Media Mindfulness

The hard working folks at Center for Media and Democracy, who publish PR Watch and other invaluable resources, have compiled a list of the worse spinsters of the year. If you have been tracking the media in 2006, you will recognize many of these stories. It’s an excellent, compact list of the latest misinformation strategies […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWt0XUocViE

The folks at Save the Internet have released this nicely produced video into the googlesphere that explains the issues of “net neutrality.” Granted , this is not an objective presentation of the materials, but I still like how the CEOs of communications companies are portrayed as aliens. If you are convinced that you should take […]

Americans use TV, other media 10 hrs a day: Census - Yahoo! News:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans will spend nearly 10 hours a day watching television, surfing the Internet, reading books, newspapers and magazines and listening to music this year, the U.S.
Census Bureau said on Friday.

Sphere: Related Content

(Art by the amazing eBoy collective)
The article is called “Media Threat,” which is a terrible choice of words because everything the article is about concerns new media. Just because it’s interactive doesn’t mean it’s not media. And though interactive, social media my threaten old models, it doesn’t mean they are a threat per se. However, […]

A case study in how viral media spread. This is from sci-fi writer Bruce Sterling’s blog at Wired.com. It’s an account of the infamous “Macaca” comment by Senate candidate (and now loser) George Allen:
Beyond the Beyond:
According to Vanden Berg, they chose to post the video on YouTube because it was free (simple enough). But […]

vs.

It’s always interesting when reality cataches up with reality TV. Apparently it might be difficult to tell who is shooting who in Fiji these days. While the CBS reality TV series Survivor points cameras at castaways, rogue soldiers are pointing their guns at the rulers of this remote region of the South Pacific.
E! News - […]

I once worked on a crew that built the set for the Billboard Music Awards in a hanger at the Santa Monica airport. We slaved 16 hours a day for three weeks while consuming massive amounts of raw materials, including miles of plywood and metal piping. But after the three-hour television event, everything went to […]

Advertisers find the right pitch in boomer icons - American Boomers - MSNBC.com:
NEW YORK - In advertising, image is everything. So to attract aging baby boomers — the generation that once proclaimed “never trust anyone over 30″ — advertisers are turning to some icons of their youth.
Dennis Hopper, the counterculture rebel of the movie “Easy […]

A hacker manifesto:
Science Addiction » 95 Theses of Geek Activism:
1. Reclaim the term ‘hacker’. If you tinker with electronics, you are a hacker. If you use things in more ways than intended by the manufacturer, you are a hacker. If you build things out of strange, unexpected parts, you are a hacker. Reclaim the term.
2. […]

newsobserver.com | His sister in danger, 4-year-old plays hero.
A few weeks ago this story caught my attention. It’s about a four-year-old boy named Stevie Long who foiled a robbery by dressing as a Power Ranger and scarring of the attackers in his home with a plastic sword. It got me thinking about some of the […]

This is a great festival. Spread the word!
Media That Matters Film Festival: Submit:
Call For Entries - Seventh Annual Media That Matters Film Festival
If a film is made and no one sees it, does it make an impact? Submit your film to Media That Matters and be heard.
If you want to make an impact, this is […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic

Goes to show that you can can edit anything to look scary!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MayKmiCSsEo

The folks at Media Channel have created News Trust, a social news network. What is “social news”? Building on the new paradigm of collective, self-organized intelligence that is the Web 2.0, readers can rate what they are reading as “trustworthy.” The old paradigm based on advertising determines what’s popular by what people buy, or the […]

Reconstruction is an on-line journal that has a whole issue dedicated blogging and culture. Lots of great theory on social media. Truth is, this stuff is so new, we are inventing it as we go. But if you can pause for a moment to reflect on new digital media and social networks, it’s like digital […]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144

Do media start wars? Many critics believe that if the MSM (AKA US corporate mainstream media) had been critical of Bush and Co.’s arguments for war leading up to the invasion of Iraq, the campaign would never have been supported by the public. I’m a little dubious of this argument, only because people’s opinions are […]