META MEDIA

Using social media to study media - television, film, the interwebz & more. I'm a media scholar, communications professional, and multimedia producer. Also an amateur mixologist, and a lover of typography, coffee, & adventure.

[mollykalan]

But this idea that we are trading the offline for the online, though it dominates how we think of the digital and the physical, is myopic. It fails to capture the plain fact that our lived reality is the result of the constant interpenetration of the online and offline. That is, we live in an augmented reality that exists at the intersection of materiality and information, physicality and digitality, bodies and technology, atoms and bits, the off and the online. It is wrong to say “IRL” to mean offline: Facebook is real life."

Nathan Jurgenson, The IRL Fetish

[mollykalan]

Here is the obligatory "to be sure" line in the think piece: To be sure, a critical attitude toward culture is also a net good for culture. It's hard to argue with any system that takes lubricating humilities—empathy, perspectival awareness, the checking of privilege—and insists on their value. The economy of the think piece is the direct result, after all, of our newfound exposure to each other: Through the Internet in general, through Facebook in particular, through Instagram albums and Pinterest boards and Twitter feeds and #alexfromtarget, we are realizing—year by year and also second by second—how different one person's perspective can be from another's. Our impulse to question everything, sometimes in excruciating detail, comes from that realization. And it will help us, in the end, to become better, both among and toward each other.

on humor, cultural criticism, the think-piece, and more.

[mollykalan]

A Tool For Building Beautiful Data Visualizations

Visage makes infographics easy, and they customize palettes for free.

An easy way to make infographics! Want to test this out.

[edwardspoonhands]

During the MTV Movie Awards, YouTube launched a new initiative aimed to change the way YouTube creators are seen by their communities and by the world at large. I’m not saying that this is a bad strategy or even a bad thing for YouTube, but I think it is worth discussing because it will change...

[mollykalan]

preach

[oupacademic]

I’ve been quite busy since my last blog posting, which was a while ago now, but there’s something I’ve found awkward about thinking about posting here while in the midst of doing fieldwork – blogging-while-fieldworking being something I’ve never done before until now.

[oupacademic]

Luis Vivanco, co-author of Cultural Anthropology, on the long process of field work versus the instant gratification of the Internet. 

[mollykalan]

10 Oscar-Nominated Movie Posters Get A Pop Art Makeover

oscars meet pop art

[mollykalan]

Cover Story: The Fascinating Anatomy of a Magazine Cover

[coverjunkie]

gb&d

New cover Green Building & Design. Art Direction Aaron G. Lewis

[diggvideos]

iOS 7 recreated in Microsoft Word

[bobbymoynihans]

[mollykalan]

I've always been completely fascinated by SNL as an institution. I watch reruns on E! and specials about the show so that I can hear about it from an insider's perspective. I own "Best Of" DVDs and I am seriously desperate to see a live taping. Anytime the cast changes significantly it's exciting to see in which direction the show goes, especially this season with so many cast members with experience on youtube and with web culture. "Boy Dance Party" was my favorite this week, and hopefully it's a sign of things to come.

If you're not watching SNL this season you're doing something wrong. 

[oupacademic]

The current shutdown in Washington is limiting the access that scholars and researchers have to vital materials. To that end, we have opened up access for the next two weeks to three of our online resources: Oxford Reference, American National Biography Online, and the US Census...

[mollykalan]

Thanks, OUP!

[mollykalan]

gold smoke! rainbow smoke!

[midatlantic]

THE INTERNET

[mollykalan]

the worst question ever. but nice try, jeopardy.

[absolumentmoderne]

I’m sad to be leaving the IMA, but thrilled to announce my new project: THE ART ASSIGNMENT. It’s a video series produced by PBS Digital Studios that will focus on the creative process and the act of making, and I’ll be the curator and host of it.

While the videos will live on PBS and YouTube, we’ll be using tumblr a lot, too, and will encourage you to upload your executions of various art assignments here, so please follow The Art Assignment on tumblr. 

I’m really looking forward to making this a great project, and to sharing it with you in a few short months.

[mollykalan]

I'll definitely be following along.

[mmitchelldaviss-deactivated2020]

[mollykalan]

my current background, thesis inspiration, and overall motivating image of the week. (thnx mitchell davis).

[ebaecheap]

we made blurred lines on the sims they actually hate each other

[ebaecheap]

[midatlantic]

This is amazing. I want to know what characteristics were given to each character.

[mollykalan]

An article I read recently goes through the lyrics in Blurred Lines and points out why they are offensive and problematic considering their content and the underlying message a listener might take away. The lyrics are paired with a powerful photo essay called Project Unbreakable, and the comparison shows just how similar sentiments of rapists are with these lyrics.

It's a great article and is definitely worth a read.

[mollykalan]

The New Yorker talks to Bryan Goldberg about "Bustle" and it is amazing...

Bryan Goldberg, who is thirty, is not a traditional publisher: he speaks more admiringly of Elon Musk than of any Pulitzer Prize-winner. He left the Bleacher Report, a successful sports Web site that he helped start in 2007, in February, and he has worked at a breakneck pace to build up his women’s publishing venture, Bustle.com. Goldberg wasn’t a reader of women’s publications before he started one, but he considers himself an expert in “markets and audiences.”

What a fantastically scathing article (New Yorker style, that is). I sincerely wish the Bustle staff the best, since I feel like they probably understand the "women's interest" publishing scene more than Goldberg. We'll see what happens.