A Critical Forum on Media and Culture
A Critical Forum on Media and Culture
Sculpting a Digital Language
by: Robert Schrag / North Carolina State University
A number of responses to my last Flow column wondered what form the “digital language” I advocated might take. The question took me back to a very non-digital experience.
Laguna Beach
by: Anna McCarthy / New York University
“Oh my God, didn’t Morgan get pretty?” This was a friend’s response when I asked if he’d seen Laguna Beach, a new MTV reality show billed as “the real Orange County.” He wasn’t actually commenting on a character’s looks. Rather, he was parodying its signature mode of dialogue…
Murdoch’s Munificence
by: Michael Curtin / University of Wisconsin-Madison
Critics roundly denounce Rupert Murdoch as the most rapacious media baron of the current era, yet few have commented upon the fact that Sir Rupert is also our greatest media philanthropist.
The New “F” Word: Indexed Out of the Election Debate
by: Bill Herman / University of Pennsylvania
The most important question here is what actually happened on Election Day; most communication researchers are ill-equipped to do this.
My Big Flat Screen TV
by: Sharon Strover / University of Texas at Austin
Our household finally succumbed to the lure of the big flat screen TV. I wonder what we’ve brought into the house that may not be as obvious as the big screen itself.
Race and Reality…TV
by: L. S. Kim / University of California, Santa Cruz; UCLA
A prime-time line-up without reality television programming seems a lifetime ago.
Want to Hear a Scary Story?
by: Eileen R Meehan / Lousiana State University
Behind Van Helsing lurked a scary tale waiting to be told: General Electric’s purchase of Vivendi’s Universal Vivendi Entertainment unit, which made and released Van Helsing.
“Lost”
by: Allison McCracken / DePaul University
With a fall season marked by the popularity of programs entitled Without a Trace and Lost, the importance of loss as a televisual theme seems rather obvious.
News Corporation: From the Local to the Global
by: John Sinclair / Victoria University, Melbourne
At the end of last month, October 2004, Rupert Murdoch won shareholder approval to move News Corporation’s domicile and main stock market listing from Australia to the US.
10,000 Years of Media Flow
by: Faye Ginsburg / New York University
It’s one of those unseasonably warm Saturdays in November, a beautiful autumn day in New York City that competes with the films being shown in darkened rooms during the annual Margaret Mead Film Festival.
A Column About Columns
by: Horace Newcomb / University of Georgia
I wanted to provoke talk and thought about television, to show that it could be taken seriously.
Super Freaks
by: Heather Hendershot / Queens College
Whatever TV lacks in form it sometimes makes up for in content. TV may not look good, but it feels good.