Category: media

What Ails The BBC

“The BBC needs more than simply defending in its current state, as if any criticism will render it only more helpless in the face of a hostile government. If the BBC is to survive the mid-term review of the Royal Charter in 2022, let alone charter renewal in 2027, it will have to face up to its faults and make some radical changes without giving ground to some of the more specious claims of its opponents.” – London Review of Books

This Year’s Oscars Are Shaping Up To Be A Disaster

In the year 2020 when there are SO MANY movies and, with Netflix and Amazon entering the Oscar conversation, no excuse not to watch them, people should feel more invested in these awards than ever. It should be a watershed moment for the annual awards season. That there’s been no capitalization on, finally, a non-industry person’s access into the debate after so many years of the “who cares about the Oscars?” refrain is the most damning disaster of the whole thing.  – The Daily Beast

How Google, Facebook, Microsoft, And Amazon Became The Most Manipulative Advertisers On TV

“For most of their history, these companies scoffed at traditional media. Can’t measure it, can’t convert viewers into customers, not enough real-time data. Yet here are the 21st century’s most dominant brands behaving like their counterparts of the late 20th, using TV as a key tool to build image and consumer loyalty. Taking a half-step back, this development is a bit rich given that other than Microsoft, these are companies whose businesses are working, through digital advertising dominance and streaming content, essentially to destroy the modern TV industry.” – Fast Company

Polarized News Is Hurting Advertising Revenues

Just 9 of the most 100 most-read news articles from 2019 were considered brand safe by keywords blacklists, per the study. Often many words are blocked in fear of one meaning, but then are misapplied. For example, words like “attack” are often included in blacklists, even it it pertains to something positive, like an “attack wing” in soccer. – Axios

How Intimacy Directors Do Their Jobs

No less than dance or fight choreography, intimacy choreography consists of specific, repeatable movements, and intimacy directors find desexualized language to use with actors (as opposed to “More passionate!”) to create the right effect for the audience. Holly L. Derr talks with some of the creators of the practice of intimacy direction about how they developed it and use it. – HowlRound

YouTube Earned More Than $15 Billion From Ads Last Year

For the first time, Google and its corporate parent, Alphabet, broke out from overall revenue reports the income from its video platform — and that income is enormous. What’s more, YouTube ad revenues have almost doubled over just the past two years, and the platform is bringing in another $3 billion annually from its 20 million paid subscribers. – The Hollywood Reporter