Media Mindfulness

As the horrible tragedy in Virginia unfolds, we as media watchers must immediately guard against the tendency of the pundocracy to use this as anecdotal evidence for their various causes, especially those who demonize youth. MSNBC.com has a really good article on the ten myths about school shootings. Please read it via the link below. [...]

IGod by Ranci11
Daniel Pinchbeck has some choice words on ways to think about a new paradigm for mass media. I acknowledge that I am somewhat guilty of focusing on negative trends in media, so I think it’s always good to point a finger in the right direction. This article provides a short and succinct map [...]

From the fantastic blog DailyGalaxy, this tasty little morsel of a video featuring a debate between Marshal McLuhan and Norman Mailer.
See the video here.
Quest for Identity in the Digital Village -Daily Video Classic | The Daily Galaxy: News from Planet Earth & Beyond:
McLuhan, a Canadian a philosopher, professor of English literature, literary critic, and communications [...]

“We report. You Decide.”

Wondering where your news comes from? One of the underlying principles of a “propaganda environment” is an information complex in which the values of the system are internalized. Remember that traditional media are corporations in the business of selling programming, including news. One of the criticisms of traditional media (as opposed to [...]

Update:

This is where William Burroughs comes in with his Naked Lunch. When we
invent new technology, we become cannibals. We eat ourselves alive since
these technologies are merely extensions of ourselves. The new environment
shaped by electric technology is a cannibalistic one that eats people. To
survive one must study the habits of cannibals - McLuhan, “The Hot and [...]

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 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 [...]

“You don’t need a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows,”
Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan
Eat The Press | Fox Takes Fair And Balanced Look At Weather “War”…With One Side | The Huffington Post:
FNC’s “Fox & Friends” host Steve Doocey did a piece on the “War over the Weather” this morning in advance of [...]

“The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favour of his image,
because the image will be so much more powerful than he could ever be.”
Marshall McLuhan

Technorati Tags: McLuhan

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLK-rK3rfW8

I couldn’t make the Media Reform conference this year (click on the link for video, blog and pictures), but it can be experienced vicariously via YouTube. Here is Bill Moyer’s giving his keynote.

Technorati Tags: BillMoyers, MediaReform

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“Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy” (Jeff Chester)
I’ve mentioned Jeff Chester before. He has done remarkable work on the issue of media mergers and mass marketing. His darkest views focus on the “brandwashing” of America, but he also has innovative ideas for a progressive media, which are highlighted in the following Alternet [...]

Douglas Rushkoff is one of the saner, more hip theorists of media today. I have read many of his books (I recommend Media Virus! and Screenagers) and enjoyed his two Frontline documentaries, Merchants of Cool (about “cool hunters” - culture spies) and The Persuaders (about the PR industry). You can watch the documentaries for free [...]

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.

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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=topeBoB-ApQ

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Here’s another opportunity to read about the top 25 censored news stories from project censored. Here’s a snip, click the link to read what’s on the rest of the list.
News & Culture | Censored news stories:
1. Net Neutrality
Throughout 2005 and this year, a largely underground debate has raged regarding the future of the Internet. More [...]

AdAge has this great chart on media ownership. Check out and download the corporate family tree here. You can also read the article here. The most obvious news is the increasing migration of $$$ to the Internet. Traditional media companies- newspapers and broadcast TV- are not looking so good these days.

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Jose Ignacio Lopez Vigil and the Radio Venceremos crew (nice hair!)
More from the ACME summit. It was fun to reconnect with Jonathan and Susan from Reclaim the Media, folks I met several years ago in New Mexico at the first ACME conference. They are radio and indy media activists who told me of a really [...]

Eat The Press | CBS Whittles Katie Couric’s Waist In Doctored Photo | The Huffington Post:
CBS Whittles Katie Couric’s Waist In Doctored Photo.

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