insight into user video habits and the internet, such as the fact that more than 50 percent of internet traffic is now encrypted, video now accounts for 58 percent of all global traffic, and Netflix alone now comprises 15 percent of all internet downstream data consumed. But there’s another interesting tidbit buried in the firm’s report: after years of steady decline, BitTorrent usage is once again growing.
The Rise And Not-Quite-Fall Of London’s Pirate Radio Stations
Yes, they can interfere with police radio, ambulances, and air traffic control, but they “gave immigrant communities programming in their native languages, ran charity drives and created the first radio specifically for black Britons. Pirate radio was also the site of some of Britain’s most important musical innovations.” But the wildcat stations are starting to disappear. Why? Because they’re becoming legitimized.
PBS Tops Emmy Documentary Winners List
The public broadcaster won seven trophies, with HBO and CBS following with six each.
Pat Robertson’s Son Starts A Christian News Network
The Christian Broadcasting Network’s news channel will provide a religious perspective that other channels lack, CEO Gordon Robertson told the Associated Press in an interview in advance of the network’s formal launch Monday.
Netflix To Experiment With Letting Viewers Choose Their Own Endings
Netflix is planning to roll out interactive features on shows including Black Mirror that will enable viewers to choose their own endings
Hollywood’s Box Office Income From China Down 24% In A Year
“[It’s] the largest drop since the country’s box-office boom era began. Trump’s trade war with China has yet to directly impact the entertainment business, but Hollywood’s position in the massive Middle Kingdom marketplace is becoming somewhat precarious.”
What The Opening Of The Fall Season Tells Us About The State Of TV
It’s not that America doesn’t still watch a lot of traditional broadcast TV: Even the least-watched network shows last week will end up with bigger audiences than almost everything on cable. The problem is, returning shows continued to bleed viewers — particularly compared to audience levels of just a couple years ago.
How Joe Frank Pioneered Narrative Radio
Frank showed producers like Ira Glass the possibility of radio as a narrative artform, but Glass adapted that lesson for the rest of the country. Nearly five million people listen to This American Life each week; at its peak, Frank’s shows reached a fraction of that number. But This American Life traffics in the audio equivalent of glossy longform magazine journalism, not Frank’s uncategorizable radio autofiction.
The Showrunner Who Makes Hits By Ignoring All Of Television’s Trends
Jennie Snyder Urman is not interested in the kind of prestige TV beats that made massive cultural hits out of everything from Breaking Bad to Game of Thrones. Nope. Her show “Jane the Virgin is anti-prestige in every way, a show about admirable women full of brilliant color, bone-rattling twists, and goofy, sly in-jokes that regularly dives into unabashed emotional sincerity.”