Category: media

Look to streaming, of course, to lead the way. “Lucasfilm and Disney are now in a perfect spot: The Mandalorian is a success, Star Wars is ripe for more experimentation, and Disney+ is a new sandbox that will allow for similar experiments. The future of Star Wars won’t only live and die by big event films like The Rise of Skywalker; it’ll succeed with a consistent run of weird and fun Star Wars shows.” (And don’t forget the books, comics, games, ad infinitum.) – The Verge

In Nieman Lab’s 2020 predictions, the founder of a collaborative journalism initiative says that some news organizations aren’t doing enough to make the case that they’re worth saving, but that will have to shift. “The question of how we save journalism (meaning newsrooms) will begin to shift to how do we save journalism (meaning the process). How we answer that question will have a profound impact on the management of newsrooms, the business models we develop, the processes we adapt, and the service we provide.” – Nieman Lab

The rest of the world already knew that, but now it’s official. – Los Angeles Times

“Like all stories, it’s just about cats, but none of these stories work without the big issues underneath. Eliot was writing as much about humans as cats; he was writing about humans through a feline prism. Ultimately, why I wanted human cats, not actual cats, [in the film] was that, if they’d been actual cats, it would have totally missed the point of the duality of the poetry.” – The Atlantic

“Writing is lonely; directing and acting, if you’re overlapping them, is challenging but fun. But producing is just pushing a rock up a hill. And sometimes it rolls over you on the way back down.” – Los Angeles Times

Since 2013, Radio Alwan, which started as community radio in a Syria just breaking out in civil war, broadcast politically neutral news and other programming to Aleppo and Idlib on FM as well as online. The U.S. funding that supported the station has been withdrawn by the Trump administration, Radio Alwan is now off the air, and its staffers are stuck in a country that seems not to want them. – BBC

A previously unknown groups calling itself the “Popular Nationalist Insurgency Command of the Large Brazilian Integralist Family” has claimed credit for a Christmas Eve incident in which Molotov cocktails were thrown at the Rio de Janeiro offices of Porta dos Fundos, the comedy group that created The First Temptation of Christ, which depicts a stoner Mary and put-upon Joseph throwing a 30th-birthday party for Jesus as he returns from his 40 days in the desert with a “close friend” named Orlando. – BBC

You don’t have to watch many of these movies to see the bad rap that cities get. Before our protagonist (usually a single woman) gets enchanted by twinkling lights and prop Christmas trees, she must first flee the grey, cold-hearted metropolis that leaves her feeling some combination of lonely, overworked, and grumpy. – CityLab

“The country’s media regulatory body said Disney removed the clip to avoid the film being given a higher age rating. It is PG13, which means parental guidance is advised for children under 13. … Singaporean censorship guidelines state that films containing LGBT themes or content as a subplot may be restricted to viewers aged 18 and above, while films focusing on homosexuality may be hit with a 21-and-over rating.” – The Guardian

“Neither the identity of a murdered man found wrapped in an electric blanket by a busy [Dutch] motorway in August 1991 nor that of his killer have emerged in the decades since the discovery of the body despite a nationwide probe. But a 70-minute series of podcasts made by the police detailing past efforts at the time to crack the case … has opened up [15 new leads] for detectives to explore.” – The Guardian