Audioblogger Down, Club MediaNote Staggers On...

AudioBlogger isn't working today. So this post will be text only.

Today I discussed a recent Reuters article entitled Digital Product Placement Alters TV Landscape. CBS has begun to strip virtual product placements into the scenes of some of its shows. The first was a digital box of crackers placed onto a coffee table.

The article went on to mention that this sort of product placement may become increasingly common as Tivo and similar devices enable more and more people to escape traditional TV ads. In not too many years it might be as routine to order up a virtual product placement as it is to place TV ads today. The article also indicated that shows may have additional product placements stripped into them when they go into syndication. (Gee, I don't remember Cheetos on the bridge of the Enterprise.)

The MC101s were concerned that this type of advertising might go too far (one said that TV characters should not begin to look like NASCAR drivers) but they were less repulsed than I thought they might be. Generally, they felt this type of advertising was less objectionable than 30-second spots. However, they warned that virtual product placement could get obnoxious in a hurry if it begins to interfere with the story line.

We discussed the possibility that TV shows might be shot a little differently with this type of advertising in mind. We might see more characters walking past blank walls, more delivery trucks and vans parked in the street, more scenes at the breakfast table.

One student noted that TV shows set in the past--traditional Westerns, for example--may be hurt by this trend. It's pretty unlikely that Marshall Dillon is going to whip out his cell phone, even if it is now technologically possible.

***OFF TOPIC BUT COOL: Just got a call from our contact at the Museum of Television & Radio. There are still tickets available to the Chris Rock event on Thursday. Call the RSVP number on the flyer handed out in class. Should be a great evening for the MC101s.***

Next post will be Wednesday. Hopefully Audioblogger will be back up by then.

Big Classes Talk About Little Networks

Mass Comm 101 classes have been jam-packed early this semester. This class is extraordinarily well-behaved because--as you can infer from the camera angle--I AM 8 feet tall.

News Corp, the parent company of Fox, is launching a stripped-down mini-broadcast TV network called, appropriately enough, My Network TV. Among its programming will be two Americanized Telenovelas. MC101 students discussed whether this type of soap opera, tremendously popular in Spanish-language broadcasting, will find a following among English-speaking audiences. We also talked a little bit about reality shows and downloadable television (for video iPods and similar devices).

Spring Has Sprung and Club MediaNote Is Back in Business

MSNBC Anchor and Correspondent Alex Witt will speak on the Glendale College campus on Thursday, Feb. 23.

The Spring 06 Semester has begun at Glendale College and, as always, the Mass Comm 101 classes are packed to the rafters. So if you are among the multitudes in one of my classes this semester, welcome. Interesting times lie ahead.

Today's photo is of MSNBC Anchor and Correspondent Alex Witt. She will be speaking on campus tomorrow and all MC101 students are invited to attend for extra credit. It should be an excellent talk. Ms. Witt's topic is "How Network Cable News Has changed the Media."

Our first MediaNote of the semester will be posted on Friday. Beginning next week I will post to Club MediaNote on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, excepting holidays, exam days, and days when we are out on field trips.

Many Thanks to the MC101 Class of Winter 06

On Wednesday, we had our final exam study group. Pizza was involved.

Today the MC101s will take their final exam. Thank you for being a lively and involved class, for turning out on my field trips in great numbers, and for slogging through to the end of the course. Good luck in your future endeavors, academic, professional and personal.

The past five weeks have also constituted a test period for Club Medianote. I've decided that things have gone well enough that I will continue Club Medianote during the spring semester, albeit with one change.

Because short sessions (like the winter intersession that we're wrapping up today) have classes that meet five days a week, I've posted to Club Medianote five days a week. During semesters, MC101 classes meet a maximum of three days. Therefore, in the spring I will be posting to Club Medianote on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, except when there is a holiday.

My next post to Club Medianote will be on or around Feb. 22 when the Spring 2006 semester begins.

...And Now We Interrupt Chapter 4 With This Commercial Message

Today's medianote is about a pilot program by publisher HarperCollins in which book texts are put online on an advertiser supported web site. We get to read the book for free, the publisher (and I presume the author) makes some money from ad revenue, and real fans of the book can still buy the paper version.

We Discuss the Danish Cartoon Controversy

In our classroom discussion, most MC101s felt that western newspapers have the legal right to be critical of groups--including religious groups--whose policies they disagree with. However, most also felt that it was unethical of the Danish and other newspapers to print the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. The prevailing opinion was that mass media should not denigrate any religion's sacred leaders or symbols. Criticism, some felt, should be in words--which can be debated rationally--rather than through denigrating images that invite an emotional response.

It's 10 p.m., Do You Know Where Your Child's Cell Phone Is?

Today's medianote was about the growing business in tracking people's whereabouts via their cell phones. British employers are beginning to track workers' cell phones through an online service that tells if they are really where they say they are. We discussed the privacy implications of this technology. We also wondered if this will lead to companies that track people's daily migrations in order to send them geographically-specialized traffic and weather reports, news, and ads.

Super Bowl Ads ... Now With Greater Shelf Life!

Advertisers have plans to recycle their Super Bowl ads by placing them on web sites, playing them in theaters and having them downloaded to cell phones, among other things. We discussed all that, plus MC101 students weighed in with their favorite Super Bowl ads, which included the FedEx Cave Man ad and the Hummer Monsters ad.

Satellite Broadcaster Takes Stern Measures, Siriusly

Fans are turning Howard Stern's radio show into free, unauthorized podcasts on the Internet. Sirius Satellite Radio, which signed Stern for $500 million for five years, is taking aggressive legal action to stop what they see as pirated broadcasts. They have also (and this is pretty amusing, given that it's Howard Stern that we're talking about) alerted the Federal Communications Commission to this growing practice. Is this the beginning of a trend where satellite radio programming meant only for paid subscribers is put onto the Internet for everyone for free? And will the FCC lift even a bureaucratic little finger to help out Howard Stern, or at least his corporate bosses?

A Celebrity-Studded Bon Bon for Quiz Day

We have a quiz in Mass Comm 101 today, which means no media note. In its place, I direct you to the oddly fascinating web site japander.com. This web site was used as part of a medianote last fall. I used it to discuss the increasingly passe' practice of Hollywood stars picking up large paychecks for minimal work by doing television commercials in Japan. Apparently, Japanese advertising tastes are changing: fewer Hollywood stars are being called upon to do this work today than 10 or 15 years ago. The web site has digitized versions of these classic ads that appear to be beamed to us from a parallel universe. Take a look. It's good goofy fun.

Unarmed, But Drawn to the Battlefield

Serious injuries to ABC News Anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt, plus the capture of Freelance Journalist Jill Carroll have stimulated interest in the role of journalists in a war. In class today, we listened to a National Public Radio story that discusses the reasons why unarmed journalists are drawn to the battlefield. Click below for my audio post summarizing what my MC101 students had to say on this topic.