HCRHS Media Lit

The commercial highlights a smoking-cessation Web site called MyTimeToQuit.com, and it looks in many ways like a public-service announcement, at least initially. But wait-a logo at the end of the commercial reveals that it's sponsored by Pfizer. And the MyTimetoQuit site includes links that ultimately lead you to the Web site for Chantix (varenicline), Pfizer's blockbuster smoking-cessation drug.

Advertisers' messages are infiltrating small-market television newscasts at about the same percentage that owners of digital video recorders are skipping the commercials, say researchers at the University of Oregon.

Stealth advertising - an ad-industry buzzword for a few years now - is so low-key it doesn't look like advertising at all. Turns out it's also fairly recession-friendly - because it's cheaper than traditional TV advertising. And when it works, it's usually the kind of thing that really works.

We recently looked at the most shared articles in the US on Facebook over the past year. The stories range from cute to thought provoking and represent the type of news people have been sharing and discovering with friends in 2011.   

Yahoo News, The Washington Post,The Independent, and The Guardian have amassed millions of readers for social editions of the publications that launched in September. These publications are all sending large numbers of posts into Facebook news feeds, often to the point of eclipsing other types of content

ABC News and TED, the nonprofit conference that promotes "Ideas Worth Spreading" are partnering on a new series of reports focusing on ideas and inventions that could change the world. Called "Ted + Diane" for anchor Diane Sawyer, the first report aired yesterday and focused on new research that is looking into ways to reverse the aging process. The plan is to eventually feature a one-hour primetime special, but details on that are still being worked out. Check out the trailer below:

What's the first word that should come to mind when you or your students see a news story or get a news/rumor text?  We think it should be a skeptical "REALLY?" To reinforce the importance of becoming an educated news consumer, RTNDF is launching a news literacy project called REALLY? The campaign is designed to help everyone -- students, teachers, professionals and the general public -- separate fact from fiction. You will want to your student producers and editors to join you for this webinar - or see the archived version.

Facebook happiness index graphs from 2008 and 2009

"Compared with their grandparents, today's young adults have grown up with much more affluence, slightly less happiness and much greater risk of depression and assorted social pathology," notes Hope College psychologist David G. Myers, PhD, author of the article, which appeared in the American Psychologist (Vol. 55, No. 1). "Our becoming much better off over the last four decades has not been accompanied by one iota of increased subjective well-being." These findings emerge at a time when the consumer culture has reached a fever pitch, comments Myers, also the author of "The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty" (Yale University Press, 2000).

Disney's Magic Kingdom. Billed as the Happiest Place on Earth. But how safe are you -- and more importantly, your children -- at Disney's empire in Florida? All theme parks are magnets for pedophiles. But our four -- month investigation found that Disney's hiring practices actually allowed the employment of convicted pedophiles at its parks and resorts. And law-enforcement sources we talked to say Disney is less willing to cooperate with authorities battling the problem than are other parks. Is Disney placing its youngest and most exploitable customers -- your children -- at unnecessary risk? Stay tuned for our ace investigative reporter's troubling report.... Though this isn't a real promo, this was a real story. But it never ran. It didn't because this was an ABC News story, and since 1996, ABC has been a relatively small, financially struggling division of the mammoth Walt Disney Company. David Westin, president of ABC News, killed the story after a bitter clash with the journalists who had nearly completed work on it -- igniting suspicions that the story would have been told, but for Disney's ownership of the network. Especially troublesome is how ABC went about evaluating and killing the story. The whole mess validates the viewing public's worst fears about conglomerate ownership of major news outlets. In this case, an otherwise powerful, prestigious news operation has shown itself incapable of covering -- or unwilling to cover -- a major cultural and economic force in American life.

From childhood, we learn to associate symbols and icons with specific feelings or ideas. This is the same with branding, as logos come to embody the brand's personality in the mind of the consumer. Brands take tremendous effort in creating emotional connections with the consumer, and logos are just one of the many ways they can communicate who they are. Some logos are so prevalent in society that they are instantly recognizable.Below is a collection of 30 of the most recognizable logos. Some have seen multiple generations, and some are very new, but all are easily recognizable and might even evoke some feelings toward that brand.

Below is a look at the top six media conglomerates in the United States: Time WarnerGeneral ElectricComcastNational AmusementsNews CorporationThe Walt Disney CompanyThis is not even close to an exhaustive list and nearly all the large media companies have intertwining relationships with each other. Advertising Age magazine constructed an excellent Media Family Tree (pdf file) which shows how these companies cross-pollinate their profits.

Ads are showing up everywhere. And creeping commercialism is prompting a growing debate about whether "ad pollution" is invading too much of consumers' space.

Great site on media conglomerations and ownership of the media

Comcast/NBC Media Holdings

Chart of the big 6 media conglomerates