InkTank

Objectively reporting on media bias

In case you haven't been following the drama, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann was suspended Friday for violating NBC News policies by donating to three Democratic candidates, two Arizona congressional candidates, and Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway. No one particularly understands why MSNBC cares. Even the incredibly conservative Weekly Standard was baffled by MSNBC's decision.

Politico broke the story, and this inspired Politco's media reporter, Keach Hagey, to do an analysis of the situation at MSNBC. This was before the station announced that Olbermann would be back on the air tomorrow.

Doing an overview of a situation like this can make your article blur the line between news story and opinion piece, and I honestly couldn't decide if it was opinion or not the first time I read it. Then, after re-reading it, I realized that she never goes into first person, asks rhetorical questions, or anything that would inject some sort of impartiality into her story, so the only way that's left for her to show bias would be to not show both sides of the story, a temptation that she never gave into, as the following quote from her story shows:

The debate throws into sharp relief the difficult balancing act that MSNBC has been trying to pull off with its new identity. On one hand, the network has aggressively moved to court progressives with its new branding campaign “Lean Forward” and eyebrow-raising decisions like assigning an all-liberal panel to cover the midterm election results Tuesday.

But on the other, it remains tightly bound to its straight-news network sibling NBC, with which it shares both talent and management, and for which its liberal identity is a cause of concern.

In these grafs, Hagey shows the main problem with the Olbermann situation, and does so without injecting any of her own opinion. She just gives the facts, something essential when trying to remain objective when writing an article like this.

The World's Most Generic News Report

I think you could teach all you need to know about TV new reports just using this single clip from Newswipe:

Classic Quotes from "The Office"

Ladies, Gentleman: We have a stirring event coming up tomorrow--Jim and Pam's Wedding on The Office. If Obama was on at the same time, no one would watch. But part of my tradition is that, at the start of The Office each season, I compile a list of classic quotes from The Office (see here and here).  Check out the preview of tomorrow's episode at the bottom!

Michael: I will be honest. The dating has not been going well. Look, men are visual creatures. We crave beauty. Like a piece of fine art by...any number of renowned artists. Or an arty photograph of Cindy Crawford nude. But the women I'm getting fixed up with are...blech. Not that they aren't nice, or that they don't have great personalities, it's, they just lack a certain...Crawfordness.

Dwight: Am I scared of a stupid computer? Please. That computer should be scared of me. I have been salesman of the month for thirteen out of the last twelve months. You heard me right. I did so well last February that corporate gave me two plaques in lieu of a pay raise.

LOST on Flash Forward

LOST makes an appearance on the pilot of the new pre-apocalyptic show Flash Forward. Anyone see the reference?

It's hard to miss.

H/T The illustrious Tom Peeling.

The Role of Islam in Popular Media

Reviews: Essay, “Local Contexts of Islamism in Popular Media,” “Reporting Islam,” and “Muslims and the News Media.”

This post will be a review of the three different works I’ve sampled in the past two weeks. All of them are so interrelated that it makes sense to summarize them together.

“Local Contexts of Islamism in Popular Media”

In this essay, Lila Abu-Lughod talks about the degree to which Egyptian television serials in the past two decades have shaped Egyptian perceptions of Islamism, the piety movement. She notes that Egyptian television serials work differently from other nations. Egyptian serials run day-after-day for a maximum of 30 episodes and then they’re finished. And often these serials run through the nation’s religious authority, al-Azhar. She notes that in the early 90s, there were few depictions of Islam (or Islamism) in television serials.

“All that viewers could see were people for whom religion was taken for granted as part of their identity and that sometimes offered solace in times of personal trouble. Piety was seen only among the elderly” (Abu-Lughod 8).

Why LOST still matters

Full disclosure: I'm a LOST nerd. No really, I'm that guy. The one who has all the crazy theories about the Island, who Jacob is, etc. I'm going to try to be objective about my appreciation for this show...actually I won't.

For those of you not similarly addicted, here's a brief summary (is that possible?) from Wikipedia:

 LOST is an American serial drama television series. It follows the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island, after a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney, Australia and Los Angeles, United States crashes somewhere in the South Pacific. Each episode typically features a primary storyline on the island as well as a secondary storyline from another point in a character's life, though other time-related plot devices change this formula in later episodes. The pilot episode was first broadcast on September 22, 2004, and since then five full seasons have aired.

When ratings began to drift in season two and early season three and accusations flew that the writers didn't know where the show was going, ABC did something unprecedented. They allowed the writers to set an end date for a successful show.

Now LOST did shed some viewers in the process (in the five seasons, they've gone from 16 million viewers to 11 million). LOST is essentially a niche show on a broadcast channel, yet it has managed to be relatively successful both by critics and viewers. How has it done that? I have no clue. But I have some ideas about why the show still matters:

(1) The writers of LOST, unlike most other broadcast shows, have decided to reward obsessive compulsive viewers like me, while leaving causal viewers in the dust. Some studies have shown that though LOST doesn't have the best ratings during the broadcast hour, it does fabulous online. It's one of the highest recorded shows on DVR, frequently tops iTunes for downloads and tops hulu in views as well. So despite the moves other shows have taken to become more procedural on broadcast, LOST has maintained it's serial nature.

'Chuck' and the Future of Television

It's no secret that I'm a TV geek. (Evidence: here, here, here, here and here.) But even those who aren't narrative nerds who love to watch serials in expectation of the next big plot twist have plenty of reason to love Chuck.

For those who don't know Chuck, Chuck is the only quirky hour-long comedy about a Stanford flunky who works at a Geek Squad-style entity while solving top secret CIA investigations. Chuck is also unabashedly for the children of the '80s. Guest stars include Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap and Chevy Chase of the SNL and the Vacation franchise.

For those of you not obsessively following the story, Chuck was slated for the chopping block earlier this year. The niche television show faces the same conundrum that killed Arrested Development and has threatened both LOST and Gossip Girl--tons of web viewers, tons of iTunes downloads, low ratings in their broadcast slot.

What saved Chuck? Hint: Five Dollar, Foot-long. Yep, thanks to special sponsorship deal with Subway, Chuck will be getting another 13 episodes--not a full season, but hey it's still breathing. What could this sponsorship deal look like?

24: The Unaired Pilot

How much has technology changed in the past 15 years? College humor makes a pretty good spin out of what "24" would have looked like in 1994...

XoXo Gossip Girl

Alright, it's weird and I can admit it. I think I like Gossip Girl. I've been warned that strange TV addictions like this can happen, but I was fairly convinced (after watching the pilot more than a year ago) that this would be the last show I would watch. My wife, Mimi, suggested we rent it so we could be up to speed with what my former youth group kids were watching. Sounds good right? Educator keeping up with kids.

The first disc went by uneventfully. I kept thinking to myself: "Man these girls are just snobs. Phhh! Like I'd want to live on 'upper-east side.'"

But by the end of disc two, something scary happened. I began to have different sorts of thoughts: "Man, Jenny really is an up-and-comer. Blair better watch out, or the princess will lose her throne," "Gossip Girl is always open on Jenny's computer...could she be...no! Too easy. They won't introduce her until, like the LAST episode. And it'll be Serena," and "Chuck Bass!? What is Blair thinking? Spotted: Total idiot!"

So in true form, I have decided to outline the factors that have led to this:

Environmental Storytelling and Mickey Mouse

Over the weekend, I traveled to Orlando for a friend's wedding (Allison LaForte, of WJC fame). My wife and I, as recovering Floridians, promised we wouldn't end up at Walt Disney World.

Last day of the trip. Three hours to spare. Where did we end up? Disney.

Disney thrives on what media theorist Henry Jenkins calls "environmental storytelling"--creating an immersive environment of images on every side so people get the sense that they are "there." By immersive, I mean that you are drawn into it. You can't go through adventure land without running into wild-west themed rides or seeing Clint Eastwood-esque saloons. And, of course, all those places feature characters from Disney lore. 

We ended up at Downtown Disney (I've been there a million times, but how can you go to Orlando and not do something Disney? We just gave up). As we walked through the LEGO area of Downtown Disney, I began spouting incomprehensible dork language at her: "Don't you see how this is environmental storytelling? Look at the all the figures! See how they add to the immersive experience!"

Luckily, she's used to this by now.