Liberal and left-wing tech critics like to suggest that we post, even against our own self-interest, thanks to nefarious software design that has been built in service of a multibillion-dollar advertising industry. The right wing has a tendency to blame the incentives encouraged by a hardwired social hierarchy, in which “blue checks” “virtue-signal” to improve their standing within social platforms, even to the point of self-sabotage. Neither answer seems particularly satisfying. – BookForum
Category: media
Times Are Grim. So Why Hasn’t Comedy Rallied On TV?
It’s just striking to me that at a time shrouded in so much darkness, the aggressive joke-per-minute efforts of a Veep-like show, for example, haven’t found their way to air, specifically because the environment is begging for it. – The Daily Beast
#CancelNetflix Becomes A Thing As Anger Mounts Over Film Sexualizing Young Girls
“Controversial French film Cuties — about a young Senegalese girl in Paris who joins a ‘free-spirited dance clique’ to escape family dysfunction — has spawned a new backlash against Netflix by critics who allege it goes over the line in portraying children in a sexualized manner.” – Variety
TikTok Says It’s Paying Out Hundreds Of Millions To Video Creators. Some Of Those Creators Are Ticked Off
It seemed like very good news when the company said it was setting aside $200 million to compensate the users who make its mini-videos. It seemed even better news when TikTok raised the amount to $1 billion in the U.S. and at least $1 billion more overseas. Now some of those creators say they’re getting a few dollars a day even when they get six-figure view numbers; others say their traffic mysteriously drops after they sign up. Many say the program is far from transparent. – Wired
Film Festivals Lose Something Essential When They Go Virtual
From the outside, many of these events look incredibly glamorous, even excessive — none more than Cannes, with its black-tie premieres in the Palais and its exclusive yacht parties off the shore. As such, it’s not hard to imagine civilians questioning why the world might need such gatherings during a time of austerity and caution. But the truth is, film festivals serve an essential function to the ecosystem of cinema that can’t be reproduced by virtual events. – Variety
Vigilantes In Burkas: New Pakistani Series Give Taboos A Good Clobbering
“The stars of Churails — which means ‘Witches’ in Urdu — are a gang of female avengers who wield fists and hockey sticks in anger. … Thrown together by chance, the quartet run a secret agency that aims to help wronged women exact revenge. They use a clothes shop in Karachi as a front for their activities. The heroines drink, swear and take drugs. There are lesbian characters and a trans one.” – The Economist
Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ Has Become A Video Game
In the transition to the new medium, though, the story has metamorphosed as well. It’s now a mashup with The Trial, starting off with Gregor Samsa awakening with (what he thinks is) a hangover in Josef K.’s apartment after celebrating the latter’s birthday. Most of the other characters in the game are also insects (one complains about his ex-mate and having to pay “larva support”) that Gregor meets as he (i.e., the player) makes his way to “the Tower.” – The Washington Post
Oscars’ New Diversity Rules Ignite A Debate
Predictably, the backlash has already begun. The Academy’s announcement was greeted on its own website by comments including: “You ruined the Oscars. It’s no longer about a cinema as a genre of art. Now it’s totally about politics,” and “forced diversity lowers quality of the product”. – The Guardian
How Disney’s New “Mulan” Is A Travesty Of China’s History
The rotten heart of Mulan as a film, rather than its production process, is the accidental regurgitation of China’s current nationalist myths as part of a messy, confused, and boring film. The title card fades into a location said to be the “Silk Road, Northwest China.” This is, of course, Xinjiang—here set up by the narrative frame as an inalienable part of China that Mulan must defend for her father, her family, and her emperor. That’s not the historical reality—or even the reality of the original poem the stories are based on, which depicts Mulan as the servant of a khan of the Northern Wei dynasty, not an all-powerful Chinese emperor. – Foreign Policy
Comic-Con Went Virtual This Year. Critics Said It Flopped. Fans Weren’t So Condemning
Comic-Con@Home inevitably drew comparisons to the in-real-life event, but some critics promptly branded it a failure — perhaps most prominently in Variety, the entertainment industry trade magazine. But calling Comic-Con@Home a flop for not having enough exclusive movie reveals or failing to produce enough social media buzz assumes too much. – The Conversation