Category: media

“For two years, Maxima has made some of Indonesia’s most popular domestic films based on a simple premise: that many in Muslim-majority Indonesia will pay to see foreign porn stars perform – clothed – in local films. Just don’t expect Indonesians to own up to it.”

“If Two and a Half Men does die, let’s hope a TV trend goes with it: the half-hour of meanness. That’s Two and a Half Men in a nutshell: a family show in which the central family value is contempt. … Perhaps it’s little surprise that viewers are also embracing a new trend in TV comedy: the sitcom about people who are nice to each other.”

“Its findings suggest most Black African/Caribbean individuals believe they are too often characterised as drug dealers and that a majority of Asian audiences feel Asian religious culture is not reflected authentically. Almost three-quarters of Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual audiences believe that film focuses on them as having problems rather than being everyday people, it continues.”

“What all the arched-brow outrage over the SAT question revealed is not a protective instinct toward education but a snobbish unwillingness to admit the real nature of TV. Yes, there is crap on television… But there are also, as in all forms of arts and letters, many wonderful and wondrous things on television.”

“Efforts to merge the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are moving ahead, though not quite so fast as some have suggest.”

“As it heads toward the auction block in early April to end its troubled bankruptcy process, Blockbuster Inc. is shuttering 186 stores.”

Already, a group of “new monopolists” seems to reign over whole regions of the Internet: Google in search, Apple in content delivery, Facebook in social networking. And the question is whether the Net, like new media of the past, will come to be “ruled by one corporate leviathan in possession of ‘the master switch.'”

“While the big boys figure out how to replicate television, and its profit margins, on the Internet, the vast majority of Web series continue to be scrappy affairs produced by young writers, actors and directors trying to make names for themselves. But you can almost hear the window closing.”

“There are a few problems with this accounting. First, the numbers. As for downloads, Billboard reports that “Friday” has sold just 37,000 copies, meaning the song has earned about $26,000. And as for YouTube plays, the number could be lower. Rates depend not just on page views, but also on how many people click on the advertisements. Thus, the song and video have earned perhaps $40,000 and counting–hardly chump change, but hardly $1 million either.”

Farhad Manjoo: “I’ve been skeptical of the Web-is-dead idea. The Web has one main advantage over apps: It works everywhere, and that’s important in a post-Windows world. Since our computers, phones, and tablets use different operating systems, we need a single platform to unite them all. … [In the end, though,] the fight between apps and the Web will be rendered moot.”