Documentaries: Now Tanking at a Theater Near You!

It seems like it was just a year or two ago that documentaries were doing well at the movie box office. Penguins were on the march, Al Gore was predicting bad things for Greenland, and Morgan Sperlock was showing how helpful McDonalds could be if, for some reason, you wanted to get really fat.

But recently, documentaries have been box office duds. In fact, business has been so bad that some movie distributors are beginning to back away from them, according to this Los Angeles Times story.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #48

You Don't Put Gas in a Computer

In my political science classes, I talk about ripple effects. One thing changes, and it effects other things, sometimes in ways that aren't apparent at first.

Well, here's a ripple effect appropriate for a MC101 medianote: Rising oil prices are fueling increased use of the Internet. Well, think about it. If it's too expensive to drive someplace, or take a flight to a business conference, why not meet online? anyhow, that's the theory presented in this Yahoo! News story.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #47

E-Mail Overload

Is it just me, or does it seem that we are all swimming in unwanted, useless email?

But the next question is what do we do about it? It seems that email filters are of limited success. Is there any way to make compulsive emailers think twice before hitting the send button. Well, maybe there is, according to this National Public Radio story.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #46

Smile! You're on the Phone

The first medianote of the Summer 2008 session was about the growing sophistication of camera cell phones. According to this recent Yahoo! News article, some cell phones now have cameras that are good enough that a growing number of consumers are beginning to wonder if owning a separate digital camera is really necessary.

As we go through the first chapter in the textbook, this is an excellent example of media convergence.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #45