Enter World: exploring mediated cultures

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Or living through the screen, as it may be.

A couple days ago I saw an ad at Blockbuster for their enhanced membership, the tag line was Experience More. I chuckled half to myself at the idea that sitting in front of a television set watching others act out a story was experience as opposed to the world going on outside that small rental store’s doors.

Tonight I heard on the radio that grocery stores are unveiling shopping carts with built in movies to keep kids entertained. There was a psychologist interviewed who said the increasing number of children who are either amused or bored dependent upon screens being present (waiting room tv sets, personal DVDs, minivan movies, etc) is taking away from parent child interaction and the kids aren’t learning things from the parents they should be learning.

Monday, August 28, 2006

An article in the Boston Globe yesterday about changes in marketing techniques due to changes in media reminded me once again of product endorsement in textbooks. I was not able to find any articles or research on that when I looked last, it might be time to search again. It’s pretty common knowledge that the products in major motion pictures were sold those spots, it’s even been the target of comedy in movies. However, in this world obsessed with protecting the child—why is no one concerned with the statistics textbook that talks about Camel cigarettes in its word problems?

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Filmmaker Magazine has an article about how MySpace is changing independent film marketing. The potential is so great—but I just can’t get over the horror that is myspace. If the users are truly “overwhelmingly young, hip and media-savvy” WHY ARE THEY USING SUCH AN UGLY SITE? All politics of ownership aside ... where are the aesthetics? Not to mention usability. Though most of my issues are the broken pages due to enormous photos and the constant pummeling by other people’s music. Any site that loads music without letting the viewer choose to play it ... just shouldn’t be.

connecting a mac to two networks

after days of not being able to have my iMac connected to both a wireless internet connection and my local router with the printer and hard drive the answer has finally come to me, and so I share with the online world ...

the brilliant tech that I spoke to last (in a line of three) pointed me to Network Port Configurations in system preferences > network > show. simply drag airport above built-in ethernet. voila. all works well in the land of computers.