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Sunday, January 11, 2004 |
Post-Broadcast Culture from Dan Gillmor
Democratizing the Media, and More. The broadcast culture assumes that most of us are "consumers" of mass media. We are merely receptacles for what Hollywood, the music industry and even our local daily newspaper decide we should view, hear or read. The post-broadcast culture is a democratization of media, and it comes at things from the opposite stance. It says that anyone also can be a creator, not just a consumer. There's a world of difference. [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]
10:23:42 AM 
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Lotte Reiniger
 The Power of Black and White. Thanks to Rocky for reminding me of the great old lady: Lotte Reiniger. Lotte Reiniger, when mentioned at all, is most often brushed off in a single sentence noting that she apparently made a feature-length silhouette film in 1926,The Adventures of Prince Achmed; but since that was in Germany, and silhouettes aren't cartoons, Disney still invented the feature-length animated film with Snow White. Anyone who has seen Prince Achmed wouldn't be convinced by this reasoning, but, alas, only a tiny fraction of the people who see Snow White ever get to see any Reiniger film at all. Few of her nearly 70 films are readily available--and almost none of them in excellent prints; when Reiniger fled Germany to England in the 1930s, she was not able to bring her original negatives with her, so most modern prints are copies of copies, which have lost much of the fine detail, especially in backgrounds. Lotte Reiniger by William Moritz
Drawn to be Wild: The life of Lotte Reiniger
Lotte Reiniger at Wikipedia
The Lotte Reiniger Museum in Tübingen [The Cartoonist]
9:23:34 AM
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228 Years of Common Sense (Highly Recommended Pamphlet)
228 Years of Common Sense. Today is the 228th anniversary of Thomas Paine's 1776 publication of Common Sense, the pamphlet that helped ignite an American movement for self-government. Last month we published Governor Dean's "Common Sense for a New Century," laying out your campaign's values and calling for national action. 
Much as Paine's pamphlet was meant to spark discussion among colonists, we ask you to read Dean's pamphlet and sign it, then pass it along to a friend, family member or colleague—who will then sign and pass it along to another American.
Drawing from some of America's most influential historical figures, "Common Sense for a New Century" proposes that the very values that helped found our United States over 225 years ago are at stake in the 2004 election.
"Common Sense for a New Century" is available online in four formats:
Spread the word about Common Sense for a New Century by inviting a friend. [Blog for America]
12:20:49 AM
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Notes From Oligopoly Watch Weblog
The weakness of the media oligopolies
It's hard not to use the term dinosaurs to characterize certain oligopolies, such as the Big Media companies. But let's not forget that dinosaurs reigned for 100 million years, so don't hold your breath waiting for them to go extinct.
Still, big size can have its own liabilities (Goliath, the Spanish Armada, the woolly mammoth, and so on). Big Media is hurting this year, according to Frank Rich of the New York Times, for that very reason. In his article "Bullies Are Not What Ails Hollywood", (1/11/2004) he notes a curious phenomenon. In the past year, three major areas of media culture (pop music, network television, and Hollywood movies) have had serious declines.
The problem, according to Rich, is that the mass-media audience is rapidly splintering. The big media companies are finely tuned to reaching mass audience with culturally broad-based hits. He quotes a Time magazine writer as saying "'the mass-media audience as we have known it' is a distant memory. 'It is no longer possible to please most of the people most of the time.'"
As Rich puts it:
While 2003 was a year marked with the further consolidation of power by a handful of mega-media companies, the audience is not without some power to fight against them. The more we reject embarrassing big-ticket stunts like "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and "Coupling," the riskier it becomes to produce bloated would-be crowd-pleasers chasing after a theoretically homogenous crowd.
Of course, the big media companies have bought or established boutique studios, cable stations, and minor labels to serve niche products. But, as Rich points out, those boutiques after a having moderate success are under pressure to produce the same kind of blockbusters as the main studios. They can begin to act like their parents and forget to maintain their focus. Miramax, for example, now owned by Disney, is now pursuing big-star blockbusters with films like "Cold Mountain". In large companies, the pressure to conform and converge is so strong that boutiques are constantly under pressure to do better, reach more broadly.
We've argued before that the new oligopoly is expert at adapting to changes in the environment. But dinosaurs are suited to an environment that matches their vast size; break up that milieu into small niches, and the big guys may have some trouble adapting. Rich hopes, and we do to, that the fragmentation will lead to moderate investments in products that appeal to smaller, focused audiences giving the chance for the small guys to survive and even thrive.
[Oligopoly Watch]
12:12:37 AM
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Notes From Ottmar Liebert's Blog
More about the same..... If I had a music publishing business I would sell it. On one hand I think that the sharing has got to end, otherwise the music industry as we know it will end. Then on the other hand, maybe a better market structure will replace it. I don't feel confident of the latter, I don't feel confident of the new market structure because I believe that stealing is wrong and downloading (without paying) is stealing. I don't believe good things come from stealing. Fred ? 1/10/04; 1:50:13 AM OK, I didn't want to spend so much time typing tonight, but some of y'all's posts need to be answered:
Fred, I suspect you haven't read any publishing or recording contracts, you know very little about the industry, but you have a strong belief in what you perceive as being right. That's all good, but let's look at this together:
1. Many older musicians have recently started to make some money from their works because people found them through file-sharing and asked for them at the local record shop. Until then they received no airplay, because we all know that the big corporations have killed radio. Their CDs were not stocked - because we all know Wal-Mart and all of the other large chains only stock a little more than the top 100 Billboard releases. They were not wanted by he record companies because they didn't have a face for videos or simply couldn't dance. What you denounce so quickly on moral grounds, was a welcome new life for some artists.
2. It is not stealing...it's taking a peak...I have received files of songs I did not pay for - and if I liked the music I bought the CD. I have been exposed to more cool music than I could have ever found on my own, since radio has not been a good source in about a decade, and I still spend the same of money on CDs annually - I just buy less crap.
3. Many musicians feel that anything is better than the current structure.
4. Personally, I don't want to deal with another record company or publisher. My path is clear and simple. I hope to reach people via the net and live concerts. I will sell albums and will lure people to our site with free downloads. Unfortunately this is all going to take time, because a great deal of my fans are still looking in old-fashioned record stores for a new album.....But eventually I hope to not have to deal with mass-produced CDs...instead I would love to do the bulk of selling my music via paid downloads like iTunes, and concentrate on limited edition art packages with music (CDs or whatever the medium will be). I realize that working outside the established biz, without a regular publisher (and their connections) and without a regular record company (and their deals with radio for example) I will have a hard time making my new business work. I am perfectly resigned to walk away from all of this in a couple of years if it indeed does not work out. But, as I see it, Nouveau Flamenco was borne out of experimentation in 1989 and experiment I must, whether I experiment with Dance rhythms (Euphoria in 1995 + Nouveaumatic last year), or use a laptop on stage, or currently work on a CD using no synths or midi at all...in the end it either works or does not...if it does, I will be happy, and if it does not - I know that I tried and that will make me happy... [Ottmar Liebert]
12:08:58 AM
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Web developments at feeds.scripting.com
This last week has been incredible. I put up a new application, so many cool people contributed their subscriptions to create a "commons" of unparalleled utility. I found at least 20 good feeds through this community. And even better was developing something that users loved. It's been a while since I've been there. This is the best thing for me, that connection, where I roll out a feature, get feedback, roll out another, etc. Today I tried to write some more stuff, but I was too tired. But it has been an incredible collaborative week. Thanks to all who participated! [Scripting News]
12:00:17 AM
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© Copyright 2009 Gary Santoro.
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