"As the candidates for president reintroduced themselves at their conventions and began the last phase of the campaign, they received markedly different treatment in social media than in the mainstream press, a new study finds."

"Here's the fantasy: A half-naked woman lies across a couch, lips pouty and cleavage prominent as her sultry gaze implores you to buy this bottle of perfume. The reality: Women make up 51% of the United States yet only 17% of seats in the House of Representatives. They're 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs and 7% of directors in the top 250 grossing films. What's the connection? We live in a sexualized society where the gap between fantasy and reality is vast and harmful."

"These uses of markets to allocate health, education, public safety, national security, criminal justice, environmental protection, recreation, procreation, and other social goods were for the most part unheard-of 30 years ago. Today, we take them largely for granted. Why worry that we are moving toward a society in which everything is up for sale? For two reasons. One is about inequality, the other about corruption"

Developed in collaboration with the Newspaper Association of America, Messages & Meanings is a collection of curriculum activities for analyzing print and electronic media. This resource includes instructional activities for strengthening access, analysis, evaluation and communication skills, as well as evaluating new technologies like internet web pages.

Media Analysis Guides

"The curriculum is broken into six sections: historical perspective social media writing process engagement social media writing structure media analysis law/ethics Even though technology is constantly advancing, I believe these sections can be adapted for any type of technology or new social media network that will be developed."

NAMLE marketpace - books and videos for media lit

It turns out there is a measurable connection between income and happiness; not surprisingly, people with a comfortable living standard are happier than people living in poverty. The catch is that additional income doesn't buy us any additional happiness on a typical day once we reach that comfortable standard.

Every bit as unattainable as Barbie-doll proportions and the heroin chic look are the broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted, fat-free, and muscle-sheathed male physiques littering today's media. Researchers are beginning to pay attention to what these stimuli do to the male body image. Guys, it turns out, have body issues too. 

Recently, I was asked by Jason Nazar, founder of Docstoc and a big supporter of the L.A. entrepreneurial community, if I had any tips for startups regarding choosing a name for their product. A short, 3-minute video response can be found at the bottom of this post, but I thought I'd share some key takeaways with you here:

If you think this heralds hypocrisy, you aren't the only one shaking your head. Last year, Seventeen magazine launched a campaign on positive body image in conjunction with Dove. They've also included a "Body Peace Expert" who answers teens' body image-related questions. How can Seventeen follow its own body-positive philosophy and campaign goals when the magazine pushes the very thing it denounces?

The boys had been taking awhile, so their father eventually came in. He saw the game, and the controller, and started in on the youngest about how he needs to pick something different. Something more manly. Something with guns and fighting, and certainly not a purple controller. He tried to convince him to get the new Zombie game "Dead Island" and the little boy just stood there repeating, "Dad, this is what I want, OK?" Eventually it turned into a full-blown argument complete with Dad threatening to whoop his son if he didn't choose different items.

Seventeen, the most widely read magazine among teenage girls in the United States, claims to "encourage independence" and help each reader "become this wonderful person that she dreams she will be." But far from encouraging independence, Seventeen only reinforces the cultural expectations that an adolescent woman should be more concerned with her appearance, her relations with other people and her ability to win approval from men than with her own ideas or her expectations for herself.

omething is wrong with the way the problem has been posed and addressed. A virtual obsession with asking the wrong question obscures the factors that in fact drive violence and trap the industry in a difficult dilemma. The usual question - "Does television violence incite real-life violence?" - is itself a symptom rather than diagnostic tool of the problem. Despite its alarming implications, and intent, or perhaps because of them, it distracts from focusing on the major conditions producing violence in society and limits discussion of television violence to its most simplistic dimension. Violence is a complex scenario and social relationship. Whatever else it does, violence in drama and news demonstrates power. It portrays victims, as well as victimizers. It intimidates, as well as incites. It shows one's place in the "pecking order" that runs society. And, it "travels well" on the world market. Changing the Debate Let us, then, try to change the terms of the debate so that something might come of it.

Follow up to Ignore the Human Element. Includes an infographic

Welcome to the Relationship Era. Say goodbye to positioning, preemption and unique selling position. This is about turning everything you understood about marketing upside down so that you can land right side up. This is about tapping into the Human Element.