Text the Vote

It has always been a puzzle for political candidates, consultants, and political scientists: how do you get younger voters to register and turn out at the polls? MTV, of course, famously rocked the vote. On a whole different level, a bakery near where I live in Los Angeles, pledged a dozen free donuts to anyone with a ballot stub.

The Barack Obama campaign has embraced text messaging as a way to keep voters informed, to recruit them to spread the word to their friends, and to encourage them to register and vote. With the election a month and a half away, the campaign's huge database of cellphone numbers is about to get its greatest test. Our discussion was based on this National Public Radio story.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #53

Holy F-Bomb, Batman!

Back in the 1960s, Batman was a campy TV series chock-full of choreographed fight scenes (imagine dancers taking ever-so-rhythmic swings at one another), weird camera angels, and comic book colors. But no matter how dire the situation, no one ever cursed.

Well, media is a little more explicit now, and it's up for grabs as to whether that is a good thing or not. But until very recently Batman and Friends (and enemies) never cursed on the comic book pages. Then "All-Star Batman & Robin" #10 was published, and it contained all sorts of colorful language, much to the horror of p[ublisher DC Comics.

We discussed issues of community standards, audience segmentation, and free speech and free press rights based on the following Los Angeles Times story.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #52

Google as Goliath

Today's medianote was from a recent Los Angeles Times story that discussed the growing role of Google in our daily lives. The importance of this giant online company is all the more remarkable given that it has only been around for 10 years.

It is hard to imagine life without Google. We discussed whether an online company can become too big and too powerful.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #51

TV, Version 2.0

Most of us know by now that the world of broadcast television will change forever in February 2009 when analog signals will end, to be replaced by digital signals. What is probably less known is that the Federal Communications Commission will get a glimpse this week at how regular folks will handle the change to digital as Wilmington, North Carolina becomes the nation's first broadcast market to to all-digital.

There was a lot of discussion in class on who will win and who will lose in this changeover, and what the FCC can do to get the word out about exactly what will happen. We based our discussion on a recent Los Angeles Times article. (I was only able to link to the version of the story that appeared in an out-of-town newspaper.)
Gabcast! Club MediaNote #49

Fall 2008 Students: Welcome!

Club MediaNote will be your spot this semester for recaps of the medianotes presented in class.

It looks like it will be quite a semester in Mass Comm 101. All classes are beyond full. So, arrive early so that you can get a good seat. Or any seat.

Today's medianote was based on a brief wire service story about a multinational child porn ring that was broken up in Switzerland. This story invited classroom discussion about the new challenges faced in law enforcement where the accused may reside in another country.

TTH classes only.

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #50