Bye Week.

And, no news this week. Wayyyy too tired.

Film Group Analytical Post

Film as a medium has a much shorter history, yet quite possibly already one of the most illustrious histories to date of any communications medium. Film has come a long way from the earliest mass viewings of Edison's nickelodeons, taking place in the early 1900's; along with the first few films Edison had made at his Black Maria studio at the same time. Film has grown by leaps and bounds, in accordance with technological innovations always being pushed to the forefront of the medium. One of the earliest examples of this is the film "Birth of a Nation", which despite it's content, would go on to form the basis for some of the more complicated camera techniques of our day. Movies were mass-produced by studios throughout the 40's, 50's, and the 60's, using very cheap, internally focused contracts and studio structures. During the 70's, the film industry had a dramatic shift in almost every way. Young directors entering from film school elevated the medium yet again, while control had shifted from studio movie executives, to power now residing in the hands of corporations previously not even involved in the industry. After the era of industry control, comes the modern era of movies, in which the independent filmmaker has grown, thanks in part to the massive infusion of technology into the industry.

Ironically, the very technology that has allowed the industry to grow by leaps and bounds, is also its biggest competitor in many ways. Video games have sky-rocketed as a competing medium, with ever increasing realism and profit margins that often eclipse many theatre releases. In addition, the YouTube boom has crowded the field with new competitors daily for the ever-decreasing attention span of the public. Viral videos have significantly impacted the public, and even now, the film industry is attempting to use them as marketing tools, or creating their own for use in the public eye. The film industry more than ever is filled with new, technology based jobs.

Looking Ahead

Shepard Smith, on his Fox News show, reported about a mix up at the University of Southern California in which a patient received the wrong kidney in a routine kidney transplant procedure. The mix-up led to a shut down of the hospital's kidney transplant program, and a review of its procedures for organ transplantation. Smith himself did not actually report on the story, but instead gave it over to a correspondent, named Trace Gallagher, who proceeded to explain the rest of the story. USC was briefly mentioned as the source of the story before Gallagher moved on to discuss the story further. Coverage was surprisingly even-handed of the story, choosing only to give facts with a minimal amount of bias involved, as far as Fox News standards go. The story was presented concisely at first, which was definitely a plus, as it allowed for viewers to build their own viewpoints as other facts were presented in the framework of the story. The story appeared to be single-event coverage, with a vague ending that USC would possibly resume operations at a later date.

Response to JMC 201 Television Group

Overall, the group's presentation was highly effective in terms of presenting a comprehensive history of television, its programming, and the prevailing theories on how it affects the people who view it. The group chose to facilitate many discussions on the nature of television programming, which tended to feel like they ignored some possible arguments of even the fundamental nature of television as a tool for society. A point that was brought up and dismissed was that of technological convergence in the arena in television. Hillary mentioned this when she presented the slide on television content on mobile or other platforms, but then seemed to dismiss it as a linking of platforms with mere televised content as the glue. When instead, we can see that televised content that would normally have only been broadcast on television, is instead being broadcast over the web alone. Web channels were mentioned, but felt like an afterthought, as no credence or factual evidence was given for their rise, ignoring socieital factors or incidents like the writer's strike that led to the explosion of web content.

Pressing On

On Thursday, Bill O'Reilly covered a story about a new law proposed in Texas, which will classify child sexual text messaging as a misdemeanor, as opposed to the felony it is right now, due to the technical definition of child pornography and the sharing thereof. However, the law also stipulates that parents should be held responsible for this act, rather than the children; by forcing the parents to a mandatory education course. O'Reilly featured the story as part of his "Culture Warriors" segment on his show, in which he also brought in two other Fox News commentators to discuss the issue with him. Each commentator seemed more educated than O'Reilly on the matter, as he admitted that he had little to no experience with technology of that sort. The story was set up briefly with only a small introduction of the story, giving way to more discussion than actual information. The controversy inherent in the story was the main focus of the discussion between the three commentators, as each held differing views of the law and parental involvement in the arena of digital responsibility and children. O' Reilly himself seemed to be very nonchalant about the story, almost as if he didn't really care, or couldn't form an opinion. The story was missing a good bit of information needed to draw conclusions, and even simple things like exact quotes from the law, or specific punishments given. The law appeared to be only secondary to the discussion, which focused on parental responsibility and the commentators' opinions. No sources were given, other than that the law was proposed in Texas, and the broadest definition of the law itself. The story looked to be single-event coverage, as O'Reilly dismissed it as too broad to ever pass the Texas state legislature, and hurried onto the next story about Miss San Antonio being removed from her position. The discussion of the story was obviously biased toward apathy on O'Reilly's part, whereas the other commentators believed in the law and were actively discussing how proper education should and could be beneficial for parents in the new age. They were very clearly for the law, even if they did not have a clear grasp of technological principles at work in the law. All in all, a very weak segment on a story that could have been a great deal more fleshed out with more discussion and information given.

Keeping it Going

Glenn Beck, on his program, discussed the recent passing of a law that would allow TSA agents to unionize, and be allowed into federal government employee unions with voting rights as equal members. Beck introduced the story with extreme bias against the current administration, accusing them of using the crisis in Egypt as a cover to "slip in legislation with the other hand". The story was presented for a maximum of 45 seconds, before Beck slipped into his own opinions and his own take on how the story would lead to disastrous consequences for America as a whole. He claimed that the TSA, if unionized, would never fire employees, would be like a mandated defense force, and more hyperbolic statements stacked on top of one another. Beck did bring in pseudo-historical context, stating that when Congress created the Homeland Security administration and the TSA, that screeners were not given voting rights for a reason, citing the aforementioned reasoning as why. He then proceeded to compare this law and the ability of union organization to Greece and its problems last year. The story itself is mentioned very little and given less credence than Beck's own opinions, and no real empirical facts are given to be able to research or back up his statements. The story is missing quite a bit of information required, and needs an actual source in order to be credible, as opposed to just a talking point mentioned in passing. Beck is heavily biased when he introduces the story, and continues to be throughout the entire story. He is blatantly against the Obama administration and unions, citing both as detrimental to the American way of living, obviously full of hyperbole to attract viewers to his show. Beck's anti-"liberal" agenda is plainly evident here, and taints what little credibility the story has in the eyes of educated viewers.

First Steps

The Fox News site is a well-designed site, very user-friendly, and intuitive structuring of news categories. Each category is presented along a bar on the top of the screen, followed with a subcategory bar right below that differs for every category. Headlines are presented in large print on the left side of the screen, enough to see, but not overcrowding the other articles and videos presented in the section. Each article also features a "recommended for you" header for related articles and videos along the same subject matter. The site's design is set up to provide a flow from one article to the next to hook readers for longer.

Each article is specifically keyed to a category, narrowing the scope of the article greatly. Headlines are usually on topic, with very few misleading or uninformative titles showing up in sections.  Advertisements are tied to every article contextually, and the user is given the ability to share each article with their own social media network straight from the site.  Articles are often posted in multiple categories at once, i.e. Egypt’s Internet crisis being covered in both the World,  SciTech, Business, and Politics categories all at once.  Many articles are gleaned from reliable sources such as the Associated Press, while others are written by FoxNews themselves.

FoxNews.com pulls from its own stable of writers and contributors to promote its own articles, but many of the lesser categories, such as Leisure, SciTech, and Health, are covered by works from other sources. The Associated Press ranks high in the contributors, with smaller articles coming from sites like Space.com, the New York Post, and NewsCorp Australia.

One of the current articles focuses on the recent healthcare debate and the constitutionality of the healthcare reforms in America. It dealt with the recent decision of a federal judge to render the new Obamacare law void and unconstitutional. The article's facts were presented well, and allowed for equal representation of each viewpoint in the debate, and quoted either side. All in all, the article presentation was effective, and at the very least, gave the image of balance.