Media Mindfulness

Discussing a report that shows a consensus in peer-reviewed journals that there is global climate change, Gore says the mainstream media has failed to report this, and have continued to seek “balance” as bias. Read on…
Gore says media miss climate message - Nashville, Tennessee - Wednesday, 02/28/07 - Tennessean.com:
He noted that recently the Intergovernmental Panel […]

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

From the family that brought you the Iraq War now comes a curriculum that profits from No Child Left Behind funds. Rest assured, your child’s future is in good hands. For example, view the sample lesson from their COW (Curriculum on Wheels) system in the above video. It’s on the history of “Habeas Corpus”; you […]

Yet another entrant into the on-line video stream. May they compost cable.
Advertising Age - Digital - Why Joost Isn’t Just Your Average ‘YouTube Killer’:
Here’s the catch: the video stream isn’t coming from Comcast or DirecTV, it’s coming from Joost, one of the latest entrants into the online video market — and a service for which […]

[googlevideo]4260537280394822124&q[/googlevideo]
I’m a big fan of solution oriented thinkers. Thus it’s refreshing to hear the clarity of David Korten’s ideas and his overview of history. His book, “The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community (BK Currents)” (David C. Korten) comes highly recommended. Please, if you have time, watch this video.

“The Great Turning: From Empire […]

When I was in college my co-op had a special junk food brunch. Among other things we ordered sugary cereal, Pop Tarts and Twinkies. The normally staid, academic bunch went temporarily insane (thankfully no one was killed!), breakdancing on top of tables and jamming Twinkies into the ceiling with forks. Those Twinkies stayed there for […]

Levy: Google Apps Takes Aim at Microsoft - Newsweek Steven Levy - MSNBC.com:
Feb. 22, 2007 - Google announced today that a previous collection of free products, known as Google Apps, would be enhanced and re-released in as a paid package directed to businesses. Sounds sort of … yawnworthy, doesn’t it? Actually, it’s one of the […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAVmB5dKZZ8

Hey, nice handwriting! This video is in response to “The Machine is Us/ing Us,” which I posted about here (if you haven’t seen it, you really must!).
The text in the video reads as folllows:
Media philosopher Marshall McLuhan observed that “The Medium is the Message”. That is, the form of media is what changes consciousness irrespective […]

The Fourth Annual NYC Grassroots Media Conference is taking place THIS Saturday
at New School University.
A group of New York City media educators have put together an empowering
afternoon of workshops organized specifically for youth (see below.)
In addition to these workshops, there are more than 30 others happening
throughout the day that cover topics like hip hop and […]

Photo by David Burnett, National Geographic

Yet another dispatch from the sci-fi front, this time brought to us by none other than Disney and Co.:
Disney World, Orlando Beyond Disney - National Geographic Magazine:
The Theme-Parking, Megachurching, Franchising, Exurbing, McMansioning of America: How Walt Disney Changed Everything
Everything happening to America today is happening here, and it’s far removed […]

Tonight at 11, news by neighbors / Santa Rosa TV station fires news staff, to ask local folks to provide programming:
Steve Spendlove realizes that after last month’s layoffs of most of the news-gathering staff at tiny KFTY-TV in Santa Rosa there will be less local coverage. The Clear Channel executive overseeing the station knows there […]

The American Psychology Association has issued a report from its task force on the sexualization of girls. I found it to be balanced and was impressed that even though media contribute negatively to the objectification and sexualization of girls, the study also identified other ambient and environmental factors. Furthermore, it recommends (see quote below) media […]

Yet another attempt to argue that the problem with the Iraq war is the communication and information strategy. It doesn’t matter how good a propagandist you are, ultimately it’s your intentions that count. As the saying goes, denial ain’t a river in Egypt. Yes, US war information officers are idiots, but hasn’t it occurred to […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTyks-IRFPY

Forget Vegas, forget Disney. Meet Dubai. Nice beach-front property, just a stone’s throw from Iran and WWIII. God willing for oil economy investors, may the Straits of Hormuz remain open and sea levels even.
If the above promotional video isn’t convincing enough (yes, it’s real), read a sample of Mike Davis‘ remarkable piece on Dubai, sci-fi […]

Roses are red, violets are blue, the world sucks, and so do corporations…
Below is Democracy Now!’s main lineup for its Valentine’s Day broadcast. I don’t know about you, but I celebrated the day with my loved one. Yes, it’s important to acknowledge all the bad, nasty things going on in the world, but sometimes I […]

Yet again the new cultural practices of kids are getting demonized by left and right. Geeze, adults can be so lame sometimes. One article in particularly really got under my skin, “Mirror, Mirror on the Web” by Lakshmi Chaudhry. She thinks kids are too narcissistic. This is how I responded in my letter to The […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCKwPobh1EA

Klaxoncow’s comment posted on the above YouTube video:
You’re clearly not a bomb expert.
Just to clue you in: Bombs are traditionally not covered in LEDs which trace out the shape of a cartoon moon person giving you the middle finger.
Generally, as terrorists don’t want their bomb plots foiled, they tend not to decorate their bombs in […]

Yet another example of how the spectacularization of violence normalizes it:
Group: TV torture influencing real life - Yahoo! News:
Tell me where the bomb is, Bauer orders, or we’ll kill your family. Silence. The prisoner watches as a thug kicks down the chair his son is tied to and fires a gun at point-blank range. He […]

Five Questions for Jeff Chester - 2/5/2007 - Multichannel News:
MCN: Isn’t the Internet already about as commercialized as it could be?
JC: But the Internet and all digital media is on the verge of a major transformation. It will be able to better deliver these multimedia, virtual-reality enriched, precision ads. And it will be ubiquitous on […]

From NancySnow.com:
1. Truth is not the absence of propaganda; propaganda thrives in presenting different kinds of truth, including half truths, incomplete truths, limited truths, out of context truths. Modern propaganda is most effective when it presents information as accurately as possible. The Big Lie or Tall Tale is the most ineffective propaganda.
2. Propaganda is not […]

Forget Bush’s State of the Union, you can measure the mood of the United States by assessing the vibe of the Super Bowl, and if yesterday’s game was any indication, Americans are feeling contrite. Unlike past annual spectacles, especially those produced by Fox, the patriotic mood was noticeably muted. With the exception of the requisite […]