Media Studies 2.0: November news

Monday, 27 November 2006

November news

Security:
US Copyright Office releases information on exemptions from DMCA anti-hacking law (30th Nov): http://www.drmwatch.com/legal/article.php/3646396

Internet /Music:
Trade agreement targets Russian website Allofmp3.com (30th Nov): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6159881.stm

Mobile Phones / Security:
How The News of the World royal editor used a security code to hack into messages kept on royal mobile phones (30th Nov): http://www.guardian.co.uk/monarchy/story/0,,1960251,00.html

Video Games:
'Real life' crashes into Second Life - on the problems of the online economy (30th Nov): http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1959716,00.html

Computers:
Mysteries of computer from 65BC are solved (30th Nov): http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1960316,00.html

Internet / Television / Newspapers:
'Britons turn off television and put down the paper as they take up broadband' (30th Nov): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1960096,00.html

Internet / Television:
Sports authorities are trying to clamp down on illegal P2P sharing of live sports from Chinese TV channels ... (29th Nov): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6192264.stm

Internet / Television:
Surfing booms as TV watching falls (29th Nov): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1959334,00.html

Television:
A new cable/satellite channel devoted to UGC (29th Nov): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6192926.stm

Mobile Phones / Internet:
Youtube to be available on mobile phones in the US (28th Nov): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6190984.stm

Telephones / Internet:
The first call, using internet protocol technology, is made on a new 21cn phone network in the UK (28th Nov): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6191908.stm

Television:
BT joins battle for digital TV audience (28th Nov): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1958466,00.html

Video Games:
The first 'virtual millionaire' on Second Life (27th Nov): http://money.cnn.com/blogs/legalpad/index.html?cnn=yes

Internet:
Spam now accounts for 9/10 global emails (27th Nov): http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/27/uk.spam.reut/index.html

Internet:
Star Wars kid is top viral video ... his light sabre clip has been viewed 900m times! (27th Nov): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6187554.stm

Cinema:
Pirates film breaks DVD record (27th Nov): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6189150.stm

Television:
A BBC summary of the new forms of TV delivery (27th Nov): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6169442.stm see also http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6142998.stm

Television / Internet:
Millions turn to the net for pirate TV (27th Nov): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6151118.stm see also the BBC's summary of the success to date of legal online services at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6176906.stm

Television / Internet:
On how online videos are 'eroding TV viewing' (27th Nov): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6168950.stm

Music:
An independent review argues against extending copyright terms (27th Nov): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6186436.stm

Security:
A new program fights back against net censorship, allowing users in controlled countries to bypass government restrictions (27th Nov): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6187486.stm

Television:
An article on Lazy Town and its pioneering special effects: 'Each episode of LazyTown costs $1m. "It's the most expensive children's show in the world," Scheving claims. LazyTown is made in a purpose-built studio just outside Reykjavik that Scheving boasts is among the most technologically advanced in the world. Facilities include a huge green screen, a $1m, 27.6m-pixels Viper FilmStream Camera and a specially commissioned 70 terabyte processing unit that is kept under carefully climatically controlled conditions in case of spontaneous combustion.
Uniquely, the LazyTown studio has the ability to project ultra-high-definition backgrounds on to its green screen stage and shoot them directly, the various latex and humanoid players interacting with visible images rather than imagined ones. "We are above industry standard in HD," says Scheving. The studio's maverick trickery recently engendered a jaw-dropping "how are they doing this?" response from a visiting Hanna-Barbera representative. CGI wizards who have also worked on Troy and The Last Samurai now work on LazyTown and in October the studio got a visit from Quentin Tarantino, who was researching special effects for his latest project. "He was totally amazed by the whole thing," says Ágúst Ingason, LazyTown's executive vice-president. The Kill Bill director, puppet master of some memorably violent aerobic interludes, must have been delighted to note cinematic nods to Uma Thurman's yellow tracksuited character, the Bride, in LazyTown's blue-tracksuited Sportacus. But Scheving isn't planning on venturing into adult entertainment just yet'. See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1955700,00.html

Music:
On music websites (24th Nov): http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,1955165,00.html

Internet:
How much porn is there on the web? Find out here ... (23rd Nov): http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1954148,00.html

Internet:
Websites hosting inflammatory material written by other parties cannot be sued for libel, US court rules (20th Nov): http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/11/20/internet.libel.ap/index.html

Internet /Video Games
On the copybot problems in Second Life (15th Nov): http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/11/knockoffs_roil.php

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I began this blog as a means to collect digital media stories for myself and my students and as a space to reflect upon media studies in a digital era. So far I've mainly used it as a link archive but I've decided to change that to turn it into more of a blog and emphasise my reflections on the discipline. I'm continuing to follow every major digital media story, all of which will be tagged on Del.ici.us under the name Willmerr: clicking on this link should take you there: http://del.icio.us/Willmerr

I invented the term 'Media Studies 2.0' in order to suggest that the discipline needs upgrading for a digital era. Media studies was a product of and reflection of the broadcast era, historically focusing upon a limited range of forms (print, cinema, radio, television), studied using a limited range of theories and methods, employing categories reflecting broadcast era patterns of production and consumption. I argued that this media studies needs to be upgraded for a post-broadcast era. An entire revision of the field - its organisation, key topics, theoretical sources, understanding of history and technology and relationship to other fields - is now required. As discussion of digital media has filtered into all other disciplines and as many of the key contemporary texts are being produced outside our discipline with little or no reference to it, this revision is essential if media studies is to remain relevant. It may already be too late: many of our students are outstripping their lecturers in their knowledge and navigation of the digital ecology and the discipline itself hasn't even noticed how much is happening, devoting itself to endless semiotic analyses of the latest film or fashionable TV series and giving questionnaires out to 'audiences', unaware that the 'audience' is already a category of the past... Time to change the discipline. Time to catch up with the present.