The second edition of Mass Communication: Living in a Media World is now available at the very student-friendly price of $45. (Yes, the new edition sells for less than used copies often do of the first edition.) It features a newly strengthened media literacy focus, greater depth on a number of topics, extensive coverage of "long-tail" media, and new chapters on media effects and global media. For more information, visit the CQ Press website.
Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I am getting ready to move to Kearney, Nebraska, and I'm afraid there will be very few posts until I get settled down there. So watch for Living in a Media World to resume regular publication in late July.
Sorry, but the RSS feed is currently down. Will get it fixed as soon as I can figure out what's wrong with it.
Thursday - Sept. 4, 2008
The Sarah Palin Chronicles
John McCain's nomination of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has been interesting as a media story. Here's a sampling:
Truth #6 Dept. - Activism And Analysis Are Not The Same Thing: McCain Campaign - Press Isn't Allowed To Critique Palin's Background
Steve Schmidt of the McCain campaign blasted the press with both barrels on Tuesday, complaining that press was unfairly going into the background of Palin's personal life. Politico's Roger Simon gives a scathing satirical response to Schmidt's complaints about the news media asking questions about Palin:
On behalf of the elite media, I would like to say we are very sorry.
We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked.
We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?
We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice?
Bad questions. Bad media. Bad.
It is not our job to ask questions. Or it shouldn't be.
BTW, MSNBC points out that the current attack on the press by the GOP is identical to one staged at the 1964 Republican National Convention, illustrating Truth #4 - Nothing's new. Everything that happens in the past will happen again.
Wonkette Made First Call For Palin To Run For National Office
Tell me I'm wrong, but I think the snarky DC gossip web site Wonkette was the first to call for Palin to run for national office. Back on Dec. 4, 2006, when Palin was sworn in as governor of Alaska, Wonkette wrote:
Palin is just 42 and came out of nowhere; she was mayor of a small town. Otherwise, we don’t know anything about her, but we do hope she seeks national office soon because the Capitol is filled with scary old men wandering around in their pajamas and she could really class up the joint.
WP's Tom Shale's Review of Palin's Convention Speech
I missed Palin's convention speech, but I heard her speak on the radio the day that McCain announced her as his running mate, and I have to say I was impressed with how shepresented herself and her ideology. Her qualifications are beyond the scope of this blog, but she certainly knew how to tell a compelling narrative. And while the McCain campaign has been complaining bitterly about coverage of Palin, they haven't said much about how willing commentators have been to praise her speeches. Good heaven's - Even Keith Olbermann, the Bill O'Reily of the left, had kind words for her speech!
And Finally - Peggy Noonan on the Perils of an Open Microphone
You know how you sometimes think you are speaking in private about a touchy topic (like your party's vice presidential choice), and it turns out that you were speaking into a live microphone? That's what former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan ran into earlier this week. Video is of talk during a commercial break at MSNBC. (WSJ)
Fashion Photos Of Ordinary People Spark Controversy in India Vogue India has generated controversy by featuring ordinary people with expensive clothing and accessories. Why controversial? Because the photos feature poor people wearing fashion that can cost $10,000 or more. Vogue India's editor says critics should "Lighten up." So who should be featured in fashion stories? Anyone? Bueller? (NY Times)
People Go To Cable For Convention News People who are addicted to the political conventions are going to the cable networks, not the broadcast networks, for their fix. No surprise there. The cable networks are giving all-day coverage and the networks give an hour summary at the end of the evening. (LA Times)
Music Industry Has No Idea How To Find Success There is absolutely no consistent model for finding success in the music industry these days. Sometimes giving away music on the net leads to better sales. Sometimes selling on iTunes works. Sometimes just having an outsized personality works. But commentator Cory Treffiletti thinks he knows what really works -- turning out good music. What a concept! (Online Spin) You need to register to access Online Spin. It's worth it!
Who Says Women Don't Watch Sports? According to the NY Times, 49 percent of the audience for the NBC Olympic broadcasts were women age 18 and older. This was the largest single demographic group in the audience. Which explains why there were so many ads targeted at women during the games.
Did the Olympics Teach Us Anything About China? Not much, according to The Washington Post's Paul Farhi. In his blog, Farhi complains that NBC was nothing but a cheerleader for the games during the entire two weeks, spending little time on raising any questions about China or controversies surrounding the games (such as the ages of the Chinese gymnasts). NPR's On The Media did a great segment on Farhi's critique (that's the main link up above). USA Today also had a story on the subject. I think these stories highlight a big issue to me - that media bias isn't always what the critics say it is. NBC obviously had a bias towards making the Olympics look as attractive and interesting as possible. After they paid $800+ million for the rights to broadcast the games, they certainly weren't going to air anything to make people be turned off by the games.
Will Jon Stewart Be The News Guy of the Year for 2008?
Could be. Back in 2004, I argued that Jon Stewart was the very nearly the most talked about news personality in the country, following behind only Larry King and the then-disgraced Dan Rather. Now the Times is asking if there is anyone else more universally respected in the news biz.
The Dark Knight is undoubtedly the most popular movie of the summer. And it will no doubt show up high on the list of all-time highest movie box office takes. But there's been a lot of nonsense in the press this summer about where the latest Batman movie stands in terms of the movie that's sold the most tickets.
Dark Knight has brought in more than $450 million, making it the third highest grossing movie of all time, passing Shrek and bringing it closer to passing Star Wars. If, however, you take inflation into account, it still has a ways to go.
It has a lot more than a ways to go, folks. If you check out Box Office Mojo's all-time inflation adjusted list, Dark Knight is (as of today) only 45th on the list, right between 1956's Around the World in 80 Days and 1942's Bambi. But you don't ever hear Dark Knight being compared to those. We always read about how it compares to Titanic.
The all-time ticket-price adjusted box office champ is 1939's Gone With The Wind with a total of $1.43 billion, with 1977's Star Wars coming in second with $1.26 billion. Dark Knight is only about one third of the way that total. Titanic, brought in the most actual dollars of any movie, but it's only sixth on the list of most tickets sold. (And I might note that Utah's Deseret News did have an excellent article that does point all this out.)
None of this is to disparage The Dark Knight. It's been a huge commercial success, and Heath Ledger's final performance as the Joker is one of the great movie villains of all time. But the latest Batman has a long ways to go to match the box office glory of movies of the pre Internet/cable/DVD/(even) television eras.
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