DVD War Ends, Sony Rejoices

Format battles end in decisive victories. A century ago disk records defeated recording on tin cylinders. In the 1950s, 45rpm records won out over 78s. In the battle of video tape formats, VHS beat Beta.

And now, in the battle to control the next generation of high-capacity DVDs, Sony's Blue-Ray has defeated Toshiba's HD-DVD. What does this mean for consumers, for the studios that release movies and other content on DVD? Is broadband Internet going to make DVDs of all types obsolete?

We discussed these and other questions after a presentation of this Los Angeles Times article.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #28

O$car Winners

Is winning an Oscar good for a movie's box office receipts and DVD sales? According to a recent National Public Radio story, this year's Oscar-nominated movies may not get much of a bounce. Also, we had an interesting discussion about whether young adults are tuning out of the Oscar broadcast.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #27

YouTube: More Than Plopping Mentos into Diet Coke

To many of us, YouTube is a funny, weird, disgusting collection of clips featuring skydiving cats and guys in lab coats plopping Mentos into Diet Cokes. But a recent Yahoo! News story indicates that YouTube may be emerging as a political tool.

The story linked above was about the upcoming elections in Spain, but YouTube questions have been used in Presidential primary debates in the U.S. The discussion in class centered around other ways that YouTube can be a powerful political tool.

Welcome Spring 2008 Students

It's Feb. 19, Opening Day of the Spring 2008 semester, and Mass Comm 101 is packed with students.

World Going Wireless

According to a United Nations report summarized in a recent Yahoo! News story, the developing world is starting to get onto the internet and talk on cell phones. According to the UN report, internet availability in developed countries was 10 times higher than in undeveloped countries in 2002, but the gap was reduced to six times higher in 2006.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #25

Bugging Britney Brings Big Bucks

A recent National Public Radio story described the profits to be had by hounding Britney Spears. New revelations, not to mention exclusive photos, of the troubled pop diva can bring in big bucks.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #24

Gossip Girl's Uncounted Audience

A recent Los Angeles Times story discussed the CW series "Gossip Girl" as perhaps the first post-television television show. "Gossip Girl" is very popular as an iTunes download and has a thriving web site and blog. But so far that online popularity hasn't translated into big Nielsen ratings. CW executives say the show is a youth-oriented hit, even if the traditional television ratings do not record the many ways in which fans enjoy the show.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #23

Truth Squad

On Saturday, Feb. 2 a group of MC101s made their way to the Alex Theater for an Alex Film Society screening of To Kill a Mockingbird. Randy Carter of the AFS addresses the MC101s.

A recent National Public Radio story interviewed a representative of Politifact, an organization that examines campaign ads to see if they are telling the truth. Amazingly, some of them are actually pretty truthful.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #22

Snail Mail Campaign

Since we are finishing up the chapter on advertising AND because we are getting close to Election Day, I did a medianote on direct mail political advertising. It can be very precisely targeted to particular subgroups of voters. It also provided an opportunity to discuss the general effectiveness of direct mail.