Politics & Pop Culture

Technology Combines Mainstream

The phenomenon of social networking sites has changed the way we participate in politics. Media has figured out a way to bridge the political awareness gap. Within the past few years we have seen the mesh of politics take part in social networking as a tool to reach greater audiences and it has proved to be effective. Pop culture today is a combination of new media, reality TV, music, and the use of the internet as a base for social interaction. One prime example of this mesh is the recent 2008 presidential election trail. We saw presidential campaigns work hard throughout political debates by blogging, talking to reporters, and sending out e-mails to make their take on the candidates’ performances known.
Sites such as Facebook and Youtube served as platforms to get online debates and opinions voiced to TV media. The 56th Presidential Inauguration was counted as one of the most watched events in media history. Nearly 37.8 million Americans watched the inauguration of President Barack Obama on TV, making Obama’s inauguration the second most-viewed Presidential inauguration since Ronald Reagan’s record 41.8 million viewers in 1981. This massive number is due to the open number of outlets available to view the inauguration—TV, streamline through multiple internet sites and mobile devices. Akamai Technologies Inc., which delivers Internet video for many Web sites, said the inauguration was a record for them, with 7.7 million people watching video streams at the same time.
You can go on Facebook and browse various politician pages or you can Youtube your favorite politician on a viral video. We even see politics becoming a part of the reality TV craze. Newsweek set out to probe the question, “What if MTV made a reality show about Obama’s first 100 days?” MTV & Newsweek has created a new series of webisodes about Barack Obama’s first 100 days in the Oval Office. It’s called “The District”. The show was created as a spinoff of MTV’s reality shows such as the “The Hills” and “The City”.
Networks have realized the power of partnerships with social sites such as Twitter, Youtube, Facebook and Myspace. Jeff Jarvis, the director of the interactive journalism NY’s City University says, “If we’re going to have an open, collaborative government, we need to have access to those tools. Not only should the White House be blogging and Twittering, but so should members of congress.” There is a transformation of more partnerships between major Networks and social online sites. For example during the presidential campaigns CNN and Facebook facilitated debates online while giving up to date reports live on TV polling citizen’s opinions or thoughts by viewing people’s facebook status, twitter updates and wall post. When it comes to bridging the communications gap between the politics and the global citizen the ever changing face of communication is limitless! It will be interesting to see what the future holds.

3D Movies

A Pop Culture Comeback!

In this day and age a nice storyline is not enough to get the average consumer to go out to the movie theater— why pay the ever rising ticket price for sticky floors, over priced popcorn and chatty teens when we have plasma TV’s and Blue Ray disc at home? Thanks to the recent revival of 3 dimensional films the industry may have found a way to give theater going an edge. Within in the past year we have seen 3D movies gradually making their way back to the big screen. It has been a while since the 3D craze of the 1950’s. Today, some of the industry’s producers are looking to 3D movie development as a new wave of innovation that will refresh and motivate movie goers.

Movie theaters will start installing 3D projection technology and digital cinema systems which streamline movie distribution by using digital mediator satellites instead of film reels. Some of the major players in the re-introduction of 3D movie development include 3aility, Dream Works, Real D and IMAX to name a few. The movie industry is trying to meet the needs of an ever growing audience while competing with new forms of media such as in home theaters, HD and Blue Ray. We are seeing history repeat itself. In the 1950’s 3D movies were initially created to compete against the introduction of color home television sets. The movie industry is in a similar position today and the future of 3D movies combined with the digital advances looks hopeful for the next generation of films. The CEO of Dreamworks Animation, Jeffery Katzenberg says, “I believe that this is the single greatest opportunity for the movie going experience since the advent of color, it’s been more than 60 years since there has been a significant enhancement or innovation.” Unlike the 1950’s we have the ability to make the 3D experience more sleek, instead of red and blue cardboard glasses we have black 3D glasses that are polarized lenses and that are slightly stylish.

Some are skeptical about the success of this new generation of 3D movies. I feel that today’s consumer enjoys interacting with a product in any capacity. Another positive angle is that 3D movies could also act as a temporary solution to the major wave of theater pirating/ bootleg movie production. Other challenges include the integration of 3D into movie studio cost for installation and standards for digital projection. For example a digital projector can cost around $100,000 plus $20,000 for the addition of 3D to the silver screen. Despite skepticism and possible hurdles, the 3D experience will help differentiate movie theaters from newly rising personal entertainment systems. The 3D comeback is opening doors for new artistic opportunities and it will reinvent, redefine and completely transform how we create and experience movies!

SOURCES

Knowledge @ Emory. 3D Movies: Adding Depth or Falling Flat? November 13, 2008. <http://knowledge.emory.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1195#>.

Kolesnikov, Sonia. Another Dimension. Newsweek Magazine Online. January 19, 2009. Accessed January 30, 2009. <www.newsweek.com.com/id/178815>.

Waxman, Sharon. New York Times. Top Directors See the Future, and they Say It’s in 3D.