Category: Media

From The Left Coaster:

In all the breathless coverage over cabinet resignations and the retirement of overrated network television news readers, it is more than a little disappointing that so few journalists are taking note of the upcoming retirement of one of the very best of their own. While the media whoops and hollers over knaves like Tom Ridge, discarded facades like Colin Powell, pusillanimous media moguls such as Tom Brokaw, mediocrities on the order of Ron Paige, and outright despots like John Ashcroft, the retirement of Bill Moyers from the Public Broadcasting Corporation stands out as the only resignation event of the season that will clearly diminish America and leave it poorer for his going.

Interesting eight-minute b/w Flash movie (EPIC 2014) on the recent history and future of media consolidation, the broadening alliances of Google, Tivo, news providers, and P2P networks projected out a decade into a future where ubiquitous smart servers (“the Google Grid”) and the consuming public cut up and co-create their own news, ultimately pushing the NY Times out of business. “News is now shallow, trivial… but it is what we wanted…”

Not sure who’s behind this, but noticed an embedded reference to montagist Winston Smith (though this doesn’t really feel like his work).

Google News aggregates vast numbers of news sites, and collects detailed stats on them in the process. Marumushi’s newsmap takes that data and displays it in a Flash-based, database-backed, Mondrian-inspired visual aggregator. The size of blocks on the map represents the number of publications out there covering the topic in some way, relative to other topics. The color of each block represents the broad category to which it belongs (business, technology, nation, etc.), and the shade of that color represents time delta (I don’t really understand this aspect — time since last scan? time the story has been on the map?). Roll over any block for a summary of the number of publications converging on that topic. Kind of a visual, interactive snapshot of the news Zeitgeist at any given moment.

Not sure I’d want to use this as a primary news portal, but it does offer a quick way to tap the mindset of the world’s collective publication editors.

Who owns your local media? Well Connected’s Media Tracker lets you enter your zip code and see at a glance (with drill-down detail) just how many of your local TV, radio, and print outlets are concentrated into the hands of media conglomerates.

In my zip code, the top 6 mega-media fuzzballs own a total of 25/35 radio outlets. And it’s worse in other parts of the country.

For Wired News, J-School student Steven Bodzin writes Inventor Rejoices as TVs Go Dark, on the invention of a small keychain device called TV-B-Gone, which sends out more than 200 infrared codes in quick succession to turn off virtually any television within range. The device is intended primarily for use in public spaces – bars and restaurants, stores, laundromats…

Rude? Totally. But isn’t it also rude to force others to watch or listen to TV when they don’t want to?

Responding to the accusation that it sounded like unaccountable power, Burke said, “You’ve heard about the battle for eyeballs. They’re your eyeballs [emphasis mine -sh]. You should not have your consciousness constantly invaded.

I’m actually less offended by television in public places than I am by noises that invade my home — car subwoofers, car alarms…

Altman said people who hear about TV-B-Gone start thinking about other nuisances. Friends have asked for ways to jam cell phones, shut down vehicle subwoofers and kill car alarms.

“What I really want,” Altman said, “Is Life-B-Here.”

Been down with flu for the past 48 hours, abdominal tectonics. Just edging out of the hole now. Spent a lot of time sleeping, but did have the chance to watch a couple of interesting movies.

How’s Your News is a project by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, but you’d never guess it — a documentary wherein the two take five mentally retarded or disabled individuals around the country in a hand-painted RV, interviewing ordinary Americans on the street, at ball games, cattle auctions, etc. Two of the participants are so disabled they can’t even speak — one just waves a microphone frantically at passers-by, a sign on his wheelchair reading “Free interviews – my name is Larry.”

Given the nature of the project, and considering who’s producing it, you’d expect the primary M.O. would be to mock the attempts of these disabled people to model the newscasters they’ve seen on TV all their lives. And yes, there are some very funny moments, where you’re not sure whether you’re laughing with or laughing at. But somehow Stone and Parker have managed to make the project respectful – they’re giving these people the chance to do something they’d never be able to do otherwise. There is no mocking here, no inside joke between the directors and the viewer. The enthusiasm and joy of the participants is genuine.

The potential for misunderstanding the point of the project is high enough that they include a printed note in the DVD case explaining that “It’s okay to laugh.”

We believe that confusion, awkward moments, and humor are important parts of living with a disability. People who live with disabilities, and those who are close to them, know that if you don’t have a sense of humor, it would be hard to get through the day.

Also rented Peripheral Produce – a compilation of entries in a Portland experimental film and video contest. My favorite piece on the disc was Matt McCormick’s The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal — encouraging the viewer to look at municipal efforts to remove graffiti — usually by covering tags in large dun-toned blocks — as themselves being unintentionally artististic. The subconscious creation of Rauschenberg and Rothko-like rectangular swatches playing off the angles of the urban environment. Sounds self-serious, and it is, a bit, but also playful and partly self-mocking. Even if the idea sounds like a joke, McCormick does a good job of showing that there is real beauty left over by the removal efforts. Very enjoyable.