Here’s another piece of my discussion with AOL TV’s Maureen Ryan (See the previous video here). In this video, we talk about how fandom has changed, particularly in today’s social media environment. Fans can be more visible and louder than they’ve ever been before. As Ryan points out, there’s now an attitude of “Because my [...]
Watch Together, Watch Alone
From time to time, you hear bemoaning about how we’re becoming less social in this country. One well-known example is Robert Putnam’s book from 2000 Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, which argues that a strong democracy requires strong communities. On a lesser note, you might run across comments like these made [...]
WebbyConnect: Know Your History
Another interesting panel was “Your Favorite Video is a Commercial,” which had a lot to do with viral marketing campaigns utilizing amusing or interesting content (typically videos) that people love and share and while loving and sharing them, they do Corporate America’s bidding. Examples include Dove’s “Evolution” ad and Burger King’s Subservient Chicken website (or [...]
Thoughts on your new Idol
Look, you either watched American Idol last night or you don’t care, so whatever. (Spoken like a viewer who’s never watched an entire episode before this season, but whatever.) Last night’s finale was packed with stars: Al Jarreau, Wolfgang Puck, Toni Braxton, Prince. The contestants sang better than they have before, although the group numbers [...]
What the Dickens?
After last year’s season finale for Lost, a lot of fans were crying like little babies that they didn’t get enough. Oh, sure, in a stunning development, the Others showed up, Walt got kidnapped and the boat got blown up, but we didn’t get to see inside the hatch. Wah, wah, wah. I though it [...]
The Lost Experience
The producers of the show Lost are doing this thing called The Lost Experience, to keep viewers interested and entertained over the summer. What does that mean? For example, during last night’s awesome episode, they ran another Hanso Foundation commercial. It points you to this website. If you run your mouse around the page, you’ll [...]
Rear View Action: Tuning out
I’ve been taking a trip down memory lane, revisiting some old posts from The Pop View. Here is one from May of 2000. ESCAPING POP: From the Washington Post Magazine, columnist Marc Fisher attacks the notion that we are a nation hooked on pop culture — as he puts it, “a nation full of philistines [...]