HCRHS Media Lit

"According to Musburger's wonky logic, McCarron earned a hot girlfriend by being really good at throwing a pointy ball around on a field. In case you're still wondering why people like myself find Musburger's comments creepy, I'd now like to issue a friendly reminder that a) girls are not prizes that you win for being good at things and b) when you issue uninvited commentary on women's looks or bodies, this is why we throw things at you."

"Mass shootings -- like those at Newtown, Columbine, the Sikh temple in Wisconsin, and the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater -- and everyday street violence, like what's going on in Chicago, can be addressed immediately by legislation. But background checks and assault rifle bans will not free us from our most debilitating shackle, and that is our numbness, if not addiction, to violence, particularly in film."

"Four years ago, the news that my wife and I were going to have twin girls coincided with the moment of my most fervent dedication to the notion that gender is, for the most part, socially constructed. The degree to which those differences are innate or socially nurtured is up for debate, but there's little doubt that popular culture and the marketplace go to great lengths to emphasize and capitalize on them. Before the twins were born, friends and family inundated us with hand-me-down "girl clothes."  I made sure to put anything with princess logos or imagery into the giveaway pile. The princess trope represented passivity, entitlement, materialism, and submissiveness, and no daughter of mine would wear a onesie that celebrated such loathsome values."

"Jim Amoss, the longtime editor of The Times-Picayune, addresses whether the quality of the paper's reporting will be affected by moving to a digital platform in this 60 Minutes Extra video interview. "Will journalists be judged by the amount of online traffic their stories receive?""

"Deadly school shootings and street shootings have put young men and boys in front of-and behind-the trigger. Meanwhile, news reports proclaim a "classroom crisis" in which boys are being left behind in American schools. Are boys really at risk, and could masculinity itself be the culprit?"

"You've been saying for years that mass shootings have a lot to do with masculinity. Why is this a problem and why does it persist?"

"As I sit here in Northern California, I ask myself, "how can I possibly do anything that would make a difference for that grief stricken family whose child's room is empty tonight?" How can I possibly make any difference to the town of Newton, Connecticut - who will have to carry today's horror and sadness with them, forevermore? What we can do is teach our young boys and young men that being emotional and empathetic are part of "being a man." That "sharing one's feelings to sort out one's problems" is a masculine trait. We need some new definitions of "manly" so our boys can express and know their full selves, not just the culturally accepted "extremes" that predominately exist today."

"The Federal Communications Commission is pushing a plan to gut its 30-year-old newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership ban. This proposal would allow one company to own a local paper, two TV stations and up to eight radio stations in a single market. Advocates of more media consolidation argue that allowing TV stations and newspapers to merge is critical to cutting costs and saving local journalism."

"The controversial Qatari TV network Al Jazeera has bought Current TV, gaining access to millions more U.S. viewers and taking a major step forward in cracking the longed-for U.S. market. The move is the network's crowning achievement in the U.S. after years struggling to be accepted in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, when Al Jazeera was vilified by the Bush administration for broadcasting the notorious Osama bin Laden videos and other anti-American material. But following the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq, U.S. relations with the channel improved. Recently Al Jazeera's English-language channel has won several prestigious industry awards, as well as plaudits from senior U.S. policy-makers such as Hillary Clinton."

TED talks on happiness

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"THE media critic Jack Shafer wrote recently that, in the age of Twitter, the public had better get used to a new fact of life: News stories, especially the early reports of breaking news events, are very likely to be inaccurate. To this, I offer a radical response: That's not good enough. Or maybe it's good enough for some news organizations and some news consumers.  Are mistakes like this inevitable in the hypercompetitive age of social media?

"Holiday shoppers will mob the malls this weekend. Some of them are shopping for children. Some of them are children. This time of year reminds us of a question facing parents year-round: When and how should children learn to be consumers?"

"In the hours following the Newtown, Conn. shooting, several initial media reports provided false information. For example, the gunman's brother was originally identified as the shooter. NPR's media correspondent David Folkenflik explains how and why the media falsely reported key details."

"From now until New Year's, Creativity will be counting down the best creative brand ideas of 2012."

For an example of how marketing can be used by non-profits for social good read this: "All advertising strives to sell happiness, implying that buying certain goods or services will make you feel better than you did before. Pitching happiness itself, striving to communicate the gravity of the concept and its importance in our daily lives, is a different matter entirely-and that's the metaphorical mission of Hill Holliday's pro-bono "Happier Boston" push for suicide-prevention group Samaritans Inc. In addition to a Web site and PSAs, the campaign is taking its message to the streets via "social experiments." These include cheering "fans" at railroad platforms to greet commuters and wish them a great day; surprise skyscraper elevator sing-alongs; and handing out citrus fruits emblazoned with the message, "Orange you happy?"

"A tear-jerking viral video, called "2012: What Brought Us Together," is making the rounds online. Posted to YouTube on Tuesday, the six-minute video is a montage of major moments over the past year, from silly to serious. Set to the music of This Will Destroy You's "The Mighty Rio Grande," It includes clips about Hurricane Sandy, KONY 2012, the Costa Concordia disaster and the suicide of Amanda Todd."

"A change in the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) means that children under the age of 13 can be shown ads targeted toward them when they're online. This could lead to Facebook lowering its age of admission. Drafted in 1998, well before MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks burst onto the scene, the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday updated COPPA. The amendments work to protect children online, noting that certain information cannot be collected without parental consent, such as geolocation information and photos. However, the act also notes that it's now OK to advertise to children under the age of 13 (which is Facebook's minimum age requirement):"

"how would you like to see any of the comments you leave on your friend's Facebook page show up the next day on the front page of the newspaper, as a quote, attributed to you? Two separate incidents not too long ago raised this question for me. "

"Reporters who decide they want to go on a client sponsored weight loss program and turn around and tell their audience that they endorse the client's program because "it worked for me" have sold out and are in the wrong line of work. Journalistic integrity is absolutely paramount in this day and age. The pubic expects us to be honest and diligent in our reporting skills. How can the public take us seriously when a reporter has breaking news and then turns around and discuss the cure for chronic heal pain. We are kidding ourselves"