Category: Uncategorized

I Saw a Movie: Miss Representation

Several years and several careers ago, I was an intern at a non-profit media literacy organization in Madison, WI. If you’re not familiar with the term or the concept of media literacy*, it is traditionally defined as: … the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media in a variety of forms. We worked a [...]

The YouTube Museum of Television History

Doctor Who fan/video historian Babelcolour recently updated his popular video overview/tribute to the Doctor Who universe, compiling clips from 226 Doctor Who storylines (told through over 784 episodes) from Doctor Who’s nearly 50 years on the air. It’s a great quick and dirty visual intro to Doctor Who for newer fans and lovingly done tribute; [...]

There is only one thing that you can learn from The Muppets social media strategy

I’ve read about 5 or 6 blog posts in the past month or so about the popular social media campaign surrounding the latest Muppet movie. In the past few weeks, they’ve been everywhere: YouTube, Google +, Facebook, etc, and of course all the big social media marketing blogs are weighing in on what other social [...]

“Us” Versus “Them” – Community-driven media, Corporate media and the space between

Like most people over the age of 25 on the Internet, I remember quite vividly the pre-social media internet landscape: the days of Tripod.com , BBS and web rings. Technically, a lot of this community-powered online interaction is “social media” as well, but for many of us back then it was simply called “goofing off [...]

Guide for the Perplexed: QR Codes

Ever seen those square bar code-looking thingies on the bus or train or in a magazine and wonder what they were? They’re called QR Codes and they are being used increasingly in interactive marketing in the U.S. These little barcodes can store text or URL info and are used to  point  your phone to information [...]

Today in WTF: Grammys combine Hard Rock/Metal Awards

Among music fans/geeks, the news circulated quickly (mostly on Twitter)`that the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences –  the folks that run the Grammys – plan to eliminate 30 of its categories , mostly to avoid redundancies among categories. Fair enough, right? Best Hawaiian Zydeco Instrumental Duo will probably only have one  nominee every [...]

The Future of the Publishing Industry (or why terms of service are so important): HarperCollins Part Two

So now that you’ve read in the first post about the possibilities of using new technologies to transform the publishing industry in a potentially positive way, now read the tale of how Harper Collins is using another technology — e-books and their terms of service — to potentially shut down e-books in libraries. Overdrive, the [...]

The Privilege Denying Dude Meme Lives On!

So Diana Lopez about two weeks ago decided to create a meme (several examples surrounding) called Privilege Denying Dude, that according to Colorlines writer Channing Kennedy stand[s] out [because] he directly, and strikingly, parodied the frat-boy culture that fuels much Internet comedy in the first place—privileged, incurious, and ready to educate you about what your [...]