"What if all the bad things that media critics have been said about passivity for the past century or two are now equally applicable to all the demands to interact, to participate? What if interactivity is now one of the central hinges through which power works? In many moments today, the most compliant gesture we can make is to consent to interact on the terms presented to us by our software and machines. "

Host Adam Savage of Mythbusters tells how Visa, Mastercard, and Discover had the Discovery Channel put the kibosh on an episode that would have revealed just how “trackable and hackable” the RFID chips found in many credit cards are. It’s a telling example of how corporate advertisers serve as the gatekeepers of mainstream media/entertainment:

"The mid-1970s...you were patiently waiting for Space:1999 to return for its second year when a beguiling sci-fi series shuffled onto your screens, regional ITV scheduling permitting, for a brief thirteen weeks and then sloped off apologetically to disappear forever. Maybe you're here because you just vaguely believe you may have dreamt about a planet ruled by women dressed in platform boots (and perhaps you did - that's your own business), or maybe because you're a 'fan' infuriated by the lack of hard and fast info around on this series. Maybe you're just hoping to find pictures of Judy Geeson dressed as a space lady. Whatever brings you here - you're in luck. This site intends to bring you everything you ever wanted to know about Star Maidens but were afraid to ask."

"Long before "Survivor," the eccentric who created "The Gong Show" discovered that people will do anything to get on TV, and others will watch them."

Clips of the Doctor Who theme over time.

If you are a true science fiction fan then you will agree there is nothing more superior to this genre of books, games, movies, television shows and so much more. It is within the realm of science fiction you can expand your mind beyond the confines of reality and dive deep into the worlds of creativity and fantasy. Our goal is to do just that

"“Do clever people care about the X Factor?” asks Matthew Taylor.
Yes - by definition. The X Factor final got 17 million viewers. Any clever person must be curious about such a significant social phenomenon. " Annotated link http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2010/12/caring-about-the-x-factor.html

"Christmas is watched on television at least as much as it actually lived, if not more. "

Most fascinating of all, though, is the fact that the earliest surviving color videotapes of entertainment telecasts should be devoted to the three TV specials featuring Fred Astaire that aired on NBC between 1958 and 1960. Astaire, needless to say, starred in a good many color films, but the movies for which he is best remembered are all in black and white, and to see his dancing preserved via the you-are-there immediacy of videotape is to feel the obscuring veil of the past falling away like a layer of shed skin.

Why don’t TV weathermen believe in climate change?

Doug Rushkoff and Rachel Dretzin documentary for PBS Frontline on digital culture.

This FNC/RNC merger is another threat to reasoned discourse in public life, because it is a showman's concoction of very powerful emotional elements: resentment, sex, religion, anger. It creates its own reality.

By science advisor for television show Big Bang Theory.

An interesting 3d cube story-telling interface.

We examine whether advertising increases household debt by studying the initial expansion of television in the 1950’s. Exploiting the idiosyncratic spread of television across markets, we use microdata from the Survey of Consumer Finances to test whether households with early access to television saw steeper debt increases than households with delayed access. Results indicate that television increases the tendency to borrow for household goods and to carry debt. Television is associated with higher debt levels for durable goods, but not with total non-mortgage debt. The role of media in household debt may be greater than suggested by existing research.

Profile of Glenn Beck, part 1 of 3

A professor, a genocide, and NBC's quest for a prime-time hit.

Julia Child and television cooking.

Welcome To TV Tropes!

What is this about? This wiki is a catalog of the tricks of the trade for writing fiction. We dip into the cauldron of story, whistle up a hearty spoonful and splosh it in front of you to devour to your heart's content.

In a way, the Susan Boyle story is a reminder that liberalism actually has heartfelt, emotionally rich stories that are intimately familiar to many people in many societies. Chief among them is the insistence that individuals contain within them talents, character, particularities which are poorly described by stereotypes or collective identities and poorly managed or appreciated by social institutions and conventions.

link to study of economists appearing on TV

Gordon Ramsay, Kitchen Nightmares, and teaching writing.

The sentimentalization of books gets especially ripe when reading is compared with its supposed rivals: television and cyberspace. Valorization of reading over television, for instance, is often based on the vague and groundless notion that reading is somehow "active" and television "passive."

I have noticed over the years that much public discourse is informed but what we see on television. Whether it is the cross-examination of the courtroom drama, or the witty one liners of sitcoms, or the over extended drama of soap operas, the way we talk to each other is heavily influenced by what is screened around us.

This clip is interesting: interviews with screenwriters who point out the function of dialogue in a television show. One of the high points of writing dialogue, it turns out, is that it will never be effective if people are actually seen talking to each other. So it’s no surprise that bringing these forms of conversation into the real world creates all sorts of dysfunctional social situations.

The only character you should be in real life is you.

You've reached T-shirt Nerdvana! Here at SheldonShirts.com, we've collected all the best t-shirts worn by Sheldon and Leonard on The Big Bang Theory, plus Howard's belt buckles, some shirts we think Sheldon and Leonard should wear, cool stuff seen on the show (Periodic Table shower curtain, anyone?), some of our favorite Sheldon quotes and lots more.

The idea that a person's opinions matter in themselves is an aspect of our egocentric "me" culture - the notion that we are all special people, entitled to respect.

Joost™ is a new way of watching TV on the internet, which uses new and established technologies to provide the best of both the internet and TV worlds. We're in the process of making it as TV-like as we can, with programmes, channels and adverts

help new writers tackle the job of writing those all-important spec scripts -- from picking the right show to spec, to developing an idea, to getting that dialogue exactly right, to giving the script that professional look.

Home page for NASA television.

Video interviews with international writers and commentators