Media Industries

New books on the media industries (and related book review assignment)

2010-12-27T22:18:00.001-05:00

As the midterm assignment for my Media Industries graduate seminar (new syllabus to be posted soon), students write up book reviews of recent publications.

The main requirements I have for selecting a book include:

The book has to have been published in the last three years, thereby increasing the odds that the student can publish their review;
A reasonable amount of the book has to focus on the media industries. (I leave the exact amount open for discussion between myself and the student – they need to make the case.);
Students have to be able to identify a venue to which they could send it for publication. Prior to writing their reviews, students are advised to read the submission instructions as well as look at sample reviews in a range of journals (e.g., Popular Communication, Cinema Journal, Television and New Media, Scope, etc.). Ideally, those students who are satisfied with their reviews can subsequently send them out for publication.

I tried this assignment for the first time last spring and the students told me they found it to be a worthwhile exercise. They were able to spend a week of the semester focusing on a subject that was of interest to them while also learning to craft an essay that suited the particular (and peculiar?) demands of the scholarly book review format.

A few caveats about this list: I have not had a chance to read many of the books on the list, and thus cannot speak to the extent to which all are focused explicitly on the media industries per se. Also, not all of the books are by media studies scholars. Indeed, there is a rich body of work on the media industries being generated by journalists, mediamakers, media activists and legal scholars, among others. Further, if I knew the book was going to be released soon and saw that it was already listed on Amazon, I put it on the list. It would be wonderful if could hyperlink each book to Amazon or add some articles to my list as well, but I can’t set aside that kind of time, at least right now.

Many of the books listed here have been recommended to me by others. Thanks in particular to Ben Aslinger, Jennifer Holt, Cynthia Meyers, and Mark Stewart for their suggestions. I also recommend checking out Aymar Jean Christian’s blog for a more extensive list of canonical essays and books.

If you have recommendations for additional books that I might include, please let me know. I hope this list can prove useful for others trying to keep track of this type of work which, much to my joy, seems to be getting larger and more diverse every year.

Books on the media industries (since 2008) below the jump:

· Chris Anderson, Free: The Future of a Radical Price (2009)

· Ken Auletta, Googled: The End of the World as We Know It (2009)

· Robert Babe, Cultural Studies and Political Economy: Toward a New Integration (2008)

· Doris Baltruschat, Global Media Ecologies: Networked Production in Film and Television (2010)

· Nancy Baym, Personal Connections in the Digital Age (2010)

· Christine Becker, It’s the Pictures that Got Small: Hollywood Film Stars on 1950s Television (2009)

· James Bennett and Niki Strange, eds., Television as Digital Media (forthcoming, 2011)

· Denise Bielby and C. Lee Harrington, Global TV: Exporting Television and Culture in the World Market

· Robert Alan Brookey, Hollywood Gamers: Digital Convergence in the Film and Video Game Industries (2010)

· Jean Burgess and Joshua Green, YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture (2009)

· John Caldwell, Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film & TV (2008)

· Bill Carter, The War for Late Night (2010)

· Paul Ceruzzi and William Aspray, eds., The Internet and American Business (2010)

· Jeff Chester, Digital Democracy: New Media and the Future of Democracy (2008)

· Michael Curtin and Jane Shattuc, The American Television Industry (2009)

· Darrell William Davis and Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh, East Asian Screen Industries (2008)

· Mark Deuze, editor, Managing Media Work (2010)

· Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter, Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games (2009)

· Edward Jay Epstein, The Hollywood Economist: The Hidden Financial Reality Behind the Movies (2010)

· Greg Elmer, Locating Migrating Media (2010)

· Sam Ford, Abigail De Kosnik and C. Lee Harrington, eds., The Survival of Soap Opera: Transformations for a New Media Era (2010)

· Des Freedman, The Politics of Media Policy (2008)

· Mark Garrett Cooper, Universal Women: Filmmaking and Institutional Change in Early Hollywood (2010)

· Darcy Gerbarg, ed., Television Goes Digital (2010)

· Jennifer Gillan, Television and New Media (2010)

· Gerald Goggin, Global Mobile Media (2010)

· Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu, eds., Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World (2008)

· Jonathan Gray, Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media Paratexts (2010)

· Joshua M. Greenberg, From Betamax to Blockbuster: Video Stores and the Invention of Movies on Video (2010)

· Stephen R. Greenwald and Paula Landry, This Business of Film: A Practical Guide to Achieving Success in the Film Industry (2009)

· Jostein Gripsrud, ed., Relocating Television: Television in the Digital Context (2010)

· Jostein Gripsrud and Lennart Weilbull, eds., Media, Markets and Public Spheres: European Media at the Crossroads (2010)

· David Hesmondhalgh and Sarah Baker, Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries (2010)

· Lucas Hilderbrand, Inherent Vice: Bootleg Histories of Videotape and Copyright (2009)

· Larissa Hjorth and Dean Chan, eds., Gaming Cultures in Asia-Pacific (2009)

· Jennifer Holt and Alisa Perren, eds., Media Industries: History, Theory, and Method (2009)

· Lewis Hyde, Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership (2010)

· Petros Iosifidis, Jeanette Steemers, and Mark Wheeler, European Television Industries (2008)

· Anne Jackal, European Film Industry (2008)

· Jeff Jarvis, What Would Google Do? (2009)

· Jesper Juul, A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and Their Players (2010)

· Tom Kemper, Hidden Talent: The Emergence of Hollywood Agents (2009)

· Geoff King, Indiewood, U.S.A.: Where Hollywood Meets Independent Cinema (2009)

· Eric Klinenberg, Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media (2008)

· Jonathan A. Knee, Bruce C. Greenwald and Ava Seave, The Curse of the Mogul (2009)

· Marwan M. Kraidy and Joe F. Khalil, Arab Television Industries (2009)

· Lawrence Lessig, Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in a Hybrid Economy (2008)

· Nicole Laporte, The Men Who Would be King: The Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies and a Company Called DreamWorks (2010)

· Brian Larkin, Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria (2008)

· Amanda Lotz, ed., Beyond Prime Time (2009)

· Alison Macor, Chainsaws, Slackers and Spykids: Thirty Years of Filmmaking in Austin, Texas (2010)

· Robert Marich, Marketing to Moviegoers: A Handbook of Strategies and Tactics (2^nd ed., 2009)

· Denise Mann, Hollywood Independents: The Postwar Talent Takeover (2008)

· Vicki Mayer, Miranda J. Banks and John T. Caldwell, eds., Production Studies: Cultural Studies of the Media Industries (2009)

· Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols, The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again (2010)

· Paul McDonald, Video and DVD Industries (2008)

· Toby Miller, Nitin Govil, John McMurria, Ting Wang, and Richard Maxwell, Global Hollywood 2 (2008)

· Ole J. Mjos, Media Globalization and the Discovery Channel Networks (2009)

· Markus Montola, Jaako Stenros and Annika Waern, eds., Pervasive Games: Theory and Design (2009)

· Albert Moran, ed., TV Formats Worldwide: Localizing Global Programs (2010)

· Philip Napoli, Audience Evolution: New Technologies and the Transformation of Media Audiences (2010)

· Randy Nichols, The Global Videogames Industry (forthcoming, 2011)

· Jon Reiss, Think Outside the Box Office (2010)

· Andrew Ross, Nice Work If You Can Get It: Life and Labor in Precarious Times (2010)

· Dan Schiller, How to Think about Information (2010)

· James Schwoch, Global TV: New Media and the Cold War, 1946-69 (2008)

· Barbara Selznick, Global Television: Co-Producing Culture (2008)

· Shawn Shimpach, Television in Transition: The Life and Afterlife of the Narrative Action Hero (2010)

· Robert C. Sickels, ed., The Business of Entertainment (3 volume set, 2008)

· J.P. Singh, Globalized Arts: The Entertainment Economy and Cultural Identity (2010)

· Ted Striphas, The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control (2009)

· David Suisman, Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music (2009)

· Kristin Thompson, The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood (2008)

· Chuck Tryon, Reinventing Cinema: Movies in the Age of Media Convergence (2009)

· Graeme Turner and Jinna Tay, eds, Television Studies after TV: Understanding Television in the Post-Broadcast Era (2009)

· Joseph Turow, Niche Envy (2008)

· Jeff Ulin, The Business of Media Distribution: Monetizing Film, TV and Video Content in an Online World (2009)

· Siva Vaidnyathan, The Googlization of Everything (forthcoming, 2011)

· Barbara van Schewick, Internet Architecture and Innovation (2010)

· Harold L. Vogel, Entertainment Industry Economics: A Guide for Financial Analysis (8^th ed., 2010)

· Janet Wasko and Paul McDonald, eds., The Hollywood Film Industry (2008)

· Patrik Wikstrom, The Music Industry: Music in the Cloud (2010)

· Tim Wu, The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (2010)

· Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet – and How to Stop It (2009)

A few additions to the list:

· Caroline Frick, Saving Cinema (2011)

· Robert C. Sickels, American Film in the Digital Age (2010)

· Steve J. Wertzler, Electric Sounds: Technological Change and the Rise of Mass Media (2008)

In Media Res, Two Months In (and the Fall 2010 Call for Curators)

2010-09-01T16:51:00.000-04:00

It's been a little over two months since I started serving as Coordinating Editor for In Media Res. Fortunately, I have been blessed with a terrific group of Georgia State grad students to help with the administrative, recruiting and technical tasks. I am pleased with how all is progressing thus far, and we have a (long and growing) list of additional goals for the site that we hope to institute over the course of the next several months.

One of the most immediate changes we have decided to enact involves moving away from individual open submissions to focusing instead solely on theme weeks. We have found that the best conversations can be generated when a group of people are focused on discussing the same topic over the course of the week. We also hope that this set-up can prove valuable pedagogically, as an entire week's conversation might be assigned for a class to read, watch and comment on.

I would love to hear any suggestions you might have regarding additional improvements we can make to the site. In addition, if you have used posts for either teaching or research purposes, please let me know -- it is helpful for us to get a better sense of how the site is used (as well as how you might like to use it in the future). You can email me at aperren at gsu dot edu or through the In Media Res email address (inmediares.gsu at gmail dot com).

Another change we are implementing involves meeting to arrange our schedule on a quarterly basis. Individual In Media Res staff members handle a given week. Each theme week coordinator then decides whether they would like to recruit curators on their own or have their week be part of the general quarterly call. We will meet in early November to plan for our spring schedule, so if you have any ideas for future theme weeks -- or would like to help coordinate one -- please do contact us.

Below the fold are the weeks for the Fall 2010 Schedule for which we are currently accepting proposals from interested curators.

For each individual topic, click on the hyperlink to receive more information on that week’s topic, along with details on how to submit a proposal. We also have added a "Current Calls" tab to the In Media Res site which provides the most up-to-date information. Be sure to check back there regularly for new calls.

September 27 – October 1: Banned Books

October 4-8: Animals in the Media

October 25-29: Branding (call forthcoming)

November 1-5: Regional Elections

November 8-12: Sports & Media: Football/Futbol

November 15-19: The Harry Potter Franchise

December 13-17: Spectatorship & Film

Proposals need not be any longer than a sentence or two.

If interested in contributing to any of these weeks, please contact In Media Res with topic proposals or for more information about the individual theme week(s). Be sure to include the name of the theme week for which you would like to be involved in the subject line of the e-mail.

Academics, journalists, critics, media professionals and fans are all welcome to submit proposals.

The actual piece should include a 30-second to 3-minute clip, an image, or a slideshow accompanied by a 300 to 350 word response to/contextualization of the clip, image, or slideshow. In addition to curating your piece, you will be expected to engage with the other pieces presented that week as a means of fostering discussion and further fleshing out the individual topic in relation to the week’s theme.

New Publications!

2010-08-05T04:01:00.000-04:00

I'm happy to report that a couple of articles that I worked on last year have come out in the past few weeks. Both of these articles came out quite quickly (at least in terms of scholarly publishing).

The first piece, "Business as Unusual: Conglomerate-Sized Challenges for Film and Television in the Digital Arena," is part of a special issue from the Journal of Popular Film and Television on the state of TV edited by Ron Simon and Brian Rose. I feel honored to be included in the company of Jonathan Gray, Victoria Johnson, Laurie Ouellette, Derek Kompare, Daniel Chamberlain, Denise Mann and Max Dawson. My essay surveys the diverse ways that film and TV divisions of media conglomerates are circulating their content online. Even since I completed it last summer, certain companies have shifted their strategies. Nonetheless, I hope it provides a useful snapshot of a particular historical moment.

The second piece, "Producing Filmed Entertainment," is a chapter in Mark Deuze's new edited collection, Managing Media Work. This essay looks at how decisions made with regard to labor, technology, locations, and marketing are having a substantial impact not only on the opportunities and constraints facing those working in production but also on the types of commercial film and television content shown on various screens. Again, I'm excited to be included with the diverse group of cultural studies, communication, media studies and management scholars in this collection.

I also recently wrote about my experiences at Comic-Con for the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Media and Cultural Studies website, Antenna. I'm hoping to blog more about the event here in the next few days...

A New Look, A New URL

2010-06-27T04:33:00.001-04:00

Media Industries and Other Stuff was a good starter name, sure, but it proved to be far too clunky and unwieldy. Please welcome the newly re-branded and oh-so-simple The Media Industries (http://www.themediaindustries.net/). (As long as you think this re-branding effort is better than, say, the one shown above, I'm happy.)

Along with a new name, you will notice that the site has a spiffy new look. I have also gone through and updated the links throughout, adding some new ones and deleting dead ones. As always, please do contact me via Twitter (http://twitter.com/aperren) or email (aperren at gsu dot edu) if you have any suggestions.

Advice for Aspiring Film & TV Writers: A Chat with Burn Notice's Michael Horowitz

2010-06-21T19:03:00.028-04:00

As part of research for an essay (forthcoming), I recently interviewed Burn Notice staff writer, Michael Horowitz. After years of developing a career as a feature film writer, Horowitz transitioned into television writing at the start of the second season of Burn Notice. We chatted at length about how much more fulfilling he often found writing for TV to be these days, as opposed to writing for feature films. During the course of our conversation, he also offered some useful advice for those interested in writing for both film and television, which I wanted to pass on here.

AP: Do you have any recommendations for people who want to become writers?

MH: There is some basic advice that I got a long time ago. Everybody who is trying to do any version of this, I think will succeed. If you really want to write anything for film or television, there is no better litmus test: Write ten scripts and throw them away. And just keep powering through. Everybody just gets obsessed with their first script. Stuck on it forever.

AP: Yes.

MH: And I think nothing gets you better faster than writing a script, giving it to some friends. Have them read it and give you notes. Then go do a revision – actually go through and take it all the way to the end, you know, like two drafts. Then throw it away. Because it’s terrible. And then do it again. I legitimately think I would say do ten [different scripts] if you can. I sort of wish I could go back in a time machine to the college me, when I had endless stamina for writing and all the time in the world and liked to stay up all night. Write ten and throw them away. Five is more reasonable for people, but just keep powering through stuff. If you want to do TV, if you want to do hour-long series, you should be writing one episode of every show.

He continued:

MH: That’s the easy way to do it. Have an original spec or two and just keep pounding through. If you are doing features, there are plenty of people who come up with ten ideas, but I think the easy approach is “Pick any movie you like,” such as The Hangover, and then switch two things about it. Make it unrecognizable. Do a gender switch so it’s now women. Do a decade switch, so it’s now in the seventies. Or turn it into a drama.

AP: That’s great advice.

MH: I just think it’s all about writing and writing and writing. One of my advantages is that I just wrote tons of stuff when I was a struggling writer. I was just pumping out ten scripts a year for a while, and I don’t think they were that awesome. But a few of them are doing things now, and a few of them I just have in my back pocket. And more importantly, I got the practice.

AP: Those are terrific suggestions. I know that one of the things that frustrates me when I talk to some students – and I’m sure that you probably see this when you talk to young writers – is the idea that their first script is a masterpiece and that it should be enough to get them a job.

MH: Right, totally. And that script is terrible. There is no getting around it, there is no way they are the first person ever to write a great script the first time. [One exception] may be if they are an actor who reads a billion scripts and they have been thinking about scripts forever, or a director who is doing the same thing. But there is no way that a writer is just born overnight. Some people are better with dialogue, and maybe there are great things in it, but they are still better served by powering out other scripts.

ALSO:

If you are looking for additional information on how to develop your film/TV writing skills, I recommend starting with John August's blog (The Nines, Corpse Bride), Ken Levine's blog (Frasier, Cheers), the WGA's website (of course), and the book Big Picture, Small Screen by Chad Gervitch.

Also be sure to check out this video from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) panel on TV showrunners put together by Henry Jenkins and Denise Mann, and featuring Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof (Lost), Tim Kring and Mark Warshaw (Heroes), Javier Grillo-Marxuach (The Middleman), and Kim Moses (Ghost Whisperer).

Call for Curators: In Media Res (updated June 26, 2010)

2010-06-17T17:37:00.012-04:00

As you might have noticed, I put this blog in hibernation while I focused on finishing a couple of major projects. However, now that those projects are winding down, I hope to be posting here more frequently. One of the big pieces of news on my end is that I will be taking over the position of Coordinating Editor of In Media Res from Avi Santo. If you aren’t familiar with In Media Res, it is a website devoted to experimenting with collaborative, multi-modal online forms of scholarship. Every day, a different individual provides a 300-to-350 word impressionistic provocation to accompany a 30-second to 3-minute clip of their choosing. It is one of several projects affiliated with the MediaCommons digital scholarly network. (I highly recommend checking out this week's fantastic posts on fan/celebrity relationships while you are there!)

Avi has developed and run an amazing site for several years, and it will be hard to match what he has accomplished. Fortunately, I have a terrific team of graduate students at Georgia State University that will be helping me out. With a larger team working on the site, we hope to build on what Avi has created. I will post more information about our plans over the next several months.

In the meantime, below is our summer call for curators. I hope you will consider curating a clip for one of these theme weeks. Proposals need not be any longer than a sentence or a general idea. Additional guidelines will be provided upon receipt of your proposal (don't worry, we handle the tech).

Summer Call for Curators

In Media Res is currently seeking theme-week curators for the period of July 19, 2010 through September 17, 2010. Please forward this CFC to anyone you think might be interested in taking part. Descriptions of the planned theme-weeks included below are meant as a guide only—individual contributors have wide berth for their own creativity and interests.

July 19-23 Gulf Oil Spill. We encourage curators to employ examples of official and unofficial discourses, images, videos and responses about the spill.

August 2-6 Lady Gaga’s gender/queerness. Leading up to her performance at Lollapalooza, consider Lady Gaga’s media performances and popularity with attention to her gendered and/or queer style or aesthetic. Topics could include: Filming the femme fatale; (s)experimental avant-garde styles; queer monstrosity; feminist figurations for embodied media forms or formats; strange mediations drawing “gay gays” to Gaga; etc.

August 9-13 Action Films. To correspond with the upcoming release of Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables (8/13/2010), address the current state of the action film and its displays of masculinity. Examples of topics might include: hardbody nostalgia (political, cultural, etc.); presentations of the body; contemporary action genres; global circulation of action films; technology; bodies, action sequences, and CGI; and stardom in contemporary Hollywood.

August 16-20 Wrestling. To coincide with the WWE’s (World Wrestling Entertainment) annual SummerSlam pay-per-view event, address the contemporary landscape and state of professional wrestling. Examples of topics range from: an assessment of the wrestling industry that is dominated by Vince McMahon’s WWE; an evaluation of the genre, including changes over time, region, and promoter/company; wrestling audiences; and the role of professional wrestling in contemporary culture.

August 23-27 Regulation. Address a recent regulatory or policy debate, such as the Comcast-NBCU merger, network neutrality, the Future of Media Initiative, etc. Examples of a video prompt might include a clip of news coverage, a video by an activist group, a comic commentary, and clips of protestors, etc.

August 30- Sept 3 Children's Culture. In anticipation of the new school year, consider the current state of children's culture, including either children's media (film, TV, games, and web-based texts) or media representations of children. Topics may include Hollywood’s summer film releases, the current state of children's television such as the products of Disney or the Children’s Television Workshop, marketing materials from the “back to school” season, or the economics of children’s media more broadly.

Sept 6-10 Dragon*Con. We are looking for a variety of topics relating to Dragon*Con - one of the largest science fiction and fantasy conventions in the United States. Examples of potential topics include acts of fan-production/fandom (fan films, fan fiction, costume creation, prop creation, collecting licensed and fan-produced merchandise, etc.); role-playing; fan clubs; star studies/the fetish of the celebrity; the globalization of media; genre hybridity; etc.

Sept 13-17 Film Festivals. As the Toronto International Film Festival completes this week, we invite contributions about this and other film festivals. Possible topics include defining film festival studies or the film canon, the film festival and nationalism, the festival and transnational flows, cinephilia, the audience, or the festival and the archive, among others.

Propose a future theme week or submit for an open call week: We welcome suggestions for future theme weeks. You may also submit on a topic of your choice for an open call week.

All correspondence can be sent to the editors of In Media Res at inmediares.gsu at gmail dot com. Be sure to include the name of the theme week you would like to be involved with in the subject line of the email. If you are proposing a future theme week or wish to submit for an open call week, please note this in the subject line as well.

If you have not yet had the opportunity to check out IMR, please do so at: http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/imr/.

Books on the Media Industries

2010-03-05T03:00:00.015-05:00

This semester, my graduate students are doing a book review for their mid-term assignment. They are being asked to follow the instructions of a particular publication that actually would publish such a review. To help them get started, I pulled together this list of recent books on the media/cultural industries.

You'll see that my definition of both "industry" and "recent" is a bit loose (some books below were published about five years ago, and thus wouldn't be considered viable for actual publication). Nonetheless, I think this is a useful exercise to undertake. I have included both trade and academic publications on this list as well.

I am not aware of a place online where book-length publications on the media industries are located -- if you do know of a place, please let me know! The most recent list I have seen is Jason Mittell's on Amazon, which is quite helpful but a few years old at this point.

I hope that you will add suggestions of other books to this comments section -- I am sure I have missed many titles, and would love to continue to build this list as an online resource. At some point I will try to create a separate Amazon list as well.

It is exciting to see so much compelling work coming out these days!

Chris Anderson, Free: The Future of a Radical Price
Ken Auletta, Googled: The End of the World as We Know It
Robert Babe, Cultural Studies and Political Economy: Toward a New Integration
Doris Baltruschacht, Global Media Ecologies: Networked Production in Film and Television (forthcoming)
Sarah Banet-Weiser, Kids Rule! Nickelodeon and Consumer Citizenship
Christine Becker, It’s the Pictures that Got Small: Hollywood Film Stars on 1950s Television
Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks
Alex Ben Block and Lucy Autrey Wilson, George Lucas's Blockbusting
Georgina Born, Uncertain Vision: Birt, Dyke and the Reinvention of the BBC
Megan Brown, The Cultural Work of Corporations
John Caldwell, Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film & TV
Bill Carter, Desperate Networks
Michael Curtin, Playing to the World’s Biggest Audience: Globalization of Chinese Film & TV
Michael Curtin and Jane Shattuc, The American Television Industry
Suzanne Daniels and Cynthia Littleton, Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of the WB and UPN
Mark Deuze, Media Work
Mara Einstein, Media Diversity: Economics, Ownership and the FCC
Edward Jay Epstein, The Hollywood Economist: The Hidden Reality Behind the Movies
Des Freedman, The Politics of Media Policy
Jeff Jarvis, What Would Google Do?
John Hartley, editor, Creative Industries
Timothy Havens, Global Television Marketplace
David Hesmondhalgh, The Cultural Industries (2nd ed)
Jeffrey Hirschberg, ed, The Business of Entertainment (three volume set)
Jonathan A. Knee, Bruce C. Greenwald and Ava Seave, The Curse of the Mogul
Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture
Eric Klinenberg, Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media
Derek Kompare, Rerun Nation
William Kunz, Culture Conglomerates: Consolidation in the Motion Picture and TV Industries
Lawrence Lessig, Remix: Making Art and Culture Thrive in a Hybrid Economy
Amanda Lotz, The Television Will Be Revolutionized
Amanda Lotz, editor, Beyond Prime Time
Alison Macor, Chainsaws, Slackers and Spykids: Thirty Years of Filmmaking in Austin, Texas
Denise Mann, Hollywood Independents: The Postwar Talent Takeover
Grant McCracken, Chief Culture Officer: How to Create a Living, Breathing Corporation
Paul McDonald, Video and DVD Industries
Paul McDonald and Janet Wasko, eds, The Contemporary Hollywood Film Industry
Toby Miller, Nitin Govil, John McMurria, Ting Wang and Richard Maxwell, Global Hollywood 2
Jon Reiss, Thinking Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution and Marketing in the Digital Era
Barbara Selznick, Global Television: Co-Producing Culture
Shawn Shimpach, Television in Transition: The Life and Afterlife of the Narrative Action Hero
Beretta Smith-Shomade, Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy: Selling Black Entertainment Television
Lynn Spigel, TV By Design: Modern Art and the Rise of Network Television
David Suisman, Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music
Kristin Thompson, The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood
Serra Tinic, On Location: Canada’s Television Industry in a Global Market
Chuck Tryon, Reinventing Cinema: Movies in the Age of Media Convergence
Joseph Turow, Niche Envy
Siva Vaidnyathan, The Anarchist in the Library
Patrik Wikstrom, The Music Industry: Music in the Cloud
Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet – and How to Stop It

Also in the interest of keep this list "complete," these are our assigned readings for the class this semester, in the order they are being read:

David Croteau and William Hoynes, The Business of Media (2nd edition)
Jennifer Holt and Alisa Perren, eds., Media Industries: History, Theory, and Method
Michele Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting: From Radio to Cable
Tom Kemper, Hidden Talent: The Emergence of Hollywood Agents
Vicki Mayer, Miranda J. Banks and John Thornton Caldwell, eds., Production Studies: Cultural Studies of the Media Industries
Paul Grainge, Brand Hollywood: Selling Entertainment in a Global Media Age
Charles Acland, Screen Traffic: Movies, Multiplexes and Global Culture
Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity
Stephen Kline, Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig De Peuter, Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture and Marketing

Requiem for a Heavyweight

2010-01-28T22:59:00.076-05:00

Last night, a colleague called me for some advice. She was updating a handout she gives to her students every semester that covers the major distributors of specialty (aka indie aka independent) film. Before she began rattling off company names, I tried to convey to her how depressing this was going to be.

The conversation went something like this:

Her: Paramount Vantage?

Me: Gone.

Her: Warner Independent?

Me: Gone.

Her: Picturehouse?

Me: Gone. Gone. Gone. Also, cross off ThinkFilm. And New Yorker Films. Note that New Line has been downsized. Focus has cut back. IFC buys lots of films but doesn't pay much.

Pause.

Me: And I don't know where you should put Miramax. It's all but dead. But I don't think that Disney will actually *kill* it.
Then I woke up this morning. What was the first thing I saw? A zillion tweets along the lines of "RIP Miramax," "Miramax killed by Disney," etc.

Sharon Waxman of The Wrap broke the story this morning, and as she notes, this news does not come as a surprise to anyone who has been following indie film. There are any number of moments that one can point to when it was clear that Miramax was on its way out. One could cite the moment when Robert Iger replaced Michael Eisner at Disney and the Weinsteins left the company in 2005 or, more recently, when the Weinsteins' replacement, Daniel Battsek, announced he was leaving in late October 2009.

In spite of the fact that Miramax's fate had long been sealed, it was startling for me to see that this moment had actually come to pass. It is odd to me to mourn the death of a company, of all things. And yet for both personal and professional reasons, the end of Miramax hits me fairly hard.

I spent much of the '90s seeing -- and enjoying -- Miramax movies. From sex, lies, and videotape to The Crying Game, Walking and Talking to The Piano, Emma to Pulp Fiction, much of my moviegoing time (and my time as an undergraduate) was spent seeing Miramax movies. I was their target audience. I bought into the hype of independence, the rhetoric of quality they so aggressively sold. Throughout the decade, I actively sought out Miramax movies. The brand meant something to me. Indeed, my curiosity about the company led me to write about it for my Masters thesis. This, in turn, led me to pursue a dissertation topic on a TV company that functioned similarly in the industry in terms of branding and niche marketing (although in very few other ways): Fox.

A few years ago, I returned to my earlier research on Miramax and began to consider how to expand my topic and reframe my discussion as a history of the reconstitution of Hollywood in the 1990s. By then, it was already clear that the particular story of Miramax that had come to interest me -- a story that involved the emergence of studio-based specialty divisions as well as the cultural struggles over the meanings and uses of terms like independent, indie and Indiewood -- had long since come to its conclusion. As such, none of these recent developments with indie film affect my book all that much. But they do make the tale of Miramax that much more poignant, especially since I am concluding revisions on the manuscript right now and preparing to send it to the publisher within days.

It is odd to conclude the writing process even as Miramax's own history concludes. It is all-the-more striking that this is taking place even as Sundance winds down -- a Sundance that, by nearly all reports I have seen, was notable mainly for its lack of deals. Sundance, much like Miramax, just doesn't have the cache that it used to. There may be a new person running the festival, and Robert Redford may be committed to return Sundance "to its roots," but all of this seems just a little too late. (Without seeing any of the films, it is hard to say how different they are from those shown in previous years. However, from what I can tell from reading the press coverage, the films aren't nearly as different as Redford would like to have us believe.)

The end of Miramax ultimately represents the definitive conclusion of a certain era for indie film. No new generation has yet broken through, and I don't think they will in the same way that the Tarantinos, Smiths and Rodriguezes did. In spite of the best efforts of many marketers and journalists, mumblecore never took off. Meanwhile, with The Weinstein Company, the brothers have tried to replicate what worked with '90s-era Miramax. But it is a different time, a different industrial climate, and moviegoing habits have changed. At present, the Weinsteins find themselves struggling to keep their company afloat. As far as next generation indie companies go, Summit and Lionsgate show the most promise. However, their business strategies and the kinds of films they release are substantively different (but that is the subject for another post...).

So what's next? Much remains in flux at the moment, but it seems likely that both the films and the companies releasing them will scarcely resemble Miramax. As with every sector of the media industries, long-standing business models and distribution strategies are in crisis. There are some companies, such as Magnolia and IFC, that are experimenting with making their content available simultaneously online, on TV via PPV, and in theaters. There are others who are trying to re-think the system more radically (for a discussion of how indie filmmakers are using social media, see Chuck Tryon's book, Reinventing Cinema; also check out the blogs of Jon Reiss, Brian Newman, Ted Hope, Scott Kirsner and Peter Broderick for some fruitful discussion about the possibilities for low-budget films in the future). Ongoing conversations about how to re-think independent film are also taking place through The Workbook Project and Power to the Pixel, along with other venues.

I suppose it is telling that what drew me to indie film in the first place -- rich characters, strong storytelling, stylistic experimentation -- I rarely seek (or find) in these movies any longer. In fact, I now turn to television to find them. And that's where many of the '90s-era indie filmmakers have gone as well -- at least for now.

Rest in peace, Miramax.

Syllabus: History of Independent Film (undergrad)

2010-01-11T00:41:00.015-05:00

Course description:

This course will first trace the roots of commercially-oriented, low-budget fiction films and then examine their contemporary status. We will explore the industrial, socio-cultural and formal-aesthetic characteristics of independently produced, distributed and/or exhibited narrative features. A wide range of films will be analyzed, ranging from genre films to art films to studio-based indies. In addition, we will address the validity and usefulness of the label of “independence” within the present media context.

A key emphasis throughout the course will be on the relationships between independents and Hollywood, and the ways in which definitions of independence have changed over time. Special attention will be paid to the business of independent film throughout the semester.

In the first half of the course, we will survey the history of independent films in the U.S. through the mid-1970s. During the second half of the semester, we will examine the rapidly changing independent landscape of the past three decades. Among the many issues to be discussed are the role of film festivals and film markets in making and marketing movies; the importance of new platforms such as VOD and the Internet for filmmakers; and the role that specialty divisions such as Fox Searchlight and Focus Films have played in contemporary Hollywood.

Please note: In general, this class will not discuss non-fiction, avant-garde and experimental cinema.

Objectives and outcomes: By the end of the course you should be able to…

Assess how and why certain types of independent films developed as they did at particular historical moments;

Understand the shifting relationship between independent films and Hollywood product;

Recognize the changing meaning of the term “independent” during the course of the 20^th century;

Appreciate and critique the different ways that scholars research and write about film history.

SCHEDULE

Please note: Chapters and articles should be read for the *following* class meeting.

WEEK 1

Jan . 11 (M) Introductions

Book: Tzioumakis, Introduction

Screening: Baghead (2008, 84m)

Jan. 13 (W) Defining Independence

Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 1 (pp. 19-30)

Packet: Cooper, “Studio History Revisited: The Case of the Universal Women”

Part I: 1910s-1945: Independent Film in the Studio Era

WEEK 2

Jan. 18 (M) Independents in the Age of Silent Cinema

Packet: Regester, “The African-American Press and Race Movies, 1909-1929”

Screening: The Blot (1921, 80m)

Jan. 20 (W) Independents in the Age of Silent Cinema, cont’d

Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 1 (pp. 30-62)

WEEK 3

Jan. 25 (M) Independent Production in the Studio Era

Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 2

Screening: Detour (1945, 67m)

Jan. 27 (W) Poverty Row in the ‘30s and ‘40s

Packet: Selections from Taves, “The B Film: Hollywood’s Other Half”

WEEK 4

Feb. 1 (M) Poverty Row, cont’d

Packet: Schaefer, “‘The Monster that Caters to Thrill-Hungry Youth’ – The Drug Film”

Screening: Reefer Madness (1936, 67m)

Feb. 3 (W) Classical Exploitation Films

Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 3

WEEK 5

Feb. 8 (M) Classical Exploitation Films, cont’d

Packet: Wilinsky, “Reading for Maximum Ambiguity: A Consideration of the Art Film”

Screening: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, 18m); Lost Boundaries (1949, 99m)

Part II: 1946-1974: The Transitional Era

Feb. 10 (W) The Rise of Art Cinema

Packet: Wilinsky, “‘Any Leisure That Looks Easy is Suspect’: Art House Audiences and the Search for Distinction”

WEEK 6

Feb. 15 (M) Art Cinema, cont’d

Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 4

Screening: Bucket of Blood (1959, 66m)

Feb. 17 (W) Exploitation Films of the 1950s and ‘60s

*Hand out exam review sheet*

WEEK 7

Feb. 22 (M) Exploitation Films, cont’d; exam review session

Screening: Schlock! The Secret History of Movies (2001, 89m)

Feb. 24 (W) *Exam #1*

Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 5 (pp. 169-177; 184-187)

Packet: Film-Maker’s Cooperative Statement

WEEK 8

March 1 (M) New American Cinema

Packet: Marguilies, “John Cassavetes – Amateur Director”

*Full semester mid-point: Last day to withdraw and receive a “W”*

Screening: Faces (1968, 130m)

March 3 (W) New American Cinema, cont’d

Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 5 (pp. 177-184; 187-191)

Packet: Wyatt, “From Roadshowing to Saturation Release”

WEEK 9

March 8-10 ***Spring Break***

WEEK 10

March 15 (M) The “Hollywood Renaissance”

Packet: Heffernan, “Inner City Exhibition and the Genre Film”

Screening: Night of the Living Dead (1968, 96m); Start Billy Jack

March 17 (W) In-class screening: Continue Billy Jack (1971, 114m)

WEEK 11

March 22 (M) Exploitation, ‘70s-style

Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 6

Screening: Female Trouble (1974, 92m)

March 24 (W) Exploitation, cont’d

Packet: Levy, “The New American Independent Cinema”

*Discuss final paper assignment*

Part III: 1975-Present: From Independents to Indiewood

WEEK 12

March 29 (M) Independents, 1975-present: An Overview

Packet: Carson, “John Sayles, Independent Filmmaker”; King, “Alternative Visions: Social, Political & Ideological Dimensions of Independent Cinema” (pp. 197-222)

Screening: Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980, 110m)

March 31 (W) Overview, cont’d

Packet: Levy, “The New African American Cinema”

*Proposals due at the start of class*

WEEK 13

April 5 (M) The New African American Cinema

Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 7

Screening: Hollywood Shuffle (1987, 78m)

April 7 (W) Mini-Majors in the 1980s

Book: Tzioumakis, Chapter 8 & Epilogue

Packet: Rich, “New Queer Cinema”

Outside Screening: CHOOSE ONE – My Own Private Idaho (1991, 104m) or The Living End (1992, 92m)

WEEK 14

April 12 (M) The 1990s-Era Ultra Low-Budget Moment

Packet: Perren, “sex, lies and Marketing: Miramax and the Development of the Quality Indie Blockbuster”;

Lane, “Just Another Girl Outside the Neo-Indie”

Screening: Walking and Talking (1996, 86m)

April 14 (W) The Rise of the Studio-Based Indie

Packet: King, “Introduction: Indiewood in Contexts”

WEEK 15

April 19 (M) The Institutionalization of Indiewood

Packet: McDonald, “Miramax, Life is Beautiful, and the Indiewoodization of the Foreign-Language Film Market in the USA”

Screening: Life is Beautiful (1998, 116m)

April 21 (W) Indiewood, cont’d

Packet: Newman, “Indie Culture: In Pursuit of the Authentic Autonomous Alternative”

WEEK 16

April 26 (M) The Fall of Indiewood

Packet: Tryon, “Desktop Productions: Digital Distribution and Public Film Cultures”; selections from Filmmaker, indieWIRE

Screening: Four-Eyed Monsters (2006, 70m)

April 28 (W) New Millennium, New Directions

Syllabus: Media Industries (graduate)

2010-01-08T02:18:00.011-05:00

Following in the footsteps of many of my colleagues including Ben Aslinger and Annie Petersen, I am posting my syllabi for the spring.

First up is the syllabus for my grad course on Media Industries. This is my second time teaching the course, but the first time I have tried out my edited collection. Putting this class together was especially exciting since there is so much new scholarship available on the media industries. The biggest challenge involved narrowing down my choices (while still keeping some older, canonical works).

Feedback and suggestions are of course welcome!

Course Description and Objectives:

How do the contemporary media industries work? How did they develop in this fashion? How can an analysis of the “business of entertainment” enable a greater understanding of contemporary media aesthetics and culture? In other words, why does it matter that News. Corp. owns Harper Collins publishing, Twentieth Century Fox, Fox News, the FOX network, myspace.com, the New York Post and many, many other entities around the world?

Three main objectives will guide us throughout the semester:

First, we will trace the development – and increasing interrelatedness – of the media industries from the early twentieth century to the present. We will consider the ways in which regulatory and technological shifts, as well as growing impulses toward globalization, have intersected with industrial changes.

Second, we will look at the range of theoretical and critical approaches which have been taken toward the media industries. In the process, we will read several “case studies” that provide examples of each of these theoretical approaches.

Third, we will explore the emerging field of “media industry studies.” This field, which incorporates work in film, media, communications and cultural studies, argues for the importance of integrating analysis of media structures with consideration of cultural and textual matters.

This course will prove useful not only to media studies students but also to filmmakers and screenwriters interested in understanding how and why certain media products do (and do not) get produced and distributed. Although our readings will focus most heavily on the film and television industries, students are encouraged to explore such areas as video games, music, comic books, publishing, and radio in their final projects.

Schedule

Part I: Foundational Issues & Debates

Week 1
January 13 Introduction to the course, syllabus, schedule

Week 2
January 20 Traditional Approaches to the Media Industries

Readings:

Adorno & Horkheimer, “Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” (packet);
Croteau & Hoynes, The Business of the Media (Chapters 1-5);
McChesney, “The Market Uber Alles” (packet)

Week 3
January 27 A Cultural Industries Approach

Readings:

Hesmondhalgh, selections from The Cultural Industries (packet)

*Sign up for reading presentations*

Part II: Surveying an Emerging Field: Media Industry Studies

Week 4
February 3 Media Industry Studies: Overview and Histories

Readings:

Holt & Perren, “Introduction: Does the World Really Need One More Field of Study?”;
Hilmes, “Nailing Mercury: The Problem of Media Industry Historiography”;
Frick, “Manufacturing Heritage: The Moving Image Archive and Media Industry Studies”;
Schatz, “Film Industry Studies and Hollywood History”;
Johnson, “Historicizing TV Networking: Broadcasting, Cable and the Case of ESPN”;
Meyers, “From Sponsorship to Spots: Advertising and the Development of Electronic Media”;
Marshall, “New Media as Transformed Media Industry” (all readings are in Holt & Perren)

Week 5
February 10 Convergence throughout the 20th Century

Reading:

Hilmes, Hollywood and Broadcasting

Week 6
February 17 Media Industry Studies: Theoretical Frameworks

Readings:

Kellner, “Media Industries, Political Economy and Cultural Studies: An Articulation”;
Curtin, “Thinking Globally: From Media Imperialism to Media Capital”;
Venegas, “Thinking Regionally: Singular in Diversity and Diverse in Unity”;
Govil, “Thinking Nationally: Domicile, Distinction and Dysfunction in Global Media Exchange”;
Deuze, “Convergence Culture and Media Work” (all readings are in Holt & Perren)

Week 7
February 24 Media Industry Studies: Methodologies and Models

*Discuss book review assignment*

*Schedule one-on-one meetings to discuss final papers*

Readings:

Napoli, “Media Economics and the Study of the Media Industries";
McMurria, “Regulation and the Law: A Critical Cultural Citizenship Approach”;
Miller, “Can Natural Luddites Make Things Explode or Travel Faster? The New Humanities, Cultural Policy Studies, and Creative Industries”;
Caldwell, “Cultures of Production: Studying Industry’s Deep Texts, Reflexive Rituals, and Managed Self-Disclosures”;
Green and Jenkins, “The Moral Economy of Web 2.0: Audience Research and Convergence Culture”(all readings are in Holt & Perren)

Mar. 1 *Full semester mid-point: Last day to withdraw and receive a “W”*

Part III: New Visions: Case Studies in Recent Media Industries Scholarship

Week 8
March 3 Agents and Agency

Reading:

Kemper, Hidden Talent: The Emergence of Hollywood Agents

*Select book for book review assignment*

March 5 *Paper proposals due by 5 p.m.*

Week 9
March 10 ***Spring Break***

Week 10
March 17 No class – work on book review assignment

Week 11
March 24 Production Studies

Readings:

Selections from Mayer, Banks and Caldwell, Production Studies

March 26 *Book reviews due by 5 p.m.*

Week 12
March 31 Branding and Marketing

Reading:

Grainge, Brand Hollywood: Selling Entertainment in a Global Media Age

Week 13
April 7 Exhibiting Global Film (Culture)

Reading:

Acland, Screen Traffic: Movies, Multiplexes and Global Culture

Week 14
April 14 Battling Over Intellectual Property

Reading:

Lessig, Free Culture

Week 15
April 21 A Different Model? The Gaming Industry

Reading:

Kline, Dyer-Witheford and De Peuter, Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture and Marketing

Part IV: Visions of the Future

Week 16
April 28 What’s Next?
Begin final paper presentations

Readings:

D’Acci, “Cultural Studies, Television Studies and the Crisis in the Humanities” (packet); Hartley, “From the Consciousness Industry to the Creative Industries”(H&P);
Hesmondhalgh, “Politics, Theory and Method in Media Industries Research” (H&P);
Levin, “An Industry Perspective: Calibrating the Velocity of Change” (H&P);
Newcomb, “Toward Synthetic Media Industry Research” (H&P)

Final Exam Week
May 5 Final paper presentations
May 10 *Final papers due by 5 p.m.*

Winter Reading: New TV Industry Blogs

2009-12-23T04:45:00.004-05:00

Thought I'd emerge from the dark chamber in which I have been hiding, working on revisions, in order to note some recently-launched blogs that are worth checking out. (Links to all of them have been added to my blog as well.)

Media studies scholar Christine Becker has begun collected a range of television-related articles, reviews, and opinion pieces on her aptly titled blog, News for TV Majors. She has even done the hard work of collecting all of the "best of TV" lists in one place.

I have enjoyed following the "Masked Scheduler" on Twitter for some time; now s/he has started a blog that goes into more detail than is possible in 140 characters.

TV writer Jessica Butler (In Plain Sight, According to Jim) has launched a terrific blog for those who want to write for television. Many a day could be spent just looking through the various links she provides.

To Blog or Not to Blog?

2009-09-09T23:35:00.009-04:00

Annie Petersen asks a question I have been asking myself quite a bit lately: How does one maintain a blog? Obviously mine has been somewhat dormant of late for a number of reasons (pressing writing deadlines, the start of the semester, etc.).

Mike Newman adds a great point in the comments of her post:

"With RSS, Twitter, FB, etc., it’s possible for devoted readers to be alerted when new content appears, and we shouldn’t feel like people are constantly checking in on our sites for new content. Bloggers should publish their work online when they feel like it and not feel bad if this is only sporadic. I blog because I like to, and lately I only like to do it every once in a while. I used to blog links more frequently but lately I prefer to use Twitter or FB for that. Why not keep a quarterly blog, or even an annual one?"

Having now had this blog up and running for about eight months, my perspective has shifted away from "must post at least once a week" to "post when I feel so inclined." This is partly due to time constraints and partly due to simply figuring out the way that my blog worked best for me. The "pressure to post" as often was also eased after I jumped onto Twitter and found it a better place to post articles and have short conversations. For more of my thoughts regarding blogging (as well as others' thoughtful comments), check out Annie's blog.

Saying Our Goodbyes

2009-06-26T02:45:00.102-04:00

It has been fascinating to follow the various responses both on TV and online to the deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon. Some have paused to mourn the passing of these celebrities; others have expressed frustration that so much energy has been spent discussing such "trivial" matters.

Considering these deaths from my perspective as a media studies scholar, my reaction is somewhat akin to the response I had to the end of ER. In different ways, each of these figures represented the age of "mass" media. So to mourn the loss of these people is also to mourn, in yet one more way, the end of a specific time in media history.

Consider this: At its peak (as the #5 show on TV), more than 18 million people tuned in to watch Farrah and company on Charlie's Angels. In contrast, the #5 show on TV in 2009 -- during sweeps, no less -- was Dancing with the Stars, which was viewed by about 5.8 million people. At the time Charlie's Angels aired, reality shows were a relatively marginal format. Now several are among the highest rated of shows. In addition, reality shows serve as a primary place where new "stars" are generated. (It is quite telling that just this week reports have circulated that Dancing with the Stars' performer Julianne Hough may next appear in a new big-screen iteration of Footloose with High School Musical star Zac Efron...that is, if she can learn to act).

Similarly, The Tonight Show was the late night show when Ed McMahon served as Carson's sidekick. Interestingly, for the first time in years, The Tonight Show once again has a sidekick in the form of Andy Richter. Yet now the late night landscape is not only overrun with seemingly endless programming alternatives, but with myriad talk show alternatives. Not only do we have many more broadcast options but cable has also entered into the late night talk show fray with Chelsea Handler and (very soon) George Lopez (among others). What's more, the days of NBC/Tonight dominating the ratings are long gone. These days, we are being barraged regularly with reports (or should I say spin) of the week's reigning late night king. (Though Nightline apparently beat both on Thursday night.)

And then there's the changes in the music industry. As one of my Facebook friends noted, "all it took was for Michael Jackson to die to make MTV start showing videos again." One is more likely to find a rock star in a reality show than in a music video these days -- at least on TV. (Heck, just this week, Nick Cannon made his premiere as host of America's Got Talent.) And as is the case with all media forms online, the music industry continues to struggle to figure out how to "monetize" music videos.

If the performer(s) aren't part of a Disney Channel program (or American Idol), the chances that they will break out seem slim indeed. Speaking of which, just this week the Jonas Brothers' latest album was released. It promptly became the number one title on the Billboard Top 100. Album sales totaled 247,000 copies. It seems safe to say that these chart-topping brothers will never come anywhere close to selling number of albums sold by those famous brothers of yore, the Jackson Five.

Yep, these are different days indeed.

Are MOWs MIA?

2009-06-15T00:24:00.017-04:00

I was pleased to see Variety recently run an article on the current state of made-for-TV (MFTs) movies and mini-series. Compared to series programming, these shows generate very little coverage from journalists (and even less from scholars). Yet as this article notes, while MFTs no longer have much of a presence on the broadcast networks, they are alive and well on numerous cable program services, including HBO and Lifetime. (Other key places where MFTs have shown up of late include the Disney Channel, the SciFi Channel --or, excuse me, SyFY -- and the Hallmark Channel.)

One related development in recent months is the emergence of what the Hollywood Reporter calls "maxi-series." Whether this is just a new term applied to an old form (see Thorn Birds, to the left) -- and I am tempted to think it is -- seems worth considering further. One potentially distinctive element of recent mini/maxi-series is their greater dependence on financing from outside the US. Increasingly, these shows go into production with distribution in place in many other countries around the world -- but without a place on a US cable or broadcast network.

My hope is that when I complete a couple of projects I am currently working on, I can write an essay exploring more precisely how and why MFTs appear where they do on specific cable outlets. (Should you be curious, I do write about some of the key industrial reasons why MFTs have disappeared from the broadcast networks in an article coming out shortly in Convergence Media History, edited by Janet Staiger and Sabine Hake.) Though I haven't received my copy yet, I believe Erin Copple Smith also has an essay on the topic in Amanda Lotz's just-released edited book, Beyond Prime Time. (If you know of other recent articles published on contemporary MFTs, please do send them on!)

So Long, Weinstein Company?

2009-06-09T21:38:00.014-04:00

In the last few days, there has been heightened speculation on the Internet about the long-term viability of The Weinstein Company (TWC). The Hot Blog's David Poland offers a somewhat different perspective on the company's financial troubles than I've seen in most other places online. He notes that while some media analysts are painting the woes of the Weinsteins as a new development, the company was underfinanced from the start. Of course, a string of overpriced projects (Inglourious Basterds, Nine), underperforming films (Grindhouse, The Reader) and the broader credit crisis haven't helped matters.

I have to agree with Poland that, while some bloggers/critics appear eager to see the company fail, the potential downfall of yet another indie company is nothing to celebrate for those who hope to make (or make money from) lower-budgeted films. Nonetheless, it is just another indication -- in the wake of the recent downsizing and/or closing of Paramount Vantage, Picturehouse, Warner Independent etc. -- that the old methods of distributing niche films just aren't working any longer.

I am increasingly intrigued by the day-and-date experiments being tested by companies such as IFC and Magnolia. These companies release films via some combination of VOD (both on cable/satellite systems and on the Internet) and theatrical exhibition. It is worth noting that IFC was the most active buyer at Cannes this year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

For more on these ventures, I recommend looking at the following:

SpeedCine exec Reid Rosefelt's blog (SpeedCine is a new movie streaming/download database in beta mode)
Cinetic exec Matt Dentler's blog (Cinetic is a film sales/management company)
These recent articles from Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, and The Economist

Interestingly, what looks to be the most likely "savior" for indie films at the moment isn't the Internet or theatrical exhibition, but good ole cable. Significantly, the main companies involved in day-and-date distribution at present have investments in cable program services and cable systems.

The Latest Experiment in Online Journalism

2009-06-09T03:33:00.008-04:00

Just came across an article about the very recent launch of "True/Slant," a new site that describes itself as "an original content news network tailored to both the 'Entrepreneurial Journalist' and marketers who want a more effective way to engage with digital audiences."

According to a lengthy piece in the Washington Post, the site (which is currently in beta mode), is offering more chances for contributors to be compensated than does the Huffington Post at present. Apparently the site launched with $3 million in funding from Forbes Media and Fuse Capital and is run by a former news executive from AOL.

One of the most intriguing components is the "social" aspect of the site. As per the Wall Street Journal:

The contributors also are required to actively engage with readers on the site. They must post a minimum number of comments in reader discussions about their articles and curate the comments, giving prominence to the most interesting. They are even expected to comment on each other's posts.

It still seems too early to fully assess the site, but it will be an interesting one to monitor...

Coming Up for Air

2009-05-18T09:42:00.007-04:00

Apologies for my long absence from the blogosphere... two conferences, end-of-semester grading, a trip overseas and two pending article deadlines have sucked away much of my time. I'm hoping to return full force with regular entries very, very soon.

In the meantime, I have added several new links throughout this page. One that's worth singling out is a blog I just recently discovered, producer Ted Hope's Truly Free Film. A couple of recent entries that are especially compelling: "52 Reasons Why American Indie Film Will Flourish" and "38 American Independent Film Problems/Concerns."

Also, if you are curious to learn more about my work on the media industries (and my recently released edited book on the subject), Jennifer Holt and I are interviewed here by blogger Tim O'Shea.

What's Next -- Gigli: New Beginnings?

2009-04-28T23:41:00.025-04:00

About a month ago, Hollywood Reporter ran a story about a number of remakes in development (or production) at the studios, including "Romancing the Stone," "Footloose," "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "Dune," "The Karate Kid," "Red Dawn," "RoboCop," "The Big Chill," "Arthur," "Ghostbusters" and "The NeverEnding Story."

The economic logic driving remake mania isn't hard to figure out -- the film industry, facing mounting production and marketing costs, is becoming ever-more risk-averse. I understand that it is often easier and cheaper to remake old properties than to develop new ones. And I understand that there is now a new generation of viewers who have had only limited exposure to the films of the 1980s, and thus those properties are especially ripe for being remade. (It doesn't hurt, of course, that many of the executives moving up the ranks are children of the '80s as well.) As a child of the '80s myself, I am certainly not averse to seeing Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and company suit up again - especially if they are working with a decent script.

I know that remakes -- or "reenvisionings" if you wish -- are not inherently bad. I am optimistic about the new Star Trek, thought the newer Ocean's Eleven was far superior to the original, and found Edward Norton's Hulk to be more, well, incredible than Eric Bana's. I am even open to the possibility that The Rock's (sorry, Dwayne Johnson's) Race to Witch Mountain is superior to the 1975 Escape to Witch Mountain. Anything is possible.

Yet as each day goes by, and yet more remakes are announced, I can't help but wonder if we are close to hitting the remake absurdity threshold. In the last couple of days alone, I have read that the following remakes are in development:

The 1983 David Cronenberg-directed Videodrome;
Alien (with Ridley Scott returning to direct);
Predator (with Robert Rodriguez directing).

Ok. Fine. I can deal with these. But then, today, I saw the following:

Universal is developing a remake of the 1991 bomb Drop Dead Fred for Russell Brand...

And Oliver Stone is developing a sequel (ok, it's not a remake, so I'm cheating a little here) to...Wall Street. Shia LeBeouf (!?!) is in talks to star.

With these announcements taking place on the same day that Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter announced he's switching political parties and the Supreme Court supporting the FCC's power to regulate "fleeting expletives," it does in fact seem that the truth is stranger than fiction.

Entering the Twitter Zone

2009-04-23T22:49:00.008-04:00

So...after saying I would never go on Twitter, here I am, trying it out. After many conversations and much perusal of the site, I get it. I think. At least, I'm willing to give it a shot. However, I will try not to use it in the manner depicted in this video.

More posting to follow here soon...once I get past this end-of-semester grading/meeting/writing madness. In the meantime, I will continue to feed articles I find of interest into the Diigo linkroll.

The Week in Review: To Google and Beyond

2009-04-11T19:10:00.062-04:00

Several Google/YouTube-related stories were reported this week. These involved:

Google and the music industry: In the continuing effort to find a way to make content more profitable online, YouTube and Universal Music Group (UMG) have joined forces to launch a new music video service. The site, named Vevo, will offer professionally-produced videos from UMG. According to the Los Angeles Times, "YouTube will provide the underlying technology, Universal will furnish the content, and the partners will split the advertising revenue." The hope, apparently, is to make this the "online equivalent of MTV;"

Google and the film industry: One week after Disney announced that it will be licensing select content to YouTube, it is being reported that Sony is negotiating for a handful of feature-length films to be available through YouTube as well;

Google and the newspaper industry: In conjunction with the annual meeting of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), the Associated Press declared that it will be more aggressive in determining how and where its content is used online in the future. In response, Google CEO Chairman Eric Schmidt (speaking at the NAA gathering) warned: "I would encourage everybody, think in terms of what your reader wants. These are ultimately consumer businesses and if you piss off enough of them, you will not have any more.” Meanwhile, Jeff Jarvis posted on his blog what he thought Schmidt should have said to the NAA. His words are not nearly as kind as those offered by Schmidt.

And in other news:

The absurd story of the week: With the Sundance Channel and IFC now part of the same conglomerate, Rainbow Media, the two cable networks are being sold together to potential sponsors. Rainbow is promoting them as a premier venue for upscale consumers (or as they call them, "independently wealthy consumers"). The company has even developed a new theory, "Indienomics," to convey the way it views its relationship to its audience (excuse me while a suppress a snort here). As Ad Age describes it, Indienomics seeks to calm "consumer-related chaos through relevant marketing." For added amusement value, I recommend looking at IFC/Sundance's discussion of the five tenets of Indienomics.

The latest on pilot season: Based on the number of each in the works, it seems sitcoms (especially those of the multi-camera variety) are in again while serialized dramas are out once more. Of course, none of the networks have solidified their schedules, so much can still change.

The better late than never story of the week: Time Warner gets one step closer to spinning off AOL.

And finally, the you've got to be kidding me remake-of-the-week: Warner Bros/Legendary Pictures are moving forward with a new version of Clash of the Titans starring Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes.

The Week in Review: The Shows Must Go On

2009-04-05T02:55:00.072-04:00

Lots of conventions/trade shows going on in the past week, including:

ShoWest, the annual meeting of theatrical exhibitors and major studio distributors, took place in Vegas. Several reports from the event suggest growing tensions in the distributor-exhibitor relationship. Some studios scaled back their presence and expenditures significantly this year. The current economic climate may have played a part in the studios' lower profile at ShoWest. However, as Heidi MacDonald of The Beat notes, in a world where the film studios' business models are ever more in flux and where they can directly sell their wares to the public through events such as ComicCon, courting exhibitors at ShoWest simply matters far less than it used to;

International TV sales market MIPTV in Cannes. Among the topics of conversation, according to The Hollywood Reporter: "cutting their cost base, re-engineering production models and reshaping the genre mix to keep the television business afloat;"

The Cable Show in Washington D.C., where one frequently discussed issue involved how much cable programming could or should be provided by cable companies or program distributors either online or on demand.

Recurring themes in reports of all of these events, unsurprisingly, included: how to deal with piracy and peer-to-peer activities; how to make more money online; and how to avoid the fate that has befallen the music industry.

And in other news:

Advertisers and actors reached a three-year agreement on a new contract covering commercials. Most notable is that this new arrangement provides some compensation for new media work;

The Wall Street Journal ran a story about the decline in star salaries that elicited a great deal of discussion in the blogosphere . Gawker's Gabriel Snyder responded by offering a useful outline of some of the most prominent types of deals negotiated in Hollywood today;

Disney struck a dea l allowing select short-form video content to be available through YouTube. This arrangement indicates Disney's growing willingness to make its content available to outside sources. It also underscores YouTube's continuing effort to offer more "professional" content (i.e., content that is more favorable to advertisers).

And finally, this week's remake news: Jackie Earle Haley has been cast as Freddie Krueger for New Line's reboot of Nightmare on Elm Street. Not thrilled that this is being remade...but if it is going to happen, this seems like a strong choice. But who should play Nancy?

The End of an ER-a

2009-04-02T22:50:00.120-04:00

It has been an especially dramatic few days for both the medium and the business of television.

Over about a 24 hour period (from April 1st to 2nd), the following took place:

CBS announced the cancellation of the longest running scripted program in broadcast history, Guiding Light -- a show that started on radio in 1937;
The flagship program of NBC's "must-see" TV for the last 15 years, ER, aired its last episode;
Boston's NBC affiliate WHDH declared it would not air Jay Leno's new program at 10pm Monday through Friday (instead the station will air local news);
The 2008 Peabody Awards were announced, with awards going to several Internet sites, including The New York Times website, YouTube and The Onion News Network;
NBC Universal (parent company to Bravo) settled its lawsuit against The Weinstein Company over Project Runway's move to Lifetime.

All of these events are significant in different ways. However, I want to focus here on the departure of Guidin g Light and ER from television.

I never watched Guiding Light. Yet somehow, it was reassuring to me to know that the show stayed on the air. Broadcasting may have changed in countless ways over the years, but this same daytime soap remained, airing Monday through Friday for decades on CBS. It just chugged along -- from the so-called Golden Age of radio through the classic network era, from the arrival of cable and satellite, into the present post-network era. The show survived several wars, presidents and economic crises. Indeed, it may still hang on, reappearing on another program service (or even online). But it will no longer be on a broadcast network.

While Guiding Light's departure resonated with me intellectually -- serving as but one more marker of how different the television of today is from the television of yore, ER's farewell hit me on a much more personal level.

ER was part of my weekly routine for years. I started watching while still an undergraduate, continued tuning in during graduate school and on into the early stages of my career as a professor. I viewed the show in four different parts of the country, through multiple friendships, relationships and late nights of work. I initially watched it "live" - rushing home to catch it no matter what I was up to on Thursday nights. I gradually shifted to recording it on my VCR, then finally caught it days after its initial airing on my Tivo.

Then last year, I stopped watching. Having seen one too many cast members leave and one too many storylines recycled for the umpteenth time, I "broke up" with ER. I had moved on to a newer medical drama, Grey's Anatomy. My lifestyle had changed, as had the ways that I thought about and consumed television.

And yet, last Thursday I sat down to watch the show one last time. On many levels, it was a bittersweet experience. I found the final episode itself to be well done overall. The show acknowledged many of the themes, images and storylines from years past without going overboard (for the most part). As far as concluding episodes of series go, this was one of the better ones.

As I watched this last episode, I tried to figure out why I was so much more saddened by the ending of this show than, say, Friends or Sex and the City or Will and Grace. I think part of the difference is the trajectory this specific show took. Typically when a program ends, at least some members of the original cast remain. Yet this was not the case with ER. Rather, all of the original cast members had long since left. Yet since these actors departed one by one over several years, rather than all at once, there was never a clear moment when the show shifted from what it was to something else entirely. This had the effect of making ER seem to simply peter out. Thus, when several cast members returned for this final episode, I was suddenly provided with a stark reminder of how compelling and engaging the show once was.

However, I wasn't moved by the final episode simply because it reminded me how much the show (and I) had changed over the years. I was also affected by realizing how much broadcasting itself had changed in the last fifteen years. During much of the 1990s, ER was a key marker of "quality" television programming produced by the broadcast networks. It appeared on the air at a time when reality programming was confined largely to cable outlets and Fox, when news magazines overran the prime time schedule, and when weekly "nights at the movies" still aired on the broadcast networks. ER had THE time slot on NBC's "Must-See" TV Thursdays -- a time slot previously occupied by Hill Street Blues and LA Law.

All of that is gone now. In a few short months, NBC will no longer have any dramas at 10 pm. In fact, it won't air any original fictional series at all from 10 to 11 p.m. Instead, Jay Leno will air at then - that is, if enough affiliates agree to air the program (something that remains to be seen).

Given the changing economics of the television business, it is quite likely that many of the dramas of the caliber of ER will appear on cable from here on out, not broadcast. NBC-Universal has essentially signaled as much with its recent declarations that its cable outlets (including Bravo, USA and SciFi/SyFy) are more profitable than its broadcast network.

Yes, television is changing, we all know that well. Last week's departure of ER -- occurring in tandem so many other dramatic industrial, technological and cultural shifts -- provides just one more poignant reminder of what television once was. "And In The End..." indeed.

The Week in Review

2009-03-30T01:36:00.000-04:00

The Hollywood Reporter explores how Texas has been adversely affected by stronger film incentive programs in other states. Meanwhile, a new study has been released that questions the long-term value of such incentive programs;

New reports indicate that people are spending more and more time in front of various screens. Yet this isn't translating to them spending money to watch the media on these screens...a problem that various sectors of the entertainment industry have only begun to address;

Reporting from the AFI Dallas Film Festival, SpoutBlog's Karina Longworth reports on a panel comparing the indie film and indie music businesses;

Will New York City be the first of many cities to offer the next generation of "hyperlocal" television stations? Several cable and telephone companies are experimenting with the strategy now. A key question is how (or to what extent) struggling local broadcast outlets will respond;

Add another talk show host to the mix: starting in November, it looks like George Lopez will be hosting a late night talk show on TBS;

There are reports that Disney may become a partner in the News Corp/NBC Universal joint venture, Hulu;

Apparently Cartoon Network is the latest cable channel to try to reinvent itself. Its goal, according to this article, is to produce more live action fare as a means of becoming a "dominant youth culture brand" that "really understands the needs of high-energy teen boys." OK then.

The Latest Variety Show

2009-03-29T02:24:00.059-04:00

During the last week or so, a war of words has flared up between trade publication Variety and entertainment blogger Nikki Finke. On March 23, Variety ran three different stories that, in different ways, attacked the practices employed by bloggers generally and Finke in particular.

No sooner had these two sites begun to attack each other than many other journalists and bloggers jumped in to offer their own take on the conflict. Among those who expressed distinctive opinions were David Poland (The Hot Blog), Sharon Waxman (The Wrap), and Kim Masters (The Daily Beast).

The reasons why this conflict arose of less interest to me than how it has played out so far. In a broad sense, the Variety-Finke brouhaha echoes the turf wars going on between traditional print journalists and Internet bloggers on every news beat.

Yet the particularities of this conflict are fascinating in a couple of key ways. First, this skirmish is notable for the response -- or rather, the lack of response -- it has generated from readers. From what I can tell, the general reaction across the different sites that covered the issue seemed to be "Who cares? Why should some silly battle between (narcissistic) entertainment journalists matter to me?"

As but one example, take Huffington Post. The online website tried to make this conflict into A Big Deal. Their article on the quarrel briefly appeared on the site's front page...only to all-but-disappear after but a few hours. It seems that this is but one more instance in which those covering the entertainment world have a distorted sense of how and why people come to their sites in the first place.

The second reason this conflict seems worth commenting on is due to how it ties into my own work as a media scholar. Yes, I enjoy looking at a variety of entertainment sites in part to learn more about what is going on in the entertainment business -- what is being made, who is doing what, and so on. But of even greater interest to me is tracking the way the "industry" presents itself -- how different people try to promote their interests, spin different issues, and construct the business in certain ways. Yet it is frustrating that as these sites become ever-more obsessed with being the first to report a deal, offer a review of a new movie, or break the news of an executive's departure, their energies gets diverted away from substantive analysis.

What's more, in the rush to run something first, the quality of the reporting gets sketchier and sketchier. Finke has been widely attacked in part because she has been seen as the mouthpiece for various executives with specific agendas, as well as for her lack of transparency in reporting (for example, she has been attacked for running a story and then, if she finds out the information is incomplete or incorrect, she simply removes that information or changes it to fit the latest news.)

Again, these issues certainly are not particular to entertainment journalism but rather are concerns facing all areas of journalism today. And clearly there is often much more at stake when, for instance, health or environmental reports are handled in an irresponsible fashion. Yet it is nonetheless worth considering how the public's -- and media researchers' -- understanding of the entertainment business might be affected as old and new media attempt to stake out their place in this changing landscape. What's more, given that this is the entertainment business -- a business in which so many careers and creative projects are at stake, not to mention a great deal of money -- it seems that we should care more about what constitutes entertainment news... and what are the best ways to report it.

The Finke-Variety conflict simply underscores the extent to which entertainment reporters and bloggers have become more interested in being first than being accurate, more invested in reporting a deal than thinking about precisely what that deal might mean for those working in (or wishing to work in) the media industries.

The Week in Review: Brand Identity Crisis

2009-03-21T17:59:00.034-04:00

As has been much discussed (and derided) elsewhere, the SciFi Channel is now SyFy. It is fascinating to see how a simple name (well, really just spelling) change might indicate a significant shift in programming practices and target demographics;

Hulu plans to devote a new section of its site to documentary programming. It is interesting that, though Hulu has always featured both television and movies, the primary way it has been discussed (at least so far) seems to be as a place to view (fictional) TV. It will be interesting to see if -- or what --impact this move has on the profile of nonfiction film;

There are signs that HBO plans to overhaul its brand image. This article asks how The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency might fit into the cable network's broader programming strategies;

3-D is back again - and so is speculation about the potential impact it will have on moviegoing practices;

Just what we need: more programs glorifying the wonders of Old Hollywood. TCM recently announced a ten-part mini-series, Moguls and Moviestars: A History of Hollywood while HBO, David Chase and Brad Grey are back together to develop a miniseries entitled A Ribbon of Dreams. It seems when times get tough in the film biz, the best thing to do is mythologize the past (through television, of course).

The Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism has released their 2009 report on the State of the News Media. As might be expected, in general, it doesn't paint a pretty pict ure for print and television journalism;

The current economic crisis is now affecting the TV syndication business;

And the award for wacky adaptation of the week goes to...the Coen Brothers, who are reportedly remaking True Grit.

The Week in Review: Where Is a Stick of Chewing Gum When You Need It?

2009-03-15T17:29:00.033-04:00

Some of the top stories that caught my attention this (ok, mostly last) week:

Chuck Tryon has written several compelling columns in the last week, including one on the week-long "war" between Jon Stewart and CNBC;

A management shake-up at News Corp. has generated much speculation about the future direction that will be taken at the company, especially in terms of Fox's Filmed Entertainment divisions. Particularly intriguing is the appointment of Fox Searchlight president Peter Rice to be in charge of entertainment for the Fox Network;

Growing independent film company B-Side has formed a theatrical distribution arm;

Actors in films and TV programs aren't the only ones struggling to renegotiate their contracts in a tough economic climate; commercial actors face challenges getting compensated for their online work as well;

SXSW is underway again. The buzz surrounding the festival seems to get bigger every year;

Cable TV's upfronts are about to get started. Early signs indicate it will be a disappointing selling season for cable and broadcast outlets alike;

TV Week explores the myriad reasons that local broadcast stations are struggling. What isn't explored here, however, are the potentially large-scale cultural ramifications of the changes broadcasters are making due to their economic difficulties;

Heathers: The Musical -- brilliant or crazy?

MacGyver: The Movie -- simply crazy.

Watching the Box Office

2009-03-15T14:52:00.032-04:00

I've been holding off on writing this entry until after preliminary box office figures came in for Watchmen's 2nd week in release. However, now they are in - and they are pretty much in line with what I expected: Watchmen posted an approximate 67% drop from from its opening weekend, according to early estimates.

This is not the least bit surprising to me. The film seemed to largely satisfy (if not amaze or inspire for return visits) many of those who had read the graphic novel. However, from my casual perusal of the web and Twitter comments, it seemed to generally alienate (if not bore) those who had not read the book. Its complex narrative structure became inaccessible or incomprehensible. Further, by removing both the rich backstory of the main characters as well as the subplots and minor storylines to accommodate the time constraints involved in telling a feature-length film, it seemed to lose something in the translation to screen. While those familiar with the comic might have been able to "read the backstory" of the comic into the film (or be satisified in knowing that the DVD would supply many of these additional materials down the road), those who came to the material for the first time were likely to encounter essentially an arthouse superhero film.

The problem with it being an arthouse superhero film was even more complicated by the fact that a) it wasn't a very good one if viewed on its own merits, as opposed to in relation to the source material; and b) it had been marketed by Warner Bros. as "just another superhero action film." In the short term, Warners' decision to minimize the film's complexity in its marketing materials might have served it well: thus, the opening weekend box office was solid, if not breathtaking. However, with regard to the film's longer term viability, such strategies are more problematic. This is most immediately apparent from the way the film has quickly crashed and burned at the box office as fans of the comic book (at least, those that I know, and whose responses I have read online) seem to have decided that it is not worth seeing again in theaters. This is further compounded by the negative buzz, which has contributed to disinterest on the part of many of those who are not part of the relatively narrow niche of individuals who have read the book.

Now one can certainly argue that in the longer term, the film may do okay financially. I imagine the DVD sales will be quite solid for those who want to see all the additional materials that had to be excised from the film due to time constraints. In addition, the success of the film has led to a dramatic increase in the sales of the graphic novel, which in turn will lead to more interest in the movie...and so on.

Nonetheless, in spite of the potential long term viability of Watchmen, it seems quite likely that the film's disappointing box office returns -- if not outright failure -- will reinvigorate discussions about the extent to which Hollywood's business model for theatrically-oriented motion pictures is increasingly out whack with marketplace realities. It seemed that this discussion had begun to be initiated last year when Speed Racer crashed and burned at the box office. Yet that conversation was cut short by the astounding performance of Iron Man and The Dark Knight, thereby leading to the repeated declarations of the age of the comic book movie and the continuing longevity of the big budget event film as the raison d'etre for Hollywood.

Now it seems this conversation is likely to appear again. However, I wonder whether the questions asked -- or responses provided -- will be the right ones. It is well known that theatrical box office accounts for ever-diminishing amounts of the overall income for motion pictures. The premiere of feature films has become an exercise in establishing the brand for future markets (most especially DVD). Yet in spite of this, the size of (domestic) theatrical returns are seen as an indicator for future returns -- thus if a movie takes in smaller-than-expected amounts at the box office, it is anticipated that returns down the road (especially in terms of DVD and merchandise sales) will also be smaller than expected. Thus, tremendous energy is expended on promoting the film early on, in the hopes that it will not only take off (and "have legs" in theaters) but also in ancillary markets.

But what seems to have emerged in this day and age is that box office discourse has taken on a life of its own. We hear constantly about box office grosses everywhere-- in the pages of USA Today, on the nightly broadcasts of Entertainment Tonight and so on. These reports suggest to an uninformed general public that box office in itself has meaning -- that $100 million at the box office means $100 million to Warner Bros. Anyone who follows the industry to any extent knows that of course this isn't the case. However, the mere fact that it these numbers are reported regularly to the public means that studios have defined their marketing practices in part to drive excessive opening weekends so that the film builds or sustains buzz for aftermarkets. What all this means is that box office returns have become symbolic practices, leading to material realities that differ from those promoted by the popular media.

Watchmen doesn't merely have the potential to provoke a reassessment of the meaning of box office, however. It might also contribute to a reconsideration of the reasons why certain movies get made and others do not. It seems fairly safe to say now that, however satisfying a movie such as Watchmen may have been to some fans -- and however much it may be an even better film when re-experienced in various ways on DVD -- it never should have been made in the manner it was. This is not to say it should not have been made at all, but rather that, given its budget level, combined with additional marketing expenses, it is unlikely that any (relatively faithful) iteration of Watchmen could have done well at the box office. Of course, this lesson is one that has been learned repeatedly as director after director came and went from the project and one studio after another ran the numbers and put the project in turnaround. The film was not made for so many years in part because of the difficulties of adapting the script effectively and in part because of the challenges of maintaining something near the original vision of the graphic novel in a cost effective manner. (The problem with Watchmen, in particular, is that there is no way that it could have been made as a feature that was faithful to the source material without spending this kind of money -- which is why some have long argued it would have worked better as an HBO-style TV mini-series.)

But Warners made it anyway. From one (narrower) perspective, I am thrilled that the company was willing to take a (measured) chance on material that was more narratively challenging, thematically rich, and aesthetically complex than, for example The Incredible Hulk. But I have to wonder if, in the end, this very risk will end up setting back more ambitious projects in the long run. To what extent will a perceived underperformance of this film lead to more conservative behavior on the part of film executives down the road? As yet another reason for saying no when -- just as a few months earlier -- The Dark Knight might have provided a reason for saying yes?

And I'm not just speaking about comic book adaptations here, but any project which can not only be marketed as simple and accessible but also IS in fact that way when experienced in theaters?

It will be interesting to see if - or the extent to which - Watchmen is discussed by the press and industry in ensuing months. What lessons will be taken from the film? What will be the consequences of its box office performance, both in terms of what is greenlit and who will keep or lose their jobs? To what extent, in this age of multimedia conglomerates, can or will one film have any substantive impact on corporate practices and production decisions? And when - if ever - will the popular tales told about box office returns be challenged or complicated by a wider range of bloggers, reporters, etc?

Adventures in Teacher-land

2009-03-12T11:13:00.001-04:00

In class yesterday, I blithely tossed out a reference to the Betamax.

Student's hand goes up.

"What's a Betamax"?

Oy.

This event was accompanied by my equally disturbing realization that today's college freshmen weren't alive when The Simpsons started airing original episodes.

Watchmen v. Sex and the City

2009-03-08T23:56:00.000-04:00

I saw this in the comments section of another blog and it seemed worth repeating here: Sex And the City (reported budget of about $60 million) earned about $57 million on its opening weekend domestic. Ultimately it brought in about $152 million domestic. It was released by New Line just as it was being dramatically downsized by Time Warner last summer.

The final numbers aren't in for Watchmen but it seems fairly certain that this film (reported budget of $150 million plus) earned less than SATC in its opening week (Hollywood Reporter says $55.7 million). I would be willing to wager it will not reach SATC's final grosses domestically. Warner Bros. distributed it North America (but Paramount has international and Fox gets a cut due to legal wranglings).

Now clearly domestic box office is a relatively small portion of the overall pie for media companies these days. Nonetheless, I find the divergent ways these films have been discussed and positioned in the media to be fascinating.

It is interesting to consider the gender politics involved in the press coverage, critical response, and online discussions about Watchmen v. Sex and the City. It amazes me that, in this day and age, every time a female-targeted movie "hits" at the box office, it is a "huge surprise" given its presumed "niche" audience (see also: Devil Wears Prada, Mamma Mia and most recently, He's Just Not That Into You). The lower budgets invested in these films, compared to male-targeted effects-driven action films, is itself indicative of the lower expectations. Yet Watchmen, because it is geared to the most desirable of audiences, is not conceptualized as niche in the same way -- though it is every bit as much of a niche product.

Oh-so-much more could be said about the ways the two films and their target audiences are conceptualized by various sectors of the industry (not to mention by the press). Alas, I must get back to work. Others' thoughts are welcome, however!

Also: it's worth underscoring that none of these remarks speak to my opinion of the aesthetic or narrative attributes of either film (personally I preferred Watchmen, but still had major problems with it). Discussing each film's relative merits, however, is the subject for a completely different blog entry.

Media Industries collection - now available!

2009-03-04T20:37:00.000-05:00

I am thrilled to announce that the collection I edited with Jennifer Holt (UCSB) is now out. We are honored that such an amazing group of contributors (see table of contents below) provided original essays on a broad range of topics.

Here is a brief overview of the book:

MEDIA INDUSTRIES: HISTORY, THEORY, AND METHOD outlines the diverse ways that media industries have been studied in the past and offers an innovative blueprint for future research and criticism. Contextualizing the current moment of unprecedented technological change, media convergence, and globalization, the authors engage in cross-disciplinary exploration from a range of historical, critical and theoretical perspectives.

Bringing together newly commissioned essays by leading scholars in film, media, communication, sociology and cultural studies, MEDIA INDUSTRIES constructs a unique road map for industrial analysis of film, radio, television, advertising and new media. Collectively, these 21 essays provide a crucial resource for those encountering the study of the media industries for the first time as well as for those interested in conducting cutting-edge research in this burgeoning field. Rich explanations of key terms and foundational ideas vividly illustrate the dynamic transformations taking place across varied national, regional and international contexts.

MEDIA INDUSTRIES is divided into four sections: History, Theory, Methodologies and Models, and Future Visions. Case studies on such diverse topics as the relationship between ESPN and hip-hop culture, the historical interactions of Hollywood and Washington, the shifting power relations between online fans and media producers, the growth of regional media archives, and multi-national production and distribution ventures across Latin America ground the broader concepts of each section. Taken together, the work in this collection marks a crucial step in expanding discussions of the media industries across numerous disciplines in the humanities and social sciences while also helping to bridge the gap between the industry and the academy.

Table of contents:

Introduction: Does the World Really Need One More Field of Study?: Jennifer Holt and Alisa Perren.

Part I: History.

Editors’ Introduction.

1. Nailing Mercury: The Problem of Media Industry Historiography: Michele Hilmes.

2. Manufacturing Heritage: The Moving Image Archive and Media Industry Studies: Caroline Frick.

3. Film Industry Studies and Hollywood History: Thomas Schatz.

4. Historicizing TV Networking: Broadcasting, Cable, and the Case of ESPN: Victoria E. Johnson.

5. From Sponsorship to Spots: Advertising and the Development of Electronic Media: Cynthia B. Meyers.

6. New Media as Transformed Media Industry: P. David Marshall.

Part II: Theory.

Editors’ Introduction.

7. Media Industries, Political Economy, and Media/Cultural Studies: An Articulation: Douglas Kellner.

8. Thinking Globally: From Media Imperialism to Media Capital: Michael Curtin.

9. Thinking Regionally: Singular in Diversity and Diverse in Unity: Cristina Venegas.

10. Thinking Nationally: Domicile, Distinction, and Dysfunction in Global Media Exchange: Nitin Govil.

11. Convergence Culture and Media Work: Mark Deuze.

Part III: Methodologies and Models.

Editors’ Introduction.

12. Media Economics and the Study of Media Industries: Philip M. Napoli.

13. Regulation and the Law: A Critical Cultural Citizenship Approach: John McMurria.

14. Can Natural Luddites Make Things Explode or Travel Faster? The New Humanities, Cultural Policy Studies, and Creative Industries: Toby Miller.

15. Cultures of Production: Studying Industry’s Deep Texts, Reflexive Rituals, and Managed Self-Disclosures: John Thornton Caldwell.

16. The Moral Economy of Web 2.0: Audience Research and Convergence Culture: Joshua Green and Henry Jenkins.

Part IV: The Future: Four Visions.

Editors’ Introduction.

17. From the Consciousness Industry to the Creative Industries: Consumer-Created Content, Social Network Markets, and the Growth of Knowledge: John Hartley.

18. Politics, Theory, and Method in Media Industries Research: David Hesmondhalgh.

19. An Industry Perspective: Calibrating the Velocity of Change: Jordan Levin.

20. Toward Synthetic Media Industry Research: Horace Newcomb.

Changing Guilds, Changing Technologies

2009-03-02T02:08:00.000-05:00

Most articles discussing the ongoing labor negotiations between the actors' guilds (AFTRA and SAG) and AMPTP (the body negotiating on behalf of the media conglomerates) have focused on the key sticking points in their respective deals. Recently, some journalists have discussed the likelihood that SAG members will shift to being AFTRA members (if they aren't members of both already), since AFTRA has already finalized its agreement with AMPTP. However, these discussions have been framed primarily in terms of economic exigencies.

One topic I don't remember seeing discussed prior to reading this article in The Hollywood Reporter involves the potential technological and aesthetic ramifications of a production opting to go with AFTRA instead of SAG. Yet the labor disputes are leading to precisely these types of shifts. This is the case because television programs adhering to AFTRA guidelines have to be shot digitally. Significantly, since AFTRA has already made its deal with AMPTP, a disproportionate number of upcoming prime time broadcast television series are being shot in accordance with AFTRA, rather than SAG, guidelines.

As this article notes:

Once the odd man out during broadcast networks' winter pilot season with an occasional multicamera pilot, AFTRA is dominating the field this year with at least 50 of the 70-plus broadcast pilots to be produced coming under its jurisdiction. If the trend continues, it could increase AFTRA's clout in the TV biz at SAG's expense, and it will give a shot in the arm to digital production because AFTRA projects are required to be shot on means other than film....

A union insider noted that the switch to more AFTRA production is part of a pendulum swing tied to the evolution of the viewers' tastes and the technology employed in television. Most primetime shows in the golden era of multicamera comedy in the 1960s and '70s were under AFTRA because they were done on tape. But as dramas began to dominate schedules and the cost of film went down, SAG began to gain ground. The entertainment conglomerates' mandate for cost cutting in the face of a recession also contributed to the shift from film to digital. Cost savings from the switch are said to be about $30,000, or 1%-2% of the budget of a drama episode. That is significant given the fact that ABC Studios and 20th TV recently cut the budgets of all of their series by 2% in response to the economic crisis. Still, cost reduction was not as big an impetus for the dramatic shift from film to digital as was the turmoil around SAG.

What makes the transition more palpable for producers is the big advances in the digital technologies that eliminate previous shortcomings like inferior lighting and add advantages including easy digital effects.

It would be interesting to explore further whether -- or to what extent -- a shift from SAG to AFTRA not only changes the two groups' relative sizes and dynamics for the long term, but also substantively alters production practices on an industry-wide basis. Will labor negotiations lead to signficant changes in network TV's aesthetics? Will these changes be evident to many (or any) viewers?

The Week in Review: Bye-bye Chernin, Hello (Again) Bart

2009-03-01T19:16:00.000-05:00

Finally starting to dig through emails, articles, etc. Hopefully I'll be able to get a couple of substantive posts up this week, in between writing, researching and whatnot.

Some of the more intriguing articles from the week...

I'm still undecided about the relatively new website, The Daily Beast. However, industry observer Kim Masters has posted a few informative "insider-ish" columns, including this one about the recent departure of News Corp's second-in-command, Rupert Murdoch, and the potential power vacuum that could be emerging;
Robert Johnson (founder of BET) is testing the limits of the FCC's must-carry policy (in tandem with Ion) in the digital realm. His goal: develop an "urban-targeted" broadcast network using some of the additional spectrum provided to broadcasters as they move to digital. Comcast has now publicly objected to this effort;
The Simpsons will soon be the longest-running prime time series in TV history, surpassing Gunsmoke;
Can we anticipate more social scientifically-oriented "violence in the media" research being funded in the near future?
Samuel L. Jackson signs a NINE-picture deal with Marvel;
In yet another sign of cable's growing strength, Turner plans to take on CBS at this year's upfronts;
It looks like lifestyles of the rich and famous (2.0 reality version) will be omnipresent on cable TV for quite some time;
ESPN becomes the latest TV entity aiming to move into the local (sports) news business with its ESPNChicago venture

The Week in Review: Bankruptcies, Restructurings, and Lawsuits, Oh My

2009-02-15T03:34:00.000-05:00

Lots happening in the media world this week... below are some of the stories and events I found most intriguing:

The Wall Street Journal looks at the increasingly dire state of the local broadcast station business;
MyNetwork TV announces that it is transforming itself (yet again) -- this time, it is shifting from a "more traditional broadcast model" to a "hybrid national program distribution service" (in other words, airing syndicated fare but at the same date/time across the country). The good news? It looks like the WWE is staying put;
Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable is one step closer to being a stand-alone company;
Though I take issue with some of the writer's conclusions regarding print v. visual media, there are some useful statistics in this article from the International Herald Tribune regarding current media consumption practices;
Speaking of media consumption practices, here are a few recent figures regarding online viewing (not surprisingly, many of those "lost" viewers of Lost seem to be turning up online). But how do we count these nontraditional viewers? Yet another person offers his two cents on current audience measurement practices;
Reading this interview with Disney exec Gary Marsh might cause one's eyes to roll to the back of their head more than once. Yet it is nonetheless a fascinating take on how Disney thinks it can attract more boys (ages 6-14) to TV with its newly re-branded "Disney XD";
It looks like discussions about enacting "opt-in" privacy policies for online advertising are beginning to receive more regulatory attention -- and more press coverage;
There may be many media companies tanking, but hey, at least Netflix is doing well;
The future may be getting dimmer still for Miramax, as Disney strikes a deal with DreamWorks;
And finally...former Miramax heads, Bob and Harvey Weinstein, add yet another lawsuit to their queue -- this time, their targets include indie financing/management powerhouse Cinetic and prominent "independent" company, Lionsgate

So much to blog about, so little time...

2009-02-08T22:42:00.001-05:00

A great deal is going on in the media industries right now (layoffs, billions in losses, shifting business models, etc.)...I wish I could pause to blog about all that is happening. Unfortunately, with the semester now in high gear, time is limited, to say the least.

Until this time magically becomes available (spring break, perhaps?), I am making a concerted effort to continue feeding articles onto this blog via Furl (see the right column of the blog, labeled "Recent Articles on the Media Industries").

A few recent articles I found particularly compelling...

The Hollywood Reporter ponders how tightening credit markets will impact film production practices
Transcript of Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer's rousing keynote at the NATPE conference (aka TV is dead, long live TV...have we heard this one before?)
And my favorite...a recent NY Times article about how and why infomercials are on the rise in prime time (I am personally fascinated by the ads for bronze Obama busts being replayed nonstop during The Rachel Maddow Show and other MSNBC prime time shows)

The "King" of the Big Screen?

2009-01-20T02:23:00.000-05:00

I suspect I wasn't the only one surprised to see that Paul Blart, Mall Co p earned more than $30 million in its opening weekend. To put this in perspective, this is more than twice the box office returns earned by "King of the Box Office" Will Smith for Seven Pounds or by mega-star Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It is also close to what pre-sold Marley and Me earned in its first week out as well.

How can this be explained? Is there a massive Kevin James fan base out there? Has this untapped audience been waiting quietly in the wings, biding its time until James was given the appropriate cinematic showcase in which to display his comedic skills? Does this suggest the potentially powerful (and relatively unexploited) box office prowess of CBS sitcom stars?

Perhaps big screen features should be fast-tracked for fellow sitcom actors Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine) and Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory) -- not to mention the highest-paid sitcom star on TV at present, Charlie Sheen...

Another way to raise your cable rates (and your blood pressure)

2009-01-17T20:59:00.001-05:00

The issue of retransmission consent is not sexy, and as such, it is often relegated to the back of business and technology sections of newspapers (when it's covered at all). Only occasionally, when a cable MSO and a broadcaster fail to reach some sort of compensation agreement (with the cable company agreeing to pay the broadcaster a certain amount for the right to "retransmit" their signal), do people become aware of or hear use of the term. Such was the case, for instance, when a number of Lin Broadcasting stations could not reach an agreement with Time Warner last October. Thus residents in such cities as Austin, Buffalo and Dayton suddenly found their NBC affiliate "going dark." After a few weeks, they finally reached a deal.

As the traditional business model for broadcasting continues to break down, broadcasters have started to view compensation for carriage on cable as a potentially untapped (or at least, not sufficiently tapped) area for additional income. Thus these battles between cable operators and broadcasters were expected to become increasingly high-profile events in 2009. However, a recent article in Multichannel News suggests that in fact, these two stakeholders are working behind the scenes to resolve their issues.

On the surface, this might seem like a good thing -- those of us who receive a clear broadcast signal through our cable service can rest assured that we will continue to get this signal in an uninterrupted fashion. But in fact, because these debates aren't being aired publicly after all, the implications of these arrangements aren't being publicly discussed either. As the aforementioned article notes, part of the reason that cable companies and broadcasters are eager to make these deals happen quickly and quietly is because:

"...Both sides, in an effort to avoid confusion for consumers surrounding the upcoming digital transition of broadcast signals, had proposed a “quiet period” for retrans negotiations prior to the Feb. 17 [digital] transition deadline. While no formal agreement was reached, it appears that broadcasters and cable operators decided to keep the vitriol in these negotiations to a minimum for the time being. Both sides are also wary of attracting too much attention from a new presidential administration that has sent some signals of its desire to further scrutinize the media industry."

While it's all well and good that broadcasters are being compensated for their signal, the way that these deals are being financed is quite problematic. In short, the cost is likely to be passed on to consumers in the form of even higher cable bills. Not only will we have higher cable bills, but we are going to be indirectly paying broadcasters in yet another way (at the very same moment that the government gives these broadcasters digital spectrum on which they can multicast, no less).

Even more troubling is that these deals are being struck in a fashion that bears a striking resemblance to the block booking practices of the studio era: the very article I cite above, for example, states that CBS has agreed in some cases to take less money for its stations in exchange for higher license fees for Showtime, which it also owns. This means even though Showtime is likely to provide viewers with fewer films than before (due to the end of output deals with three major studios), it will be paid more money by cable companies. (Given these circumstances, is it any surprise that the new mantra of Showtime executives is "original programming is the thing?")

Sure, I enjoy Weeds, Dexter, and other new original programs aired by Showtime. What I don't enjoy are these back-door dealings. Even more frustrating is the extent to which the attention being directed toward an already mismanaged D-TV transition is helping to distract us from some more questionable business practices taking place in the media industries.

We'll Miss You Gil...George, Not So Much

2009-01-17T00:27:00.000-05:00

It's interesting to think that Gil Grissom has been with us almost precisely as long as President Bush has been in office. Grissom (and CSI) first appeared on CBS on October 6, 2000. The 2000 election took place the following month (although, of course, it took a bit longer for us to know who would be in charge of the country).

Based on the ratings for last night's CSI (in which Grissom bade his farewell), the US is much more interested in seeing him say goodbye than we are President Bush.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

"Thursday's ratings were marked by the twin farewells of President Bush and Gil Grissom, with the president's departure drawing fairly average viewership and William Petersen's final episode of "CSI" attracting potentially season-high crowds.

William Petersen's final episode as a regular cast member of “CSI” was seen by 24.3 million viewers -- the series' largest audience since the show's 2007 premiere. "CSI" received a 6.6 adults 18-49 rating and a 16 share. “Eleventh Hour” (13.2 million, 3.4/9) also performed well, its second-largest audience of the season.

Bush’s live address totaled a 20.9 metered-market household rating across four networks, which is in the rough ballpark of 25-33 million viewers and doesn't count cable news coverage.

The speech had to compete with news coverage of the US Airways crash, which seemed like an oddly appropriate bookend to his presidency (a sort of inverse Sept. 11, with another commercial aircraft crashing in New York City, only this time the event concluded wonderfully)."

It is fairly stunning to consider not only what has happened in the world, the country (and even the show) during this time, but also on "television" more generally. And intriguing that our new president and new CSI leader both start in earnest next week.

On the Golden Globes...

2009-01-11T23:06:00.000-05:00

I'll just say kudos to Fox Searchlight's marketing team...it looks like it may be their biggest awards year yet.

Meanwhile, some reminders of recent bad Time Warner decisions at tonight's PR event (aka awards ceremony):

Mad Men rejected by HBO, to be picked up by AMC

Slumdog Millionaire was dumped by Warner Independent, only to be picked up by Fox Searchlight

Of course, when you have The Dark Knight and John Adams/True Blood/In Treatment, maybe you don't mind so much...

All Things Watchmen

2009-01-11T14:25:00.000-05:00

A couple of months back, I had the privilege of sitting on a panel with media scholar Henry Jenkins and Watchmen production designer Alex McDowell at MIT's third Futures of Entertainment conference. The conference was fantastic, and a wide range of videos from it can be viewed online now at http://techtv.mit.edu/collections/convergenceculture/videos

For interested parties, the video for the panel that I was on is available for viewing here:

McDowell addresses the legal battles between Fox & Warner Bros. over Watchmen a bit during the panel -- interesting to see now, in light of all that has happened since the event took place in late November.

For more recent Watchmen-related legal info, take a look at:

An Open Letter from Watchmen Producers
David Poland's take on the letter from The Hot Blog
Ongoing legal analysis from Film Esq.
Watchmen talks in progress (Hollywood Reporter)

A bad week for Time Warner

2008-12-31T02:47:00.000-05:00

It seems it's a bad time to be a Time Warner executive. As the new year approaches, the company is entering into one new legal and financial dispute after another...

http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/12/warner_bros_tv_sues_cbs_to_rec.php (battle with CBS over "Two and a Half Men")

http://blog.newsarama.com/2008/12/30/watchmen-update/ (battle with Fox over "Watchmen")

http://www.variety.com/articleVR1117997849.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&nid=2563 (battle with Viacom over cable fees)

Can't wait to see what the new year holds...

What's Next?

2008-12-30T01:21:00.000-05:00

As I prepare to teach another semester of my undergraduate Media Industries course, more than ever before, I find myself struggling to figure out what tenor to take about the state of the business. It isn't hard to figure out the media industries have been entering into "crisis mode" for quite some time due to fragmentation, rise of new technologies, increased piracy, etc.

What is striking is how the writers' strike combined with the larger economic crisis has moved much of the talk from anxiety to calamity. The loss of ad revenue from the auto business alone poses serious challenges to television...add that to the wave of bankruptcies we can anticipate in the new year in the retail sector, and the picture looks uglier still.

An initial response for some might be to say "huzzah! bye bye big media!" However, as someone soon to speak to many an undergraduate eager to make a living in a world in which downsizing and bankruptcies are the new state of being, I can only feel distressed by the emerging state of the media world.

Just a couple thoughts provoked by reading http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i935003166745e37d691b6c9a69c398dc

Ok, back to work on the class pitch...

My latest experiment

2008-12-19T03:05:00.000-05:00

Having grown tired of updating lists & links on the media industries on Blackboard semester after semester, I decided to try something different...provided here are a range of resources I find useful, informative, interesting and (often) fun to peruse.

As time goes on, I hope to add citations for articles and books -- and link to some articles too. But this will happen bit by bit.

If you have any recommendations, please do forward 'em on to me.