OK folks, since its midterm week there won't be a quiz or any discussion thread. I will open the exam this evening and it will be available for you until Sunday night. Review the material we have covered so far. If you have any questions before the test, shoot me an e-mail. Since I have a day job try to give me a little lead time so I have an opportunity to get back to you.
Also, some of you have missed earlier chapter quizzes and would like to make them up. I will allow that this week, but what I need you to do is email me to tell me which quizzes you have missed.
Finally, if you wonder why I consider the state of the American newspaper with such despair, take a look at this. Who cares about Wall Street? It's time to occupy the newsrooms of America.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
The Bartman incident
I want to talk this week about the "Bartman Incident" in the 2003 National League Championship Series. If you haven't had a chance to watch the ESPN film "Catching Hell" about the game, here are a couple of resources to help bring you up to speed.
Wikipedia page on the game.
Short clips from the film.
A link to a plethora of You Tube clips about the incident.
What I want to focus on is the role television played in elevating the play into an ugly mob scene at Wrigley Field. If you were able to see the ESPN film you learned a couple of interesting things about the game. There is no big screen in Wrigley for replaying key moments as there is in every other big league ballpark. So fans at the game were not seeing the replays over and over as was the television audience. But outside the ballpark, where fans gather in the streets surrounding Wrigley Field during big games, one man was carrying a television. He held the set on top of his head while the fans in the street watched the same replays as viewers at home. The chants of "Asshole. Asshole. Asshole" directed by all 40,000 plus fans in the stadium at Steve Bartman began outside Wrigley with those fans watching the television out on the street.
Steve Bartman will never live down that moment at Wrigley Field. The replays of that play have seared the image of him deflecting the ball away from Moises Alou into the minds of Cubs fans forever. But what if that play had happened 50 years earlier? There wouldn't have been television cameras in the stadium as the game would have been broadcast only on the radio. The only way that play might have been recorded at all would be if some newspaper photographer had gotten really lucky. If television hadn't been there to record the play, and amplify it, would it even be remembered at all?
So I have two questions I'd like you to answer this week. Did the amplification effect of television make the "Bartman Incident?" And if so, what are the implications for subjects of more importance in society?
Wikipedia page on the game.
Short clips from the film.
A link to a plethora of You Tube clips about the incident.
What I want to focus on is the role television played in elevating the play into an ugly mob scene at Wrigley Field. If you were able to see the ESPN film you learned a couple of interesting things about the game. There is no big screen in Wrigley for replaying key moments as there is in every other big league ballpark. So fans at the game were not seeing the replays over and over as was the television audience. But outside the ballpark, where fans gather in the streets surrounding Wrigley Field during big games, one man was carrying a television. He held the set on top of his head while the fans in the street watched the same replays as viewers at home. The chants of "Asshole. Asshole. Asshole" directed by all 40,000 plus fans in the stadium at Steve Bartman began outside Wrigley with those fans watching the television out on the street.
Steve Bartman will never live down that moment at Wrigley Field. The replays of that play have seared the image of him deflecting the ball away from Moises Alou into the minds of Cubs fans forever. But what if that play had happened 50 years earlier? There wouldn't have been television cameras in the stadium as the game would have been broadcast only on the radio. The only way that play might have been recorded at all would be if some newspaper photographer had gotten really lucky. If television hadn't been there to record the play, and amplify it, would it even be remembered at all?
So I have two questions I'd like you to answer this week. Did the amplification effect of television make the "Bartman Incident?" And if so, what are the implications for subjects of more importance in society?
Sunday, October 16, 2011
So digital didn't kill the music star
I think that as a group you have zeroed in on an important point: music isn't dead because of change, music is changed because of change. I'll admit a certain nostalgia for the old 12-inch vinyl package, but I still listen to music and I haven't bought one of those relics in nearly 30 years. I didn't care for aspects of the change from vinyl to CDs, but I did get that the practicality of the format made it a superior product.
So music has changed. Bon Jovi is probably being an alarmist, or at least a sentimentalist pining for the memories of youth. Interesting in that we had another reading assignment this week that described Steve Jobs as the enemy of nostalgia, which was part of his genius. I remember when the first iMac came out and it didn't have a floppy disc drive. People freaked out. Now they are making Macs that don't include a disc drive and iTunes may soon give way to iCloud.
Nice work this week. I'm going hunting in the morning and I will mull over a discussion point for the week based on "Catching Hell." I'll post tomorrow evening.
BTW, Molly gets extra credit for slipping in that Buggles reference. Click here for a look at the first music video ever played on MTV. Sorry for the annoying message that pops up at the start of the song. Just hit the play arrow and it goes away. Watching that video makes my a tad nostalgic the early 80s, when I was a young college boy working in a record store. But most of those memories wouldn't be appropriate for serious academic discourse.
So music has changed. Bon Jovi is probably being an alarmist, or at least a sentimentalist pining for the memories of youth. Interesting in that we had another reading assignment this week that described Steve Jobs as the enemy of nostalgia, which was part of his genius. I remember when the first iMac came out and it didn't have a floppy disc drive. People freaked out. Now they are making Macs that don't include a disc drive and iTunes may soon give way to iCloud.
Nice work this week. I'm going hunting in the morning and I will mull over a discussion point for the week based on "Catching Hell." I'll post tomorrow evening.
BTW, Molly gets extra credit for slipping in that Buggles reference. Click here for a look at the first music video ever played on MTV. Sorry for the annoying message that pops up at the start of the song. Just hit the play arrow and it goes away. Watching that video makes my a tad nostalgic the early 80s, when I was a young college boy working in a record store. But most of those memories wouldn't be appropriate for serious academic discourse.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Apple and the rise of digital music
There was a brief moment in the not too distant past when music was distributed for free on the Internet somewhat like news is today. Napster was the place where listeners downloaded and "shared" digital versions of their favorite music with other fans. The music industry took notice of all this free traffic and when to court to shut down Napster. iTunes rose Phoenix-like from Napsters' ashes to become the dominant music distribution system.
For newspapers grappling with a way to put the genie back in the bottle and figure out a way to get folks to start paying for their product again, the rise of iTunes may offer some hope: "Maybe we can get people used to getting something for free to start paying for it again?"
But were interested in the music story here, and from the business side of things, iTunes has been an unqualified success. Still, there are detractors. Jon Bon Jovi seems to think the move toward digital has diminished the discovery experience of music, going so far as to claim Steve Jobs is killing the music business. I wonder sometimes. Certainly my teen-age daughters experience music far differently from how I did when I was their age. I hung out in record stores, thumbing through racks of 12-inch vinyl, admiring the cover art and wondering how it represented the music inside. No need for that (either the record store or the experience of hanging out in one) when you have iTunes. My kids gather round the computer with friends, sample songs and buy the ones they like. I'm not sure my kids have ever put on the headphones and listened to an album from start to finish the way I did.
There are other criticisms of the digital model. For instance, does it give industry leaders, some of whom have "control" issues, too much influence over music they way they once did during the payola days? Or does the Long Tail Effect level the playing field, allowing more artists to get their music to their fans?
So our question for the week: How much is there to Bon Jovi's claim that digital killed the music industry? We've talked about the tactile experience of ink-on-paper media. Is there a similar experience that the old album cover and liner notes, as well as being grounded to a fixed-site device like a turntable, that changes music forever? Is that really a change, and if so, is it necessarily a bad thing?
I'll look for your comments by Friday. The Sound Media is open and ready for your test-taking pleasure.
For newspapers grappling with a way to put the genie back in the bottle and figure out a way to get folks to start paying for their product again, the rise of iTunes may offer some hope: "Maybe we can get people used to getting something for free to start paying for it again?"
But were interested in the music story here, and from the business side of things, iTunes has been an unqualified success. Still, there are detractors. Jon Bon Jovi seems to think the move toward digital has diminished the discovery experience of music, going so far as to claim Steve Jobs is killing the music business. I wonder sometimes. Certainly my teen-age daughters experience music far differently from how I did when I was their age. I hung out in record stores, thumbing through racks of 12-inch vinyl, admiring the cover art and wondering how it represented the music inside. No need for that (either the record store or the experience of hanging out in one) when you have iTunes. My kids gather round the computer with friends, sample songs and buy the ones they like. I'm not sure my kids have ever put on the headphones and listened to an album from start to finish the way I did.
There are other criticisms of the digital model. For instance, does it give industry leaders, some of whom have "control" issues, too much influence over music they way they once did during the payola days? Or does the Long Tail Effect level the playing field, allowing more artists to get their music to their fans?
So our question for the week: How much is there to Bon Jovi's claim that digital killed the music industry? We've talked about the tactile experience of ink-on-paper media. Is there a similar experience that the old album cover and liner notes, as well as being grounded to a fixed-site device like a turntable, that changes music forever? Is that really a change, and if so, is it necessarily a bad thing?
I'll look for your comments by Friday. The Sound Media is open and ready for your test-taking pleasure.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Catching Hell
I'm getting a little ahead of the course, but I wanted to give you a heads up. "Catching Hell," an ESPN documentary on the infamous "Bartman foul ball" in the 2003 Major League playoffs will be broadcast 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday on ESPN2 (that's why DVRs and TiVo were invented) and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday on ESPN. In that game, Cubs' fan Steve Bartman interfered with Cubs outfielder Moises Alou as he tried to catch a foul ball. The play, along with subsequent Chicago errors and Florida Marlin rally, cost the Cubs the game and they later lost the National League pennant, allowing Florida to advance and go on to win the World Series.
Those of you who are baseball fans know that the Cubs are the lovable losers of the Major Leagues, having gone more than 100 years since they last won it all (they beat the Tigers in 1908). Despite this legacy of losing, the Cubs have one of the most passionate fan bases in all of sport. But the Bartman play revealed a darker side, as the crowd turned on Bartman and he had to be escorted from the stadium to protect his safety.
When we move to Motion Media Oct. 17 I'd like to focus on the Bartman play and the fan reaction as well as the role television played in fueling the ugliness that filled the friendly confines of Wrigley Field that night. If you are able, watch "Catching Hell" this weekend. If you're unable you will still be able to participate in the discussion. You can view short clips from the film here. The film is also available on iTunes but they will charge you $4.99. Again, watching the entire film will not be necessary for the class, but it will be helpful. The film is damn good and you absolutely do not have to be a sports fan to find "Catching Hell" compeling viewing. Any of you who have watched any of ESPN's previous "30 for 30" documentaries already know this. BTW, "Catching Hell" was directed by Alex Gibney, who directed the Academy Award winning documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side" about the war in Afghanstan.
I will put together a post on Steve Jobs to focus our discussion on Sound Media for next week. "Catching Hell" and Motion Media will be for the week that begins Oct. 17.
Those of you who are baseball fans know that the Cubs are the lovable losers of the Major Leagues, having gone more than 100 years since they last won it all (they beat the Tigers in 1908). Despite this legacy of losing, the Cubs have one of the most passionate fan bases in all of sport. But the Bartman play revealed a darker side, as the crowd turned on Bartman and he had to be escorted from the stadium to protect his safety.
When we move to Motion Media Oct. 17 I'd like to focus on the Bartman play and the fan reaction as well as the role television played in fueling the ugliness that filled the friendly confines of Wrigley Field that night. If you are able, watch "Catching Hell" this weekend. If you're unable you will still be able to participate in the discussion. You can view short clips from the film here. The film is also available on iTunes but they will charge you $4.99. Again, watching the entire film will not be necessary for the class, but it will be helpful. The film is damn good and you absolutely do not have to be a sports fan to find "Catching Hell" compeling viewing. Any of you who have watched any of ESPN's previous "30 for 30" documentaries already know this. BTW, "Catching Hell" was directed by Alex Gibney, who directed the Academy Award winning documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side" about the war in Afghanstan.
I will put together a post on Steve Jobs to focus our discussion on Sound Media for next week. "Catching Hell" and Motion Media will be for the week that begins Oct. 17.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Let's beat that horse good and dead
One final comment thread on the future of print. I'd like you all to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 (one being the afore mentioned horse, five being they'll thrive forever) the fate of the three ink on paper mediums we've considered this week. I'll go first:
Magazines — (-100)One isn't low enough. Magazines are dead tree media walking. The iPad finished them off, they just don't realize it yet.
Books — (3) Big, art or foto driven coffee table books will live on. But mass market paperbacks and most best sellers are moving to tablet devices before too long.
Newspapers (1) — I think small-market dailies such as the Inter Lake face a future of contraction. Weeklies such as the Beacon probably have a brighter future. And a few national dailies will survive for now, NY Times and USA Today, at least until some future tech development pulls an iPad and finisheds them off too.
Post your votes by Friday please. Look for some additional information posts on the death of Steve Jobs and and our upcoming unit on sound media. All for now.
Magazines — (-100)One isn't low enough. Magazines are dead tree media walking. The iPad finished them off, they just don't realize it yet.
Books — (3) Big, art or foto driven coffee table books will live on. But mass market paperbacks and most best sellers are moving to tablet devices before too long.
Newspapers (1) — I think small-market dailies such as the Inter Lake face a future of contraction. Weeklies such as the Beacon probably have a brighter future. And a few national dailies will survive for now, NY Times and USA Today, at least until some future tech development pulls an iPad and finisheds them off too.
Post your votes by Friday please. Look for some additional information posts on the death of Steve Jobs and and our upcoming unit on sound media. All for now.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Thoughts on print
My kids are in high school. When they were much younger and I still worked in the business, they used to read the funnies in the newspaper everyday. But it has been a long time since we've received home delivery of a newspaper and they rarely if ever look at a newspaper anymore.
But a funny thing happened this weekend. The kids play soccer for Glacier High and one of the girl's picture appeared in the Daily Inter Lake Sunday. It was a nice, large color shot on the front of the sports section. It was a big deal, a big deal. Friends are saving extra copies for me and my daughter wants to send some to our out-of-state relatives.
It's interesting because I've taken thousands of fotos of them playing soccer over the years, and many of them have been posted on Facebook and shared among friends and family. And frankly I've taken plenty of fotos that were better, or at least more dramatic, than the one that appeared in the paper. Still, none of those fotos has generating anything like the excitement of appearing in the paper.
It's a shame that product is going away, as I am certain it will.
The Ink on Paper Quiz is open until Friday. I have one more post requiring a response form all of you on this topic planned for the week. I enjoyed your thoughtful posts on our most recent discussion thread.
But a funny thing happened this weekend. The kids play soccer for Glacier High and one of the girl's picture appeared in the Daily Inter Lake Sunday. It was a nice, large color shot on the front of the sports section. It was a big deal, a big deal. Friends are saving extra copies for me and my daughter wants to send some to our out-of-state relatives.
It's interesting because I've taken thousands of fotos of them playing soccer over the years, and many of them have been posted on Facebook and shared among friends and family. And frankly I've taken plenty of fotos that were better, or at least more dramatic, than the one that appeared in the paper. Still, none of those fotos has generating anything like the excitement of appearing in the paper.
It's a shame that product is going away, as I am certain it will.
The Ink on Paper Quiz is open until Friday. I have one more post requiring a response form all of you on this topic planned for the week. I enjoyed your thoughtful posts on our most recent discussion thread.
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