Posts tagged “media”
Blogs have made journalism obsolete. Reporters were just middlemen connecting chatty experts to curious readers. Now experts blog directly, readers find them via search, and knowledgeable bystanders synthesize the conversation. Newspapers will die, but reporting will improve. Targeted advertising means better returns on smaller budgets, enabling niche businesses to thrive.
A video of the Presidential inauguration, though likely US-only due to streaming restrictions.
Olay's "Regenerist Eye Derma-Pod Anti-Aging Triple Response System" is just a cream that fills wrinkles with tiny balls. Every claim in the ad is nonsense: skin cells can't be "regenerated," eyes don't "radiate," and you don't need cream to massage your face. All cosmetics ads are like this. Where are the regulations?
News outlets are falling over themselves to publish the most presidential-looking Obama photos they can find.
The Economist compares Hillary's campaign to a cartoon character who's run off a cliff but hasn't looked down yet. Brutal.
Obama gets the internet not just as a technology or industry, but as a fundamental organizing principle of politics and culture, like the printing press before it. His telecom policies reflect that understanding. Hillary's stance on video game violence tells me she doesn't get it at all.
Oil hit $100 a barrel, and the BBC reported it right on cue. For Americans and Brits, that's terrifying. For Trinidad? We're celebrating.
Television isn't dying, it's fading like radio did before it. The real problem is that TV as a delivery mechanism is obsolete: no on-demand, no two-way feedback, no personalization. Bandwidth won't save cable companies. The future is one internet-connected box in the living room, probably built by Sony.
Paid £5 for In Rainbows because it's the right model, and Madonna, Oasis, and Jamiroquai agree. After a decade of futile resistance, the recording industry is dying. Good riddance. The middle-managers and risk-averse marketers who killed music through the 90s deserve to lose their jobs. Real musicians care about listeners, not money.
I'm late to the party, but What Would Tyler Durden Do is the funniest celebrity gossip site on the internet. It's to gossip what The Daily Show is to news.
TV's future looks like radio's present: background noise for some, occasionally appointment viewing for news and sports, but mostly replaced by on-demand content we seek out ourselves. The creativity and money will follow. Bring it on.
Speaking at @media 2007. Finally!
I got into the Joost beta. It's slick but unreliable, with constant buffering making most content unwatchable. Big partners like MTV and Viacom are interesting, but no viral sharing or user content means YouTube still wins. Worth watching, but not ready yet.
A foiled plot to blow up transatlantic flights dominates the news, but deprived of actual carnage, media scramble for content. Meanwhile, 24 young British Muslims are arrested, and nobody should be surprised. We've done nothing to address the genuine grievances driving this radicalization.
The BBC's photo editors couldn't resist choosing the most villainous possible shot of Abu Hamza for his trial coverage. The man already has one eye and hooks for hands. How much more sinister do you need to make him look?
The cartoon controversy is muddled because both sides are partly right. The first cartoon is genuine hate speech; the rest are legitimate commentary. Meanwhile, we condemn their treatment of gay people while they condemn our blasphemy, each convinced the other is crazy. And neuroscience suggests neither side can really help it.
A classic breakdown of British newspaper readership, apparently from Yes, Prime Minister, neatly skewering who reads what and why.
CNN's picture editors are at it again, illustrating a story about exploding fireworks factories with a guy who looks exactly like Wile E. Coyote after a very bad day near a petrol depot.
The BBC keeps using the same stock photo in their extended opening hours coverage. Pretty sure it's actually Jennifer Aniston drowning her post-Brad sorrows. Does the BBC really need to rub it in?
The BBC used a gross photo to illustrate plans to ban drinking on trains. I'm all for the ban. Also, Bacardi won't be happy. I may need a new category just for complaining about other outlets' photo choices.
Jonathan Ross is being paid £45k to present a concert about ending poverty. Nuff said.
Journalists are now covering bloggers and becoming bloggers themselves. That's because journalists and bloggers are the same thing: writers. Blogging isn't journalism, but sometimes bloggers produce journalism, and sometimes journalists don't. Blogs have simply lowered the barrier to publishing. Being published is no longer special.
Kottke is going full-time blogger, which raises questions about what blogging even is. My take: it's the amateur/professional distinction, not fact-checking standards. More selfishly, if people are paying for blogs now, maybe I can get in on that.
Bush arrives in Belgium and somehow the photo looks fake, and Laura looks like she escaped from a Dracula film.
"Dooced" is not a word. 6,000 Google results don't make it one. "Blog" has 99 million. Let's kill this neologism before it spreads. Also, I got the flu on my tropical vacation. Karma is a jerk.
Quick trivia: the three original estates were clergy, nobility, and commoners. The press became the fourth estate in 1837. I'd never heard any of these terms before, and now I'm sharing them with you, ironically helping to kill journalism in the process.
A grab-bag of links: Rock Paper Saddam, sexist investment bankers, the BBC photo competition, surprisingly homo-friendly B&Bs, infinite cats, Britney's hilarious mission statement, and turning your iPod into a wireless jukebox.
I told the BBC in March that internet video would replace broadcast TV. Two months later, they launch an internet media player doing exactly that. Coincidence? I think not. Also: replacement teeth are coming, and I found something on the internet that made me feel weird.
Support the BBC.
The Hutton report was a complete whitewash. Both sides clearly shared blame, yet the conclusions absolved the government entirely. The BBC lost two top executives over what amounts to a journalistic error, while the government faced zero consequences. This threatens BBC independence and leaves me furious.
Speaking at a BBC seminar tomorrow about how the Internet is overtaking TV. They want me there because I've stopped watching television entirely, just downloading shows instead. There's a free lunch, but apparently an NDA too. I'll share what I can afterward.
TV looks terrible this fall, but at least Smallville is back October 1st. Small victories.
Bloggers don't change lightbulbs, they link to discussions about it. Also, the Tories want to shut down the BBC website, which would be a disaster. The BBC provides something the market doesn't: impartial news. Thankfully, the Tories are completely unelectable anyway.
Interactive cat toy alert! Also, Slate praises Tony Blair, which gets me thinking: Blair is way more beloved in the US while Clinton is more popular in the UK. Can we just trade?
Depressing statistics from Bob Harris reveal that huge swaths of American adults are dangerously misinformed, fundamentalist, or just plain stupid. Not uniquely American problems, really. Except the Elvis truthers. Obviously he's still alive.
We don't need government propaganda, we're deluded enough on our own. A third of Americans think we found WMDs in Iraq, 22% think Saddam used them during the war, and before the invasion, half believed Iraqis were among the 9/11 hijackers. None of this is true.
The Rockall Times piece reads like satire, but the underlying reality it's describing is all too real.
G Takahashi's weblog has great war coverage, including a soldier's email home that vividly captures life in combat. Written March 29th, the soldier mentions "upcoming weeks" ahead, proving the media's quick-victory narrative was nonsense. Also fascinating: how the internet and Al-Jazeera have dethroned CNN as the war's trusted voice.
We're going to war. Like it or not, apparently.
This blog is turning into a superset of my other two. Highlights: a Hand Puppet Movie Theatre parody of Lord of the Rings where everyone's gay, and BBC Radio 1 Xtra broadcasting from Trinidad Carnival, so I can stream it and not totally miss out this year.
Antiwar art is flourishing. Check out a satirical Blair/Bush lip-sync video and a mind-reading Flash toy, plus my favorite image making the rounds.
BBC News redesigned their site and it's a mess. It looks like a worse version of CNN, which is itself losing to Fox News. I'd already moved to The Times for its cleaner layout, and this just confirms I made the right call.
I predicted the Economist's position on Britain's child pornography laws before they published it. Smug? Maybe. But the issue matters: criminalizing computer-generated images punishes thought, not action, and statistics suggesting pornography availability correlates with declining abuse rates raise questions worth taking seriously.
Love the Economist, which dad kindly gifted me. This week's cover is a Kubrick-worthy image that works on every level, and the writing remains as wryly irreverent as ever.
Awarding BBC News Online for their hilariously dramatic mouse and keyboard photo. What happens when you hire too many arts students. Also, yeah, internet addiction at work is real. I spent 6 of my 10 weeks at IBM this summer surfing the web.
MoveOn.org has a brilliant ad showing how Bush's "regime change" rhetoric might just apply a little closer to home.
Scott Adams keeps selling out harder than ever. Also, I fell down a rabbit hole from Slashdot to the deeply disturbing story of Gary Heidnik, a man who kept women chained in his basement. Don't say I didn't warn you.
I rediscovered a press release about the band Anthrax dealing with post-9/11 fallout from their name, plus CNN's absurdly overdone anniversary programming schedule. Also, a pretty brutal comic.
Vegan bondage gear for the ethically conflicted, the Osbournes on every magazine cover including Popular Science, and a genuinely hilarious breakdown of pop idol formats worldwide. Click that last link. I mean it.
Credit to Matt Elton for the office supplies link. More pressingly: how many innocent people like that BBC story's subject are we not hearing about? And what happened to our outrage over Guantanamo Bay?
I've gone from horrified fascination to genuine enthrallment with this columnist. Today's highlight: a list of freaky merger jokes, including Polygram Records, Warner Brothers and Keebler combining to form "Poly-Warner-Cracker."
BBC News is predictably grim lately, so it's refreshing to see Will Young coming out as gay making headlines. Called it. Also, the guy's barely been famous two weeks and he's already managed to torpedo his own career. Impressive work.
Slashdot launched a subscription service, sparking controversy. But the real gem is this anonymous rant against advertising in the comments thread. Fantastic writing, and honestly, I agree with a lot of it.
A timeline of the future from someone who was 85% accurate last time is worth reading. Highlights include "25% of TV celebrities synthetic" by 2010, which made me laugh. I thought they already were.
US networks are suppressing bin Laden's statement at White House request while simultaneously broadcasting counter-propaganda. That's state censorship, plain and simple. There's no obviously good outcome to any of this. War is such shit.
The Onion's 9/11 issue is out and it's both funny and tasteful. A good sign things are returning to normal. The piece with God clarifying his "don't kill" message is a highlight, but the whole issue is damn good.
Interesting global internet stats: English speakers are now a minority online. Plus some Register amusement: Manchester Business School's plagiarised logo, NTL broadband getting a suspiciously biased review, Novell's mystery patch, and Yahoo being blamed for chat room dangers, which is absurd.
Found a great Kuro5hin piece linking the nature of reality to corporate vs. individual conflicts, exploring how organizations do things none of their members actually want, a theme Steinbeck touched on in The Grapes of Wrath.
Reason magazine rocks. Journalistic intelligence in its purest form.
