Looking for a new binge?

Hey TV lovers, as binge watching is reasonably the fastest growing way people consume TV I thought I'd share what shows the internet thinks we should watch.....
Shows to Binge Watch

I however am still catching up on last year's Shark Week so I'll be binging the old fashion way via DVR.  Plus most of the shows suggested don't really strike me as all that interesting.  What is interesting is that many of the shows listed are on premium channels so it agains poses the question of whom has actual access to these shows?

Roots Returns

I recently read that History, A&E, and Lifetime are putting together a remake of the hit mini series Roots.  I think this comes at very interesting moment in U.S. history in which people are willing to remain uninformed of America's consistently turbulent relationship with race and ignore the incredibly racially charged environment of today in exchange for an imagined "colorblind"/"post-race" narrative.

Here's the link to the article if anyone is interested:
Roots Remake

Calling RHOBH fans!

So on the rumor mill are talks of Lisa Rinna playing Kris Jenner in the upcoming TV miniseries about the OJ trial.  I for one will tune in if Rinna is cast because let's face it, soap opera actress plus Kris Jenner equals TV gold! Here's a link to more info for those possibly interested! Don't be shy, it's ok to say you watch RHOBH. ;)

Lisa Rinna to play Kris Jenner in TV miniseries

Can the Fans bring back McDreamy?

Well I wouldn't personally go so far as to make or even fill out a petition, some very angry Grey's Anatomy fans have taken the space of fandom to vocalize their outrage at the killing off our beloved McDreamy! Based on last night's episode I'm irritated that Dempsey's contract will likely be fulfilled with flashbacks, which will only make me, along with other fans, even more bitter at his uneventful departure from the show.  If you're curious to read the angry petition....here it is:

Fans demand McDreamy's death be a dream a-la "who shot JR?"

KPop and National Policy

Planet Money's digest of the long-term industrial program that brought us KPop's ascendancy:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/10/16/163039109/episode-410-why-k-pop-is-taking-over-the-world

Chance vs. Choice

In her essay for the week, Tara McPherson examines the claims that the world wide web affords a greater sense of mobility and choice to its users. While the industry’s move towards the development of interactive platforms exaggerates the notion that the consumer is in control, she argues that the web does indeed offer a specific modality of experience distinct from that of televisual flows. For instance, while the sense of liveness is common to both television and the web, the latter engenders a sense of choice as the user is able to click and move through websites at their own leisure. She highlights the visceral aspects of moving through the web and contends that time and space are constructed online in distinctive ways owing not just to the interface but also to the nature of code and web-based data. However, she points out that while the user operates under the notion that they are being propelled through space driven by their own quest for knowledge, this movement is actually structured by technological and commercial constraints. Thus, even though the experience of web-based navigation seems distinct from the broadcast medium of television, it is in fact structured to heighten the sense of choice and volition while confining users within a similar commercial logic of consumption. 

While I find McPherson’s analysis of the notion of volitional mobility provocative, I also wonder whether the sense of possibility engendered by the web can be entirely encompassed by the idea that it affords an unlimited array of choices. The corporate rhetoric, as McPherson points out, foregrounds the conception of user control as a liberatory force that allows the consumer to make rational choices based on what they want to see and read. The increasing trend towards personalization operates on the assumption that the consumer has a limited set of interests and knows what they want, waiting only for technology to meet their demands. However, the internet seems as much to be a site of guided navigation as one of random, accidental encounters. How would one begin to account for ‘chance’ alongside ‘choice’ in the experience of the web? While the notion of rational choice-making is at the core of more commercial web-based media, how would we account for encounters in the pirate and informal economies of the internet? While the possibilities for the meandering user are indeed limited in the face of increasing filtering and customization, how can we think through the possibilities of the web through its ability to take us on unexpected journeys?

Core Response #5: Chuck it up to Capitalism

Michael Curtin’s ideas about the logic of accumulation in his piece, Thinking Globally: From Media Imperialism to Media Capital, were particularly interesting.  Kieran Medina gave a presentation recently discussing the enormous popularity of a Snapchat “Our Story” about the New York Blizzard.  Their research covered how with the current culture of second screens, phone applications now have the ability to gain as many if not more eyes than television screens and the valuable market this potentially opens.  

The Snapchat story had over 24 million views, which put it higher than The Walking Dead and even higher than Monday Night Football.  With such a heavy viewership, particularly in the youth market, Snapchat seems to be able to move into a space of contemporary new media and therefore has great potential to be used as an activist tool whether for promoting news, resistance movements, and other social and political issues. While Snapchat is currently ad-free, with  “stories” like the blizzard, how long will it be able to sustain an add-free space? Although Snapchat doesn’t currently offer a necessarily valuable culture beyond perfecting selfies, its popularity does interact with Curtain’s concept that “over time [contemporary media] must redeploy its creative resources and reshape its terrain of operation if it is to survive competition and enhance profitability” (p. 5). 

One of the concerns I was considering when thinking about apps like Snapchat is the ever changing, evolving, and shrinking of people’s attention spans. Snapchats are not only inherently short as their name implies a double meaning referencing both the snapping of pictures and videos as well as the limited, pre-timed, one-time viewing model of the application.  What happens to us when our shortened attention spans start being harvested for information intended for capital gain? It’s a dangerous and slippery slope that has been evidenced by the waning popularity of socially apps or websites that can’t maintain enough traffic to remain competitive.  The capitalist transition ultimately kills diversity and ingenuity.  Capital has bee responsible for the demise of politically charged media across the ages as technology and the capitalist tradition heavy influenced the film and television industry from the levels of production and distribution that forwent many films and shows of social value in the aim of producing what’s popular and safe and guaranteed to turn a profit.  It seems likely that applications, even those with political potential, will likely fall victim to the capitalist machine.