According to an article published in USA Today, quoting from a 500-page Project for Excellence in Journalism report, titled “The State of the News Media in 2004” …
The news business is “in the middle of an epochal transformation, as momentous probably as the invention of the telegraph or television,” say the report writers. “Journalism is not becoming irrelevant. It is becoming more complex.”
The report suggests things don’t look good for newspapers and network television, and only three out of eight media sectors (ethnic, alternative and online media) are seeing audience growth.
All the Rave: File Sharing and the Pepsi Generation
The year 1999 is recognized by many as a watershed year for the Internet.
In August of that year, Shawn Fanning, the 19-year-old who created Napster in a fit of Red Bull soda-fueled coding, instantly transformed anyone who used it from a passive settler for sub-par radio pop into a music hedonist, someone with the power, suddenly, to choose.
When Pepsi allied with Apples iTunes in a new advertising campaign aimed at training consumers to buy music online, they also determined the right price for a song downloaded off the Internet: one bottlecap.
Writing on the Straight GoodS website, Robert Labossiere suggests that Pepsi’s deal with iTunes sounds a sour note, as does their anti-establishment advertising campaign which, to Labossiere’s sensibilties, smacks of self-serving music industry hypocrisy.
For a more academic analysis of the issue, read Christopher May’s peer-reviewed essay “Digital rights management and the breakdown of social norms”, published by the University of Illinois’ First Monday magazine.
One Year Later: Women’s Human Rights in “Liberated” Iraq
“We will deliver the food and medicine you need. We will tear down the apparatus of terror and we will help you to build a new Iraq that is prosperous and free.”
— George Bush, March 17, 2003, televised address.
A year after Bush’s lofty promise, how are Iraqi women and families faring under US occupation?
Newspaper headlines attest to the ongoing lack of state security in Iraq. Less examined is the status of human security, the right of Iraqi women and families to have their basic needs met and their human rights respected, protected and fulfilled. After a year of “liberation” at the hands of the US military, most Iraqi women find that they are much worse off.
Since the “end of hostilities”, ongoing military violence and a spike in violence against women in Iraq has curtailed all aspects of women’s lives, preventing many from leaving home, even for food, water or medical treatment, or to go to work or school. Conditions of daily life are deteriorating, rather than improving, with most of Iraq still experiencing power outages for an average of 16 hours a day.
Children sleep in the streets between rising piles of uncollected garbage. Drinking water is contaminated, and there are 12-hour waits to buy gasoline or cooking fuel, (and) no telephone or postal service.
Iraqi women have had to intensify their work hauling water, preparing food and caring for children traumatized by bombing, disease and malnutrition.
For more information on living conditions for women and children in Iraq, read this report, filed by Madre’s Associate Director, Yifat Susskind.
Christ Reigns Supreme
The juggernaut that is The Passion of the Christ continued to top the box office, taking in an estimated $33 million dollars in its third weekend of release. Slipping 41 percent from last weekend, “The Passion” has now grossed $264 million domestically since its release 18 days ago. By next weekend, it will have topped The Matrix Reloaded ($281.6 million) as the highest-grossing R-rated film ever.
Johnny Depp’s thriller Secret Window had to settle for second place, premiering with $19 million, behind the $23.4 million début of his last film, Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Mostly poor reviews didn’t help bring audiences in to Depp’s film.
Coming up the rear this week: third place finisher Starsky & Hutch, which fell 43 percent to $16 million, followed by Viggo Mortensen’s Hidalgo, which slipped 39 percent to $11.7 million. After 10 days, the two films have earned $51.5 million and $35.5 million, respectively.
Coming exactly one year after the first Cody Banks film, Frankie Muniz’s Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London opened with only $8 million, compared to $14.1 million for its predecessor. But at least it performed better than Val Kilmer’s drama Spartan, which couldn’t even manage $2,500 per theater, débuting with a relatively paltry $2 million.