Media Mindfulness

From Showtime, the fantastic NPR radio program, This American LIfe, is now a TV show. This short clip is a beautifully poignant tale of how play acting and media soon corrupted an innocent playground. The animation is by the great comic book artist, Chris Ware.

Technorati Tags: Chris Ware, Showtime, This American LIfe

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Truthdig - Interviews - Media Critic on Why It’s Only Getting Worse:
Once upon a time, TV news put journalists on camera. Today, cable news has on-air “talent”—who are “cast,” not just hired. A Walter Cronkite would have big trouble getting a job today in TV news. But an actor? No problem. CNN a few years [...]

Watch it online.
FRONTLINE: news war: introduction | PBS:
Bergman traces the recent history of American journalism, from the Nixon administration’s attacks on the media and the post-Watergate popularity of the press to new obstacles presented by the war on terror and changing economics in the media business and the Internet. The topic has special resonance for [...]

You be the judge…
Child Health and Safety > TV Effective ‘Painkiller’ For Kids:
TV really does act like a painkiller when it comes to kids, reveals a small study published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

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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 [...]

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 [...]

Marketplace: Iraq war justified? Maybe for Baby Einsteins:
By targeting babies, companies are marketing not just products but lifelong habits, hardwiring dependence on media before babies even have a chance to grow and develop the way they do it best, through hands-on creative play. And it’s through playing that children learn, among other things, skills essential [...]

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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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 - [...]

They’re not just for trucks stops anymore…
Prime Rib, Minus the Prime-Time TV:
“[National Restaurant Association] surveys show that diners increasingly view restaurants as extensions of their own homes, and a large percent would like to see table-top TVs installed at their favorite eating joint.”

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Last weekend I was at the ACME media activist conference giving a workshop on eco-media and had a chance to hang out with Mitch Altman, creator of the most awesome stocking stuffer, TV-B-Gone. This week he was also on WBAI’s “Off the Hook” (a hacktivist radio program) talking about his innovative product. Essentially, Mitch is [...]

And you wonder why things in American are so strange:
CNN.com - Researchers: Homes have more TVs than people - Sep 22, 2006:
NEW YORK (AP) — The average American home now has more television sets than people.
That threshold was crossed within the past two years, according to Nielsen Media Research. There are 2.73 TV sets in [...]

It has been said that if you think you are watching a show about a bunch of plane crash survivors, you are watching the wrong show. The show in question, of course, is Lost. The surprise breakout on ABC is most definitely not your average program, and the one thing that keeps me interested is [...]

It’s that time of year for the international holiday for freaks, TV Turnoff Week. Sponsored by Adbusters, this has become a calling card for school librarians (yes, they are feeing the pinch) and is a good time to reflect on our addiction to media. A few questions, though. What is a TV anymore? With TiVo, [...]

Interesting NYT article on how TV distribution might be migrating to the Internet. Def. a trend to watch for, especially if you are an independent artist:
As Internet TV Aims at Niche Audiences, the Slivercast Is Born - New York Times:

“In the last six months, major media companies have received much attention for starting to move [...]

Poor Steven Johnson got smacked around by the so-called progressive left for claiming that media make us smarter. I haven’t read his latest tome, Everything Bad is Good for You, but I plan to because I thought his book Emergence was amazing (it examines “emergence” theory as it relates to cities, ants, brains and computers). [...]