On Journalism 2

 

Who exactly is this big, bad entity called “The Media”.

Whoever they are, they sure take a lot of heat. Nobody likes them. Everybody disrespects them. They’re blamed for just about everything from zapping our attention spans to “ruining this Great Nation of Ours”.

This from dictionary.com:

me⋅di⋅a Pronunciation [mee-dee-uh]

–noun

1.	a pl. of medium.

 

2.	(usually used with a plural verb ) the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely: The media are covering the speech tonight.

Use media in a Sentence

See images of media

Search media on the Web

Usage note:
Media, like data, is the plural form of a word borrowed directly from Latin. The singular, medium, early developed the meaning “an intervening agency, means, or instrument” and was first applied to newspapers two centuries ago. In the 1920s media began to appear as a singular collective noun, sometimes with the plural medias. This singular use is now common in the fields of mass communication and advertising, but it is not frequently found outside them: The media is (or are) not antibusiness.

 

Hey…that’s me! I work for TV. By that definition, I’m the media!

However, here’s another definition, courtesy steve.op:

 

me-di-a

 

1. You are what you watch.
2. And you are watching!
3. Membership is free, but with freedom comes responsibilities…

 

According to Wikpedia, the top primetime telecasts of all time can be handily broken down into five categories:

1. Big pro football games
2. The final episodes of “The Fugitive”, “Mash” and “Cheers”
3. “Roots” and “The Thorn Birds”
4. Rare special events like the Beatles on Ed Sullivan
5.  and “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

 

Makes you wonder doesn’t it? Is TV the chicken that spits up calorie-free programming, or the egg laid by viewers who clamor for more? People like to joke about TV news that “if it bleeds it leads”. The news is riddled with reports of murders and crime, house fires and traffic accidents, scandals of all shapes and sizes. But here’s another truism: “The squeaky wheel gets the grease”. Why do you suppose that is? Why is it that the news leads off with murders and scandals rather than of a nice, positive feature on “community-building”?

Here’s another tantalizing item for thought. In 2009, the total numbers of emails or phone calls I personally received from viewers – other than those involved in the given story – is zero. Nada. Zip.

That’s about how often I get feedback on my stories from the “general public”. Oh, sure – my wife weighs in on how I do. She’s my biggest critic – and I value her opinion highly. She’s heard me “talk shop” so she knows a “jump cut” from a “sequence”. Combine that with her native intellect and her accumulated life experience, and she knows what she’s talking about. And when she talks I listen. Same goes for all of my other “fans”.

Feedback on what I do helps me to shape future stories. That’s how we work in TV. “Eat all you want; we’ll make more!”

So if it’s quality you’re hungry for, all you’ve got to do is tell us, the media, what you the media want.

 

Back to the “Top 46 of All Time”. Since I happen to work in “news”, I was particularly quick to observe that no news programs ranked in that list. No “ABC Nightly”. No “60 Minutes”.

In fact when you look up the current top 100 TV shows, the first “news program” to make the rankings is “Dateline NBC” at #69 — below “Hannah Montana”, “Family Guy”, “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”, and “America’s Next Top Model”.

Currently, the top five most popular shows on TV are “Dancing with the Stars”, “Real Housewives of Orange County”, “NCIS”, “The Bachelor”, and “American Idol”. If that’s what you want, we’ll make more!

I rest my case.

 

 

Posted under Artist? Scientist? Philosopher? Camera Guy?

As a photojournalist, part of what I do is make “mini movies” about life in our community. So it’s only natural that I love film, and now that Bridget and Krista have commented on their favorites, it’s only natural that I weigh in…

“Steve’s Top Ten Movies of 2009”

 

1. The Hurt Locker

2. Up in the Air

3. Avatar

4. The Fantastic Mr. Fox

5. Inglourious Basterds

6. Up

7. Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince

8. The Hangover

9. ?

10.?

 

I stopped at 8 because, honestly, I didn’t see ten movies good enough to warrant the top ten of 2009. If you have a tough time filling in even ten candidates, it wasn’t a very rich year for cinema.

“Invictus” is a good example. Not a bad film. In fact I was inspired by the Nelson Mandela storyline. Still I expected more. “Invictus” is basically a glorified sports movie with rather slight, or flabby-out-of-shape athletes (Poor Matt Damon has no calves! And he’s not even one of the guys I’m talking about!) posing as world class rugby players.

My fellow photojournalist Kyle Jorgenson is “in the know” about movies. He’s one of the most committed fans of the cinema that I know, and he gets out to the theater often. In fact, I think he’s “seen ‘em all”. He tells me that “A Serious Man” is excellent, but it hasn’t shown up in Eau Claire yet (He caught it in the Cities…). He’s also very high on “An Education”. I hope to see both of these films before the Oscars are handed out in earl March.

I admit that, when it comes to film, I’m not an easy person to please. I have rather high standards – especially for “top ten type” films –but I’m no snob, either. My tastes are varied and sometimes simple. I like a good storyline. I love to be surprised, but not duped. I’m a sucker for good romantic comedies, sci-fi and fantasy epics, even cartoons. Both “The Sound of Music” and “The Natural” still give me goosebumps. (See, that’s pretty simple!) However, I am picky about writing and acting – and that’s often the difference between an average work and a superior one.

And lastly…Sorry Bridge…”New Moon” didn’t make the cut. I made the mistake of watching “Twilight” once. I won’t get fooled again…

 

 

 

 

Posted under Artist? Scientist? Philosopher? Camera Guy?