Enter World: exploring mediated cultures

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Photography

check out fremlinvision

Monday, June 26, 2006

Shifts in publishing

It’s funny to see all the places my business was pushing toward RSS and blogs a couple years ago start using them now. And now we’re closing down our blog in favor of an email and print newsletter. I’m much more excited about variable data printing these days, and other forms of printing, than the online publishing. And I think the online publishing has brought this about for many—a renewed interest in words and ideas in concise published formats. Maybe the next new thing is print.

It looks like the job opportunities in the digital print field are booming. Certainly something to keep an eye on.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Media Literacy project

I’ve been working on converting the media literacy project I completed last year to this new site format. It’s now up at thefremlin / medialit.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

The Empire tries to be cool

the Empire is putting out The Hooligan in place of the arts & entertainment section that used to run on Thursdays called This Week. They claim it’s so they have something interesting for the 18-35 crowd and draw in new readers. But here’s a tip for you—the only time I ever bought the Empire was on Thursdays for the This Week section. A key to why they’re really changing it is in the linked article above—NO ADVERTISEMENTS.

But let’s play dumb and pretend that Morris Communications really cares about people in Juneau, and more specifically the dwindling “young” crowd that this city keeps trying to attract to town or at least keep in town ...

Why not ask us what we want? We might start with something like more interesting topics and better writing.

Tell us what’s happening outside of Juneau as well as in, but not with the AP Wire because we can read that in an RSS feed before your paper can be printed and distributed.
Tell us both sides to a story, not just the easy one. So there’s a huge debate going on in the political world of Alaska about gas and oil and pipelines—how does this tie to the rest of the world? How does this tie to alternate fuel sources and what does that mean for Alaska? Listening only to the legislators is like getting all your news from corporate press releases.

For local flavor, tell us what young people in town are doing, tell us about the businesses they start and the concerts they organize and why. Tell us why they all work more than one job, why they stay in Juneau anyway, what they’re doing to change the place.

Hell, get really daring and tell us how much we rely on specific cruise lines for our income and how we often bend to their will. Oh wait, if you did that we’d lose all our funding ... can’t have that. Bend baby, bend.

I mean, the Empire is cute and all with it’s Police & Fire section noting the garbage bears, but there’s no meat. And sure, we certainly need something in this town telling us the art happenings, but that’s only coming out once a week. We need real news every day.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Guerilla Marketing—an oxymoron?

Forbes is suggesting the use of ”guerilla marketing” for small businesses. There are a few things about it that seem off. First of all they claim hiring guerilla marketing professionals (an oxymoron in itself?) can cost up to 8% instead of the standard 4% allocated to maketing. Secondly, they say that the concept of guerilla marketing is getting to really know your clients rather than plastering large scale “old-media” with blanket advertisements. And thirdly, the Top Ten Techniques are oddly standardized.

When I think of guerilla marketing I think of graffiti, plastering walls and bulletin boards with fliers, and in general using low-cost options to get information out. This is contrary to everything Forbes is advocating. There is nothing daring or alternative about their top ten list (send out cards to top clients off season, give out information in newsletters or speeches, answer questions through your website...). Ok, I’ll give them the littering of library books with business cards as something a little daring for business—but wouldn’t it be better to run off a really cool bookmark and place that in books instead? But for the most part all of the suggestions seem to be marketing—nothing new about it.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Clinton’s Guide to Media

There is something excessive in the wording of this: MEDIA SAFETY A Guide for Parents from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

While the effects of media have been studied for years, using the term safety makes it all seem more of a scare tactic than a genuine attempt to help people become literate. Granted, violence and fear are hot topics. Why not play on them for the purpose of promoting all things while it’s trendy? If that’s what you’re after ... 

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

TANGENT issue 6.6.6

issue_005_web.pdf

We finished rubber cementing the stickers on the covers of issue 6.6.6 just in time (last night) to distribute on 6.6.6. Here’s the web-readable version. You can download an imposed print-ready PDF at the TANGENT site.

Topics in this issue include:

• how to file for office
• Upton Sinclair & Sinclair Lewis
• media rants
• an essay on love
• One night in the singularity (fiction)
• Amazing women: George Sand
• lizard remnants
• animal cruelty

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder and the Media

JWF_Media_ADHD.pdf

The following paper focuses on issues of ADHD and the media through analysis of the motion pictures Thumbsucker (Mills, 2005) and Pushing Tin (Newell, 1999). Topics addressed include the controversy about diagnostic methods, criticism of stimulant prescriptions for children, increasing attention surrounding adult ADHD, and the relationship between media and ADHD.