“The move signals a turning point in how television is used to market to American children, nearly a quarter of whom ages 6 to 11 are obese, according to a Centers for Disease Control survey.”
Category: media
First Deal On Radio Performer Royalties Doesn’t Mute Critics
“The first deal allowing a record label and its performers to be paid for AM and FM radio airplay in the US has been welcomed by the record industry. But the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said the deal between radio giant Clear Channel and the Big Machine label was not enough.”
Video Games That Adapt Themselves To You, Based On Your Facebook Page And Twitter Feed
Designers are working with artificial intelligence technology to create games that personalize themselves based on players’ social media data – for example, “games [based] on news articles using personal opinions gathered from Twitter users.”
Hit Hollywood Franchise, Or Semiotic Text? Academics’ Fixation On Alien
Academics have always loved science fiction, of course. … But the cottage industry of analysis that has sprung up around Alien is something else again. … We’ve had Alien as feminist allegory … Alien as mothering fable … Alien as abortion parable” – not to mention Marxist critique and Freudian field day. Tom Shone surveys the literature.
Small Actors Protest Their Exclusion From “Snow White” Film
Makers of the hit film Snow White and the Huntsman are facing a backlash from dwarf actors after choosing a group of fully-sized British stars to play the heroine’s friends.
Vancouver’s Film Industry Fears Losing Its Competitive Advantage
With the strong Canadian dollar and more attractive tax credits for foreign production in Ontario and Quebec, the film professionals in what used to be called “Hollywood North” are getting worried.
Slate Makes Podcasts Pay Off, Even As Newspapers Give Up On Them
“Podcast downloads now top 1 million a month, Bowers said, almost double the numbers from 2010. Hundreds of people show up for live tapings of the podcasts and pay for tickets. And they’re apparently a big hit with advertisers, who pay higher rates to advertise in Slate podcasts than any other kind of content.”
US Stops Funding For Pakistani Version Of “Sesame Street”
“The U.S. has terminated funding for a $20 million project to develop a Pakistani version of Sesame Street, the U.S. Embassy said Tuesday. The decision came as a Pakistani newspaper reported allegations of corruption by the local puppet theatre working on the initiative.”
TV Dying? Not By A Long Shot
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: TV is not a device — it is an experience. Prime Time is not a time slot — it is an expectation of story-telling quality. ‘Television’ is an emotional exchange between artists and their audiences, regardless of where, when and how it takes place. No matter how these digital whippersnappers are doing it, by hook or by crook, they are still watching that stuff we call TV.”
Looking Back At Joss Whedon’s Old Roseanne Episodes
“At the tender of 24, he was a story editor and staff writer for Roseanne, securing the writing credit on five episodes in the second season … [Since] Whedon’s wry, hyper-articulate voice is so distinct it’s practically trademarked, I was curious: Would his contributions be evident even in these early scripts?” (Yup.)