Sittin' Around the Campfire Talkin' Copyright Law

The film industry seems to be running a little scared. Movie execs have seen how illegal downloads have decimated the recording industry and are taking steps to make sure it doesn't rip into profits in their industry. Part of their campaign against movie piraters is something I would have never thought of: working with the Boy Scouts to offer a merit patch in anti-pirating and copyright law.

One guess as to which area of the country this idea is being tried. National Public Radio has a brief story on this.

Assorted ghouls turned out for our Halloween-themed field trip to Glendale's historic Alex Theater on Saturday, Oct. 28.

***SATURDAY'S FIELD TRIP WAS A BIG SUCCESS We had a terrific turnout--68 MC101s, plus guests--for Saturday's field trip to Glendale's Alex Theater. We took in an amusing afternoon of vintage Holloween-themed entertainment, headlined by the low-budget comedy-horror classic House on Haunted Hill.

The house that was used for exterior shots is the architecturally-notable Ennis House, built in 1924 in the hills of Los Feliz by Frank Lloyd Wright. In recent years it has been badly damaged by earthquakes and storms and preservation efforts are underway.

If you are interested in seeing vintage films at Los Angeles-area movie palaces, I recommend Last Remaining Seats, a series run each spring by the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Have Video Camera, Will Travel

Prof. Steve Taylor was the Humanities-Social Science Lecture presenter on Oct. 26. He read from his upcoming novel. Many MC101s were in attendance.

Trackers are people armed with inexpensive hand-held video cameras who follow politicians on the campaign trail. They are generally in opposition to the candidate they are tracking. The camera is used to record unflattering or otherwise politically-damaging moments.

What makes things different this year, says a Los Angeles Times article, is that the trackers now have the ability to quickly edit their videos, make them embarrassing as possible, and put them on YouTube. For example, Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) is being tracked by Kevin O'Brien, who posted this unflattering video. More serious political damage was done to Sen. George Allen (R-VA) after a tracker captured these insensitive comments.

An earlier, audio-only, pre-YouTube version of using the Internet to politically-damage a candidate is the now-famous Dean Scream. Early in 2004, then-Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT) had just placed a disappointing third in the Iowa Presidential Caucus. He sought to energize his supporters with a fiery and upbeat speech, but captured on audio it came off somewhere between manic and hysterical.

Skype Me!

I couldn't help but notice you across the crowded Internet...

A A recent Los Angeles Times article discussed online dating via Skype, the Internet phone service that claims more than 100 million users worldwide.

Apparently the ability to see and hear your potential match makes Skype-based dating services quite popular. It's another prime example of the linkage function of media, which the Internet seems to excel at ... Ebay, MySpace and now Skype are all big-time examples of linking people to people or people to products. As an online dating tool, Skype is the opposite of eHarmony and similar services because Skype often brings together people who are radically different from one another.

The article also mentioned that any stigma attached to online dating appears to be fading. A recent survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project indicated that a majority of singles who are looking for a mate are looking online, at least in part. The survey also found that the majority of adult Internet users don't think that people involved in online dating are desperate.

NBC Says 8 p.m. Is Not So Prime

The peacock has landed.

It's pretty clear that we are in the midst of a mass communicatons revolution where the reigning media giants--including major newspapers, recording companies and broadcast television networks--are being humbled and Internet upstarts--MySpace and YouTube and a few other companies that apparently have never noticed the space bar--are remaking our world.

A recent Los Angeles Times article brings news of the latest breathtaking retreat from a tottering media titan. NBC will no longer run scripted shows (sitcoms or dramas) during the first hour of prime time, 8-9 p.m.. Instead, the network will run cheaper game shows reality shows. National Public Radio has also run an interesting story on this.

Talking about this with the MC101s, it was pretty apparent that many young adults are no longer willing to sit at home waiting for their favorite shows to come on.

Bon Bon: Oh, Go Ride a Bike!

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Get out and enjoy the outdoors on a bicycle. That may be a ride around the park, or something a little longer.

I'm up to my eyeballs in quizzes from my four MC101 classes and research papers from my political science class, while the weather is great outside. October usually brings wonderful weather to Southern California, except for the years that the Santa Ana winds encourage the hills to burst forth with brush fires.

Anyhow, I recommend that you get out and exert yourself before the weather turns cool and rainy (or smoky and firey). One of my favorite ways to get out and recreate is on a bicycle. And my favorite bicycling-through-the-great-outdoors web site is crazyguyonabike.com. There are some absolutely amazing bike trips on a web site that is an excellent example of what the web does best: gathering together people who are deeply committed to something, but would have had no practical way to communicate with each other back in the pre-Internet Stone Age (Paper Age?).

And just to be an obnoxiously shameless self-promoter, I'll toss in a link to the bike trip that I did last summer. So it's official ... I'm a crazyguy!

We Interrupt This Textbook to Sell You a Pizza...

Over the last 20 years, college textbook prices have risen twice the rate of inflation, according to an August 2005 study by the government Accountability Office.

Every college teacher in captivity (and a few out in the wild) knows that textbooks cost too much. But generally, not a lot is done about this sad situation. However, things may be about to change.

Freeload Press is publishing textbooks in ebook format, selling ads at the beginning and end of chapters, and giving away the downloads to students who have gone through the free registration process on the web site. Currently, Freeload's titles are almost all in business and finance (no Mass Comm titles that this humble blogger could sniff out). Teachers at some colleges are using these texts, according to a recent Christian Science Monitor article.

Interesting, but there are a few questions (besides the ones asked in class) that occurred to this blogger/educator:

•Do Freeload Press books go through the same editing and peer review process that traditional textbooks do?
•What policies are in place to make sure that the viewpoints of the advertisers don't influence the textbooks that get the green light versus those that are given a red light?
•What does Freeload Press do with the personal information it collects from students during the registration process?

YouTube Lookin' Good to MC101s

These MC101s were part of the group that turned out at the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills on Oct. 14. We attended a workshop entitled "Creating Careers in Television."

YouTube has become wildly popular among MC101 students. They use it to post videos about their cars, their bands, their pets, and anything else that comes to mind. Some also use it as a Tivo of last resort, fishing out and playing episiodes of TV shows that they have missed.

But is YouTube worth $1.65 billion? That's what Google paid for it recently. Some believe YouTube is worth every share (Google paid in company stock, not cash). Other investors believe that YouTube is essentially worthless because it is one big lawsuit away from disaster (think Napster).

The MC101s were not in a position to dispense financial advice, but they did note that YouTube is a significant part of their lives and that, in their estimation, it is not a passing fad. We listened to this National Public Radio story and then discussed the latest addition to the Google empire.

***GABCAST TEST I'm trying out Gabcast as the new host for the audio portion of club MediaNote. My early impression is that it is easy to make an audio post over the phone, but getting the post to play on the blog has been a little difficult. Here is the link to Gabcast Episode #1

Step Away from the SEND Button!

Mark Foley

I hope no one reading this had as bad a week as now Ex-Congressman Mark Foley had. He is at the epicenter of a scandal that has ruined his political career (and, presumably, his life).

Rep. Foley (R-FL) was caught sending salacious instant messages and emails to teenage congressional pages. While it is unclear at this time if he had any sexual contact with the underage boys, the resulting scandal has dimmed republican hopes that they will retain their majority in the House of Representatives and increases the possibility that the Democrats could win back the Senate as well. Meantime, Foley has resigned from office, publicly announced that he is gay, a victim of childhood sexual abuse, and an alcoholic. He has entered rehab, but it's unclear whether it is because his alcohol use is out of control or if he just wants to get away from the media. Meantime, media scrutiny has begun to focus on whether the House Republican leadership knew about Foley's misbehavior but failed to do anything about it.

A recent National Public Radio story pointed out that some news organizations knew about Rep. Foley's questionable communications with teenage pages almost a year ago, but felt the messages did not warrant a story because they were not sexually explicit. ABC News dug deeper and posted a story on the Internet. This caused others to come forward with incriminating tales about Rep. Foley, which led to a story on "World News Tonight" and Foley's hasty resignation from public office.

Blogs 'n Books

The flyer is now out for our next MC101 field trip, a Saturday afternoon at Glendale's historic Alex Theater. Details will be provided in class.

Apparently, there are at least a few bloggers who have attracted book contracts via their online writing. According to a recent Yahoo! News/Reuters article, the success of these books has been mixed. However, some major publishers are beginning to take notice of the better-written blogs.

One blog-turned-book success story is "Blood, Sweat & Tea," which is based on the blog of Tom Reynolds, a London ambulance worker.

MC101s talked about whether blogs had a place in their education. Several students said they have classes (besides MC101) that are augmented by blogs.

Are you a MC101 student? Do you have a blog? Email me and I'll post the link on Club MediaNote.

Paradigm Shift

MC101s have to RSVP by phone or email in order to go to Saturday's "Creating Careers in Television" seminar at the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills.

I can't recall if I've introduced the term Paradigm Shift in MC101 this semester. Well, if it hasn't come up yet in class, let me define it for you. A paradigm is a framework for thinking about something. Once it was believed the sun, the planets and the stars revolved around the Earth. Then Nicolaus Copernicus introduced the idea that the Earth revolved around the Sun and not vice-versa. That's a paradigm shift. It's a revolutionary way of thinking about something and, as Copernicus found out, a lot of people find paradigm shifts threatening and react accordingly. (Attempted paradigm shifts that are ultimately not successful tend to be written off as subversive or crackpot ideas.)

This scenario from the Museum of Media History predicts a paradigm shift in how we produce, consume and profit from news and information. The scenario is powerful and unsettling. But is it plausable? Will media (particularly news media) become much more participatory than it is today, with audience members routinely submitting their own content? Will the whole notion of mass media (newspapers and television networks and the like) be overthown by mass media platforms, which could include search engines and personal networking sites and shopping and information portals? Will it become increasingly impossible to build a mass audience to watch the same show or read the same article (no matter how talented the people creating it) if there are amateur-produced shows and articles that appeal exactly to each individual's tastes?

We had some good conversation over this one.

Watch TV, Get Gas

Will Gas Station TV programming eventually come in both Regular and Supreme?

OK, I admit it. The headline to today's post is a bit crass but it is also true. Gas Station TV is local news, sports, weather and traffic programming that is streamed over the Internet to about 1,000 gas stations in Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta. Motorists can watch this TV-like programming as they fill up their tanks with gas.

Early indications are that Gas Station TV is a modest little hit. A survey of customers at gas stations with GSTV indicates that 77% of them watched the programming, 84% of them declare it a good source of information, and 89% say they will watch again the next time they are at the pump.

I think the future of television-like programming over the Internet may be a little like GSTV. Wherever there is a captive audience (a couple of MC101s suggested programming aimed at people waiting in DMV lines), there is the potential for a screen with programming and ads. And the Internet aspect of this guarantees that there will be room for an infinite number of "channels" for this type of programming. Furthermore, there will be the potential for interactivity.

***SEE YOU IN BEVERLY HILLS! All MC101s should have the flyer for our next field trip, "Creating Careers in Television," at the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills on Saturday, Oct. 14. Please be advised that you need to RSVP so that they will reserve a spot for you. The contact information is on your flyer.

Do Ultra-Thin Models Harm the Audience?

Today we discussed an issue that has been brewing for a couple of weeks: the decision by the Madrid (Spain) regional government to ban very thin models from appearing on the runway during Madrid's Fashion Week. The move has drawn a lot of comment across the mass media, and has included a lot of speculation as to whether the glamorization of very thin women leads to eating disorders among women in the general population.

After introducing the issue via a recent Yahoo!/Reuters news article, we discussed the issue, keeping close to the MC101 topic of whether images in a magazine or on the screen can encourage anorexia nervosa or other eating disorders. There were some interesting comments from the two classes I discussed this issue with. One student said that most women disregard very thin models and do not see them as an ideal, but she added that a few women probably do think of ultra-thin models as role models to be emulated. This led to several comments that adolescent and teenage females might be more susceptible to these images than women who are older. Another comment was that more realistic-sized models are inevitable in a society where the average person (male or female) is getting bigger, making the ban unnecessary.

***AUDIO MISSING The audio portion of this post is still floating around in cyberspace as I write this. This happens once in a while with AudioBlogger. When the audio link shows up, I will add it here.

***UPDATE WED. 10/4, NOON: The audio post I did on Monday is here, plus the reposts I did yesterday and today. Obviously, you don't need to hear me yammer on about the same subject three times, so I'll give you the link to the first post.

A delegation of 69 MC101s and guests turned out for a taping of Family Feud in Hollywood. It is always interesting to see in person how a television show is put together.

***SURVEY SAYS! We had a good time at our taping of Family Feud on Saturday. The shows went quick and we were out ahead of schedule. Our attendance raised money (I'll let you know how much when I get the check) for Save Our Classes, an organization that adds back essential Glendale College classes that have been axed due to budget limitations.