Media Nipple - Visual Communication

MEDIA NIPPLE IS DEAD -- LONG LIVE MEDIA NIPPLE

2009-04-01T17:17:00.002-06:00

Media Nipple was a daily blog for reconsidering TV content as a means of critically contextualizing and analyzing its production of cultural messages and meanings. It was first published here, in June 2005, through Google’s Blogger application.

Over the course of 3 years, Media Nipple garnered 600,000 page visits from viewers across the globe and ultimately contained almost 600 daily posts with almost 2,500 individual videos; a monumental effort for a solo blogger.

However, in September 2008, Google slapped Media Nipple with a CONTENT WARNING (read below). Apparently Media Nipple’s content had somehow become too controversial to some viewers.

Rather than allow Google to interfere with accessibility, I ended the Media Nipple experiment, bought the URL, and I am now rehosting the best content there.

CLICK for Cultural Farming’s aggregation of Media Nipple’s most comprehensive posts... of the TV news content we continue to suckle everyday.

And as always: Please consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.

deaf, blind, and dumb

2008-09-08T17:00:00.022-06:00

On 21 August, Google and Blogger choked off Media Nipple from unfiltered public view. This site, which examines visual communication, media literacy, and critical citizen commentary is now marginalized with the Google WARNING prompt shown above.
- Why now - after almost four years?
- Why now - after 600 posts and 600,000 page views?
- On what grounds?
- From what principle?
- With what recourse?This simple, yet scary, 'censorship firewall' essentially strangles open-access from many computers; discouraging most viewers from visiting. Think about this for a minute. A free internet? Freedom of expression? The ability to discuss educational media issues openly? The right to use common media (boobs and all) for the explicit purpose of critical media examination?....Whatever Google (or a few of the 600,000 viewers of these pages) deemed offensive within Media Nipple pales in the face of network television content which is endlessly streamed into most every home in the United State everyday. Critical media education is power. However, as Jack Nicholson succinctly stated long ago, "If you suck on a tit the movie gets an R rating. If you hack it off with an axe it will be a PG."

And Cultural Farming would add here... if you attempt to re-mediate broadcast content for public educational/intellectual purposes, be prepared to face a public utterly unprepared to distinguish porn from purpose. After all, isn't this how FOX News, among others, re-interprets both media language and meaning for public consumption... right before our eyes... by exploiting viewer ignorance through bald-face invention and two-dimensional representation?

The deaf may never hear, the blind may forever remain blind... while the dumb get dumber still. I'm sorry you had to click-through Google's warning to read this. But fear not, intrepid readers, several new projects are coming soon. Peace.

panopticon surveillance

2008-07-08T07:40:00.004-06:00

Thirteen videos to illustrate how cameras are everywhere, recording our every move in everyone's life. But this is America, right? We have privacy laws. We don’t spy, we simply watch… for security purposes – OK, and maybe for entertainment, too.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

In London, it is estimated that approximately 300 security cameras record the average citizen each day. Why, and to what effect? Who is hired to watch all that video. What are they trying to see? And what is the difference between security and spying? What are our rights to privacy? Who is exempted from being seen? Why can’t we zoom in and watch those who are watching us? Maybe Cornell University will let us know.

Before long “others” will be watching our every move, and they will claim is for our own good. What happens to a society when we realize there is no privacy, and cameras exploit every relationship? But then, cameras have always been alive in our world.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

journalism and citizenship

2008-06-30T13:35:00.005-06:00

Ten videos about journalism and citizenship, and their code of ethics. But what are ETHICS? Why are they important? Who should obey them? In a world where egregiously bad reporting is growing at every level, will Citizen Journalists (Is there such a thing?) do any better? The future looks dark, unless we gain a full understanding of how the purpose, principles, and practices of the craft of journalism are easily fouled.

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

Media Nipple suggests there is no such thing as Citizen Journalism. Why? Journalism is not a profession; it is a craft. There are no rules and regulations, and no governing body. But there are, indeed like citizenship, codes of ethics. While Citizenship and Journalism are not mutually exclusive, they are also not mutually inclusive. One does not beget the other. If you are a citizen doing journalism as sketched below... then you are a Journalist... period. If you are a human attempting journalism, you MAY be performing acts of citizenship... maybe not. It is incorrect to imply citizen journalism encompasses everything other than SALARIED news and information production. Likewise, simply sending CNN a pic from your cell-phone does not make you a citizen journalist. Nor is journalism simply yammering on a public blog... like this one.

So then, what are the ETHICS of journalism... click the video links to see how established ethical notions are ignored, stretched, and manipulated in everyday broadcast production:

(From: Elements of Journalism)

1. Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth.
2. Its first loyalty is to citizens.
3. Its essence is a discipline of verification.
4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.

7. It must strive to make the significance interesting and relevant.

8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
9. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.

Whenever engaging in discussions over citizen journalism... it is best to begin by defining the terms.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

connectile dysfunction

2008-06-22T08:13:00.009-06:00

You knew it was coming, right? We love our iPods so much….let's have sex with ‘em. Yeah, baby, where’s the speed control? Maybe they’ll offer a nice pink, fleshy feeling sort of cover for it… never mind, they make it already.

(Click image to view Quicktime video.)

Technological sex is nothing new. What is new is the speed of its acceptance throughout western culture. Of course, we are used to seeing simplistic media warnings about sexual addiction, and even more TV that promotes Internet love. But what of these growing advances in technological sex? Forget minding the store - whose minding our bodies?

iPods and sex? Hey, kids love it! And why not? For $1.99... you can get media that loves to love you back! Come to think of it, get an iBuzz for your partner too…3-way sex with an Apple - just like in the Garden of Eden. Why not have entire banks of earphone-jack inputs... for group buzzing. It could be the newest orgy sensation. Blowing out your eardrums doesn’t seem so bad now. In fact, forget your partner, load an image of your face - and screw yourself into oblivion. iPod and fresh meat. Then again why bother at all... TV already provides every titillation we want.

Consider visual literacy and grow better communication media.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

neural editing

2008-06-19T07:47:00.005-06:00

Two videos to illustrate how the language of editing is increasingly marketed simply to stimulate. The recent movie CRANK is a perfect example.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

The trailer for CRANK, which is 30 seconds long, has approximately 120 individual edits – or 4 edits per second. Human cognition cannot process visual information at this speed…. but our involuntary human senses can.

Question: Then why do it?
Watch the CRANK video again in slow motion.

Editing is a classical form of montage - juxtaposing images to create new meanings. But Crank's editing is not about meaning. Our eyes can see the edits, but our brains cannot process the information. What is left is sensory overload. And so, our instinctive reactions become more primal. Emotional response kicks in. Flight or fight. The trailer is manipulating our emotions – it cares little for storyline or verbal text. This will simply be an emotional rollercoaster Action Movie.

Fast paced, quick-cut editing is only one way media corporations visually exploit viewers. When media is constructed this way we cannot look away. We are mesmerized by the extreme and strobing visuals. Our minds freeze as we instinctively try to grapple with our inabilities to piece together a message.

Answer: In this state of mental suspended animation, we become primed for still other messages and influences. Try to remember to look away.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

fighting like girls

2008-06-02T06:42:00.003-06:00

These eight videos visually discuss outward expressions of violence in a mediated world endlessly saturated in deviant behavior.

Why do girls fight? Is it because, as big media always loves to suggest, most women are Lesbians? Is it because men historically attack them first? Most likely, women fight for exactly the same reasons boys do. But today, while cameras are involved in almost every aspect of adolescent life, we see cameras being used to both record and encourage these performances. Examine this Bum Fights video.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

While it is unlikely that these schoolgirls performed their violence for the security camera on their bus, is it a stretch to suggest that real violence can be physical expressions of violent behaviors consumed through media? Is there ANY validity to media effects?

We are witnessing more extreme forms of violence by children. Some of it is simply caught BY cameras, and some is being constructed FOR cameras. If audiences create content… can content create audiences? Subsistence Living in a Mediated World sometimes means consuming exactly what you grow. It also means learning to read corporate media oppositionally, in order to see how these issues are typically framed in news programming

media as capitalism

2008-06-02T06:25:00.005-06:00

The twenty videos below are just a few obvious examples of how broadcast television has transformed from a communication device into a "desiring machine" - with its content constructed for the sole purpose of serving as the mouth-piece for corporate capitalism. Television has become the ironic national anthem of seductive exploitation for constant consumption. Nothing is sacred when profit is king:

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

2. Punk Capitalism
3. Zen Capitalism
4. Communist Capitalism
5. Pakistani Capitalism
6. Black Capitalism
7. Hippy Capitalism
8. Socialist Capitalism
9. Feminist Capitalism
10. Peace Capitalism
11. Christmas Capitalism
12. Bush Capitalism
13. Kid Capitalism
14. Parody Capitalism
15. Jesus Capitalism
16. Catastrophe Capitalism
17. Pet Capitalism
18. Pregnant Capitalism
19. Girlfriend Capitalism
20. Iraqi Capitalism

Is this all TV can be? Can there be a less exploitative, less corporatized, more democratic implementation? Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

flat reality

2008-05-25T10:15:00.003-06:00

Flat Daddy. Flat Mommy. Flat reality. These four videos examine how image representation is increasingly inter-changed with human reality.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Of course, coping in times of great stress, like having your loved ones shipped off for war, family psychological demands can manifest in unlikely and abnormal behavior. But we are also clearly seeing deeper examples of images being accepted, even encouraged, as the real thing.

Photo images, in these cases, are not merely hung on walls or mantles for respect and refection. These images of loved ones are not being honored or revered like posters hung on a teenager’s bedroom walls. These life-sized images are also not doll substitutions. Instead, these images are mentally transformed into human reality. The picture is the Daddy - for child and adult. Whether this image replacement is done in 2D or 3D, are we increasingly interchanging human existence with image representation – with a “screen reality? Do we prefer to view reality through images and screens? Can we tell the difference?

Media Nipple Vlog #2: Screen Realities

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

killer kids

2008-05-18T09:49:00.002-06:00

Twelve videos for discussion. We teach our children. The world teaches our children. Our media teaches our children. What are they learning? Are children learning to kill - or just the opposite? Or, are kids learning something else entirely?

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

In our mediated world, which media are we studying? Is the Koran more powerful that the computer? When children focus their studies on one thing from childhood, does it affect them? Unfortunately, media effects and technological determinism are the whipping-posts within post-modern communication theory. But look around… can media indoctrinate? Does it influence? Should we be revisiting media-effects scholarship?

What messages do we study? How - and what - do our messages disseminate? Is video more powerful than on-line gaming? Do religious Madrassas have any similarities to LAN parties? Is one more REAL than another? If so, how? Do suicide bombers kill significantly differently than the endless slaughter within violent video games? Can children tell the difference? Do we teach them the difference? Is there a difference to teach?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

news promotion

2008-05-12T08:13:00.002-06:00

These videos ask several important questions – What is news and how should it be promoted?… or more exactly, what is broadcast journalism becoming? When everything in our mediated world is branded and hyped, are we forgetting the very notion of old-school hard-news?

(Click image - and links below - to view Quicktime video.)

This re-edited MSNBC promotional video focuses on several key words within the text. The “future of news," apparently, is where factual content and straight reportage is seldom mentioned. Instead misguided righteous claims of TRUTH are hypocritical at best, and content and presentation are exploited for the purposes of entertainment.

Is it any wonder we see so many parodies of broadcast news? Watch the extended version of the first MSNBC video again ...and then observe the following promotions. The REAL news for this network is visual sensationalism. Puffery and journalism? You can't have it both ways... but it is apparent constant promotion is here to stay.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

blackness in the media

2008-05-06T21:24:00.003-06:00

Today's post is for Dr. Eric King Watts at UNC Chapel Hill... and for any TV viewers out there who might think we are in a post-racial context. But, instead of concentrating on just the exploitive media coverage of Barack Obama's primary campaign (or even Coco Tea), let's take a good look at all of TV.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Today, racist visualization on TV goes a bit further than Danny Bonaduce and the Partridge Family. Even well-intentioned advertisements are constructed with visually racial (anthropological?) overtones. No child has only two choices as suggested by this public service advertisement ad. Inevitably getting gunned down on a street or staying in school is a false premise - but this kind of constant racial exploitation remains.

Blacks are typically portrayed in the media as underprivileged, backward, and technologically ill-suited for the modern world. Even when cable news rushes in to expose the travesty, it is difficult to judge if CNN is explaining the predicament or promoting it for profit. Jim Crow lives, even when individual citizens try to take matters in their own hands. While Don Imus get's publicly linched for "nappy headed ho's" - corporate visual exploitation continues at every turn. And if you don't believe it, check out some of that good 'ol BET programming. As the good Doctor says, just "look at the coverage."

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

Labels: ethics, ethnic, exploitation, media, profiling, racism

media nipple - cultural farming

2008-04-30T11:18:00.007-06:00

Occasionally Media Nipple must remind viewers why an image of a female breast is used in every post. Anyone who watches television can see for themselves that TV content today is filled with visual exploitation.

(Click image and ALL links to view Quicktime video.)

However, what is the preferred object of objectification...? It is the female breast, of course. And, if you really want to be specific, it is not the even actually the breast, it is the brownish-pink spot called the nipple. Apparently, they are worth their weight in gold. Entire media industries are built upon this 'scintillating, sexual, shocking' little pink spot. TV viewers just can't get enough of it. Indeed, the breast is used to sell virtually everything in visual media. And so this situation is re-emphasized daily, as parody, in this blog... to remind viewers to never accept any image at face-value, particularly in media.

Again, this video blog is about visual literacy and broadcast TV. The primary intention here is to encourage viewers to more actively and critically participate in our mediated world. Hence, the first step in media education is to continually identify the most repeated icons of commercial exploitation. The female breast is one primary example.

Anatomically, of course, the female breast is little different than noses or elbows. But boobs have been spectacularized into a precious commodity. It is a viable currency used in all visual media. When you see this kind of stuff on TV... turn the channel. It is one sure way to register your understanding. Then again, since we can't EVER seem to get enough boobs... maybe this will help to inoculate. Feast you fools.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

insidious product placement

2008-04-23T07:36:00.008-06:00

Twelve videos that illustrate the insidiousness of product placement in our world today. Does Barak Obama really love Abercrombie & Fitch? Doubtful. But A&F certainly loves any opportunity to strategically position 3 students for the cameras wearing branded T-shirts as free advertising.

(Click image - and ALL links - to view Quicktime video.)

Yes, the shock is over, even with KFC. We are accustomed to cross-branding on everything, everywhere - especially our bodies.... our sexy bodies. Of course, in a mediated world, advertisements are not only ubiquitous, they are becoming us. We can sell our own body space for profit. Nothing can escape its inherent marketing potential. But this is nothing new.

What is different is our rush to acknowledge and accept this advertising into every facet of our lives. This is more than symbiosis; it is a cultural embrace of insidious monetization. Every thing is for sale – particularly the human body. The image of the future is the image of product. Our bodies are being bought and sold into corporate slavery.

UPDATE: 24 April: Coincidence?
UPDATE: 6 May: Fixing the product?
UPDATE: 6 May: Visual polysemy?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

giving kids visual hallucinogens

2008-04-22T08:48:00.004-06:00

Today's post is about legally offering psychotic and hallucinogenic visuals (drugs?) to children. It is done everyday on TV, and in this case, PBS is the pusherman. This Boohbah video is just the program introduction. Question: Why do it this way?

(Click image and all links to view Quicktime video.)

If there is a drug epidemic in the world could it, just maybe, result from TV programming like this? That is doubtful, of course... but also inconclusive. And so the question remains, why make this - is it stimulating education or profit?

Are the visuals in BoohBah any different than the oil-and-water-in-a-glass-pie-plate-on-an-overhead-projector variety used at Fillmore West to jack up that LSD dropping crowd spinning in front of Grace Slick? Why not simply show kids everything available on TV... never mind, we do already.

Or how about those sweat-drenched days of ecstasy and poppers at the gay dance clubs, throbbing to the big-screen digital psychedelics projected onto every wall. In a mediated – VISUAL WORLD - these mushroom induced, rave style, Bjork-ish phantasmagoric images could be fun, harmless, even educational. But could these visuals also be seducing, or addicting, or stimulating and simultaneously numbing to toddlers?

Answer: Look around at how children are behaving today. Even if there seems little connection, why offer such unnatural, sophisticated visuals like these to children? Do we understand that any image can also be employed as a form of visual terrorism? Why do we not openly ask these questions more often?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

virginia tech massacre - fair and balanced

2008-04-16T18:58:00.002-06:00

It has been exactly one year since CNN announced the breaking news of the shootings at Virginia Tech. That day, CNN was elated by their 'lucky' ratings spike and moved quickly to monopolize the event by endlessly rebroadcasting the cell phone video of Jamal Albarghouti.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Shortly thereafter, a media package from Seung-Hui Cho promoted MSNBC into the international spotlight. This exclusive 'visual gold mine' was theirs alone to distribute. And they knew exactly how to exploit it.

From there, FOX News jumped into the wall-to-wall coverage extravaganza and eventually contorted the event into a perverse call for allowing all students to carry guns on campus. Which still carries ramifications today

Each network remained true to their primary agenda: PROFIT ABOVE ALL ELSE. In all, it was clear that the cable news coverage of Virginia Tech actually re-massacred everyone involved. What have we learned over the last year? Nothing.

Today, one year later, we see that cable news coverage is worse still. TV 'news' networks are today's media exemplars of perverse, ego-maniacal, money-grubbing. Indeed, they are corporate pedophiles - hell bent on sensationalizing anything in its path, while denying culpability at every turn. And all the while they scream their lies over and over about being "fair and balanced"; only to scream it all again... 4 minutes later... until we seem to believe it is true. Why does this continue? It is because viewers continue to watch - instead of participating. We have forgotten how to exercise civic responsibility, how to protest publicly. We feel helpless; that there is is no way to respond or to talk-back to our media.

Click here for numerous examples illustrating how average citizens, using only common, cheap video tools, can begin to reclaim our citizen media voice. For we must always remember, the broadcast spectrum belongs to the people. We rent it to corporations who then turn around and exploit us for profit. This can change. But it will take a concerted effort. We can make our own media, using our own voices, telling our own stories. We can make more healthy media. But we must begin now.

Media Nipple Free Video Blog #2: Cameras or Guns: How Cable News Coverage (re)Massacred Virginia Tech

fun with guns

2008-04-11T04:52:00.002-06:00

Remember back to the time when Vice President Dick Cheney shot his friend in the face. Remember the media jokes? Remember the glib, cynical media coverage. Why would this happen?

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Guns are commonplace. We simply no longer feel gun violence is surprising, indeed it is interwoven into the very fabric of our lives. Whether you actually own a gun or not… you probably DO own a MEDIA GUN. Right? Admit it... you DO shoot media people every day. And if not, you DO you experience media enjoyment watching the killing of media people. But a question remains. Can we tell the difference between real and fake guns? Most every evening broadcast on network TV contains guns, murder, rape violence. We seem to like it, since we certainly watch it all everyday.

In our mediated world, where lines between REAL and IMAGE are blurring… maybe we DO love gun fun. Maybe we DO want to kill everything in our path.

Media Nipple Free Video Blog #2: Cameras or Guns: How Cable News Coverage (re)Massacred Virginia Tech

media: pay, steal, or share

2008-04-06T04:32:00.004-06:00

We swim in media. It is everything and everywhere. It is the ether of our existence. So we find ourselves in a media dilemma. Who pays for our mediated world? This is a matter of human survival.

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

1. Will citizens rebel against being forced to pay for the very (media) air we breathe?
2. Or will media become more like selling water ? That is, will we be able to get free media whenever we want, even though we prefer to pay for bottled water which we believe is healthier? ...Even though most bottle water is more expensive than gasoline?
3. Or do we try to grow, steal, or share whatever we want-need to survive? ...Understanding full well that we all pay mightily now, at every turn, and at every step of of the distribution process for mere access - and questioning why these multiple payments never lead to viewer ownership?

This much is true: we will be paying more for media in the future. And soon we may be paying so much, video blogs like Media Nipple will become too expensive to produce or watch. Consider visual literacy communication and keep your media clean and healthy.

tags: VLOG, visual LITERACY, television MEDIA, communication CULTURE

images, propaganda, and war

2008-03-29T08:45:00.004-06:00

Five videos. In this series of video clips from FOX News, we are reminded of not only the individual casualties of war, but also of the importance of visual propaganda. But there is one slight problem – is the US military telling the truth about the death of Al-Zarqawi?

(Click image - and links below - to view Quicktime video.)

First there was “visual identification” of Al-Zarqawi’s body after two 500 pound bombs were precisely dropped with laser guidance. Scars, tattoos, and fingerprints… but no DNA?

Then, plastic surgeons reconstructed Al-Zarqawi’s face? Was there ever any corroborative evidence or additional eyewitnesses?

Then, FOX News obfuscates the most fundamental issues of legitimacy by focusing on tenets of the Geneva Convention, while maintaining that images are truthful, and vital for convincing our enemies. Moreover, FOX utterly fails to consider how the very nature of TV constructs an endless spectacle parade of human images - dead and alive. Can Al-Zarqawi’s face be any different?

Then, still more TV experts are enlisted by FOX to muddy the facts further by mentioning morticians, and that there might only be Al-Zarqawi’s head.

What’s the problem here? Any high school student, proficient in Photoshop, could easily manipulate a grainy image of a dead, swollen, deformed face of an Iraqi soldier to resemble Al-Zarqawi's. It is even easier to take an existing image of Al-Zarqawi and make it appear to be deceased and bloodied.

So then, couldn’t military experts do the same digital manipulation - particularly when its existance is so crucial to the US visual propaganda machine? And conversely, hasn’t the entire world seen cinema and TV programming where identities are disguised this easily? How can citizens from either side of this conflict believe this method of visual verification? Two months after Al-Zarqawi’s “capture”, does the public know any of the true facts?

Remember, images lie – just as easily as words do.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTUREFive videos.

you tube news channel

2008-03-22T20:07:00.001-06:00

When 24 hour news organizations are motivated primarily by profit making – everything becomes newsworthy, even YouTube. When foreign bureaus are closed, international reporting curtailed, and visual content is ratcheted to ever-higher levels… newsrooms begin to steal from amateur video bloggers from around the globe. And what better place to find eyeball catching content than YouTube.

(Click image - and link below - to view Quicktime video.)

But deep problems exist with this kind of reporting, and CNN even acknowledges some of them here:

1. “CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the origin of this material (nonetheless it is pretty compelling stuff)…apparently from a 14 year old.”

2. “This apparently taken from Haifa…the video quality on some of these is not great and you can see that just looking at it, it’s a bit grainy.”

3. “The fact that is so easily recorded, posted on the internet, and of course the quality not so great. But, some pretty amazing stuff that’s able to be captured pretty easily.”

4. “Some pretty amazing stuff, and this apparently taken from a rooftop in Beirut.”

What happens to journalism when YouTube performs as a ”funnel, and the filter.” YouTube, interestingly, is not responding to how “they are dealing with some of this video, whether they are filtering it, what they are taking down, where they draw the line in terms of how gruesome some of this video is,”

Video blogging is not journalism. And journalism is not rebroadcasting content from YouTube. So then, what is valid accurate news today? And from where does it come? If news organizations do not adhere to their own tenets of journalism – who will? Citizen journalists? Doubtful... but it is happening more and more.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

ides of march

2008-03-15T08:19:00.003-06:00

CICERO
…Why are you breathless? and why stare you so?

CASCA
Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth
Shakes like a thing unfirm?
O Cicero, I have seen
tempests, when the scolding winds
Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen
The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam,
To be exalted with the threatening clouds:
But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.
Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
Incenses them to send destruction.
….A common slave -you know him well by sight-
Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
Like twenty torches join'd, and yet his hand,
Not sensible of fire, remain'd unscorch'd.
...Against the Capitol I met a lion,
Who glared upon me, and went surly by,
Without annoying me: and there were drawn
Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women,
Transformed with their fear; who swore they saw
Men all in fire walk up and down the streets.
And yesterday the bird of night did sit
Even at noon-day upon the market-place,
Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say
'These are their reasons; they are natural;'
For, I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon.

CICERO
Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time:
But men may construe things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
…Good night then, Casca:
this disturbed sky is not to walk in.

teaching with television

2008-02-29T08:58:00.002-07:00

Twelve videos. Can network TV be used for education? Certainly, there are examples of excellent educational TV: ... but, are the Muppets any different than: ABC Kids, or Comcast, or Disney, to name only a few. What and how, exactly, does TV teach our children?

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

What kind of education does network TV actually provide? Since network television’s main purpose is to promote consumption via entertainment, will it create classroom content for kids any differently than for adults? Do educational products simply encourage another kind of insidious TV consumption?

Watch TV advertisements for student programing... and ask yourself: Is this what children really need? Will CNN “student” news be any different than an American Express ad? Do books today balance our desires for TV education and consumption. Do our schools work? How do we educate our children? And HOW do consumer practices dictate WHO gets to educate them?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

homosexual humor

2008-02-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

Twelve videos. If there is one acceptable style of humor in media today – it’s gay (or lesbian) bashing. Gay humor apparently appeals to every audience. Arab jokes are falling to a distant second. And African-American and quadriplegic humor have run out of gas completely. What gives?

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Gays are rarely represented normatively on network television. They are portrayed as exotic, mysterious, dangerous... and always good for a joke. Maybe even George Bush is gay?

Media Nipple scans a lot of TV, and it is our humble opinion that Conan O’Brian regularly airs the most "gay innuendo" humor. That big gorgeous redhead from Massachusetts always offers a heaping helping of homophobic humor several times every night. Can it be that funny? Pick it up a notch, Conan. Click here: and see typical excerpts from ONE (Late Night with Conan O’Brian) show for yourself. A more gendered visual representation scholarship is obviously necessary. But are our ideas of gender researchable?

Media Nipple Vlog #2: Brokeback Disconnect?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

obesity tv

2008-02-18T07:40:00.002-07:00

Eleven videos. Does television make us Fat, Stupid, and Ugly? That's debatable. But mass media, body image, and consumption are certainly interconnected. As network TV searches for the most extreme images to stop channel surfing, viewers comply by pausing to gawk at the oddities... and still we binge through every program.

(Click image - and hot links - to view Quicktime video.)

This is the intention of broadcast marketing: Bait and switch - and then bait some more. Under the guise of fitness-for-health, the NBC show "The Biggest Loser" is also an infomercial that promotes consumption and obesity. And so, TV informs in contradictory ways. TV tells us that being grotesquely proportioned is fun, acceptable, and can even get you on TV - however, it is also important to hate your body image and then re-consume for glamorous change. The healthiest fitness advice for viewers would be to turn OFF the television and go outdoors. Or, if visual communication like this appeals to you, at least lie on your fat couch and try to parse this silly entertainment from targeted psycho-marketing. Either way, if you do not like your public image, no problem, simply visualize yourself under the surgeon's knife. What, exactly, are TV images telling us? But then, would we even care if we knew?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

when media blames others

2008-02-12T07:59:00.002-07:00

Seven videos building from the last post. Television continually blames other media for our social problems. Explicit fashion magazines, the music industry, Hollywood movies, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube - everything, apparently, is conspiring to hurt our children EXCEPT television.

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

Regardless of how much children participate in their mediated world, chances are TV is still the fattest pipe, the most saturating media source they consume. And, it is fair to suggest that most all media and its distribution, in their own way, are trying to become a form of TV - iPods, cell phones, computers, newspapers, GPS... all feature video screens with moving images.

But TV informs and reforms our children more than any other source. Any hope we may harbor of reforming television - as with any other junkie in rehab - begins with awareness. But awareness is not a part of TV's demeanor. Everything else is the problem. And so, most of big media is a form for corporate pedophilia. Listen to the sales pitch again from the last post... "we wouldn't sell it if the kids didn't want it...". This is the same party line in television... "don't blame TV"... you can just turn it off... right?

Look and listen again.... everything sexualizes our children EXCEPT television content...

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

sex children

2008-02-05T10:27:00.001-07:00

Twenty one videos for discussing whether or not visual media is, indeed, sexualizing our children. Well, regardless if there was a sigh of relief when Howard Stern departed cable TV for Sirius Satellite Radio; TV networks knew exactly how to retain their most sought after, high-spending, male teen demographic. How? For starters, simply run phony, sex filled, spring- break programming in early January like everyone does.

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

But E! Entertainment TV isn’t alone in running soft-porn programming... all networks are ramping up extreme sexual content to levels never before seen on US TV. For broadcast marketers, using a woman’s breast is best for selling their products. But some programming goes even farther. The parental rating system - TV14SD - is shown for 14 seconds at the beginning of the program. After that - it’s a visual, sexual, free-for-all.

What, exactly, does visual literacy education mean in a world of never-ending streaming exploitation? Can we tell parody from exploitation? Grow your own - diverse and healthy - media.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

graphic weather graphics

2008-01-30T08:24:00.000-07:00

The weather isn’t bad…the weather reporting is bad. It is a bit of modern mystery why weather reporting is so idiotic. But the real problems with TV weather reporting are the maps made by the weather people. Collectively, weather maps represent some of the worst examples of visual design seen today.

(Click image and links to view Quicktime video.)

For this post, lets examine just a few of the presentational color schemes. For instance, what do these COLORS represent:

RED means: Low pressure, warm front, heavy rain, moderate risk, hurricane track, hot temperature, boundaries of severe storms, jet stream, intensity of a hurricane wall, graphics and networks logos, and a downward stock market.

BLUE means: High pressure, cold front, cool, ocean, land, rain, snow, wind, graphics and network logo.

GREEN means: Land, low land, rain, snow, cool temperature, and upward stock market.

YELLOW means: Warm, land, high land, rain, snow, slight risk of severe weather, rising pressure, boundaries of severe storms, hot, graphics and network logos

WHITE means: Clouds, cool front, windy, mountains, high risk, tornado, lightning, outer atmosphere, wind, clock time, graphics and network logos.

ORANGE, PURPLE, TEAL, BROWN? Is it any wonder viewers never know the weather?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

god damn the pusher man

2008-01-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

Eight videos. Are our bodies at war? Or, are we just drugged out? How exactly do we visualize a breakthrough in relief for our colons? Apparently, using Imodium is like sitting front row at Fillmore West. Warp speed to Uranus... not mine.

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

Then again, why go anywhere? The best drugs are at home anyway. Just open your medicine chest. Or maybe just breathe in, right where you are sitting. Visual communication on television often exploits the human body and it celebrates this disconnection from our bodies in numerous ways? Televised bad-trip? Mediated consumerism? Separate the visual lies from the facts.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

video blogs and civic media

2008-01-21T12:59:00.001-07:00

Click for TEN VIDEOS that ask: What is video blogging? Is it simply getting a camera, acting stupid, and up-loading it to the internet? No, it is not, but big media would like us to think it is. A vlog is not a mini, personal TV station…we have too much TV now. Video blogging can be a revolutionary media tool for social change. But will it be used that way? Will it ever fulfill the promise of Folk Video?

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Intention: that is the problem for video blogs and podcasts. The battle today is whether citizens will create new and honest self-expression – or recreate more stupid, vacuous big media style content. Can there be a media revolution where citizens communicate globally when big media seduces us all to perform extreme and exploitive behavior for the camera?... like: You Tube.

Big media will try everything in its power to “control” vlogging…because its sole purpose is to take our money, our lives, and our soul. It may be too late already. The world may already be one sad civilization of media copy-cats – educated and seduced by ever more extreme visual consumption.

Turn off your TV. Do not make more (big media) graven images. Tell your own story to others - in a simple, honest, un-promoted way – while we are still able. Our media future is in our own hands. Will we ultimately create a blessing or a curse?

Media Nipple Video Blog Mash Up: Connecting the Dots
STEAL THIS VIDEO AND SEND IT TO SOMEONE ELSE?
http://www.culturalfarming.com/Extras/4_Eyed_Monster_Podcast.mov

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

blissful ignorance

2008-01-15T12:28:00.000-07:00

Six videos that ask: Are Americans the dumbest people in the world? Of course, the answer depends on one’s definition of intelligence. These questions go well beyond: Are we smarter than 5th graders.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

The U.S. may not be dumb, but is it intelligent? That is another matter. As we wage a global war on terrorism, what do we know about the world around us? How can we lead the world when we so ill-informed. Even our leaders struggle with the simplest of foreign questions.

What do we know of our world? For instance, what do we even know of our neighbors like Mexico or Canada - and how do we KNOW it? Then again, how are we known by others in this world? Why do “they” hate us? Is it because we do not know them? In a mediated world, what do we really know? Luckily, we all have a clear idea of the importance of communication scholarship.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

will google buy privacy in second life?

2008-01-09T07:08:00.001-07:00

Twelve videos. Google, Second Life, and the Internet... a perfect combo like a cheeseburger, fries and a coke. But what happens when the irresistible virtual world seduces every last bit of information from every last citizen - and their avatars?

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Most media continue to sing the praises of the internet regardless of how educationally patronizing and clumsily it visualizes the "magic and mystery". But much of what is left unsaid concerns exactly how heavy-weights like Google and Second Life are evolving to exploit their users. When do our virtual actions translate into real-life manipulation?

Of course, everyone google's themselves, but what happens when Google googles back? Are global gaming venues like World of Warcraft simply tracking vehicles for profiling user behaviors? And what happens when the US government wants the information that Google collects about each user under the guise of stopping crime and pornography in the virtual world? Whatever it is we do on the internet, you can be sure that many companies are keeping a record of it all for future monetization.

While Google pretends to be the "good guy" by lobbying for nonrestrictive web usage, it continues to archive all of our actions. But why? Could it be that while we play in digital worlds, Google is betting that virtual reality is indeed a growing part of our culture, and that we might even prefer cyber worlds to our own. And why not, we already enjoy performing every aspect of our lives for Google's benefit on YouTube.

Willfully and naively "playing" ourselves despite open exploitation - within cyber worlds - simply appears to be the next logical step toward neural marketing in digitally mapping the universe.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

photo journalism

2008-01-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Fifteen videos on photo manipulation in news that consider visual intelligence in a mediated world. Remember: One deceptive picture is worth 1000 deceptive words. Today’s post is no different.

(Click image - and ALL links - to view Quicktime video.)

We see examples everywhere of the growing awareness to the inherent dangers of visual deception. Unfortunately however, no one has a clear understanding of “journalistic license” or of the “ethical rules” of image construction. So then, what exactly is the “number one rule of responsible reporting”? What are the rules of visual presentation? Accuracy? Truthfulness? Reality? The last photo in this video clip was manipulated in PhotoShop. Why - and for what effect??

But consider this: Nothing in this entire CNN-Reuters news report is visually truthful. Every element - the entire studio background; the graphics; even anchor hair, make-up and wardrobe - has been “deliberately manipulated” and further enhanced by “lighting conditions”. By design, do these deceptively visual theatrics falsify broadcast news content? Maybe. Has the B&W promotional photo of Charles Johnson been cropped and manipulated in PhotoShop? Is this staging reality for propaganda purposes? Maybe.

Certainly the fake city skyline photo of Los Angeles behind Charles Johnson has been doctored in numerous ways. So is the problem here that the Beirut photo was manipulated so clumsily? – or that it was published by the reputable Reuters? - or that Adnan Hajj admitted to the "mistake"?

Did Adnan Hajj's manipulation actually do harm? Did his photo tell a DIFFERENT story?.. or did he simply enhance the presentational impact of a truthful photo? WHY did he do it? These are big, modern media questions.... because we see TV complain about photo manipulation even while they visually lie to us.

Reuters may have visual and ethical standards, but do other “journalism” outlets? But more to the point, what are the problems and guidelines of image manipulation? Media Nipple readers know the answer. We have haven't seen anything yet.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

the meaning of christmas

2007-12-20T07:44:00.001-07:00

Tis the season for fifteen videos about our changing holiday season. Increasingly, visualizing Christmas means many different things to many people.

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

Nativity scenes are changing. It seems like anyone and anything can find its way into the manger. In fact, it seems you can even take whatever you want OUT of the manger as well. Either way, if you get all the gifts you want, who really cares what goes on in the outside world? Christmas is about shopping, and we all want that perfect gift. What gift could be this

And lest we forget – holiday decorations are essential in a mediated world of holiday visual communication. We must express ourselves, at any cost. Merry Christmas.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

visual rhetoric

2007-12-06T17:22:00.001-07:00

One video to illustrate how corporate media speaks to us every day. Behind every image, behind all television content, resides rhetoric. But it is more than persuasion... for persuasion suggests reciprocity. And if so, then how does one respond to today's one-text avalanche?

(Click image to view Quicktime video.)

If there is only one story being told on TV - What is it? How does it work? Have we become immured by this message? Media Nipple believes viewers have difficulty hearing the incessant drip-drip of this never-ending message. Moreover, this message infiltrates all TV content: from Advertisements to News. It is the very same siren song. Here is the forbidden translation to TV's rhetorical text. Read for yourself:

HEY, YOU...!
HERE'S A SECRET.
WE SHOULD ALL LIVE LIKE THIS.
SEE, WE'RE SHOWING YOU.
IT'S THE BEST WAY, RIGHT?
YOU SHOULD TRY IT.
SEND YOUR MONEY HERE.

Memorize this text. It is a key... an inoculation. May you never watch TV the same way again.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

your secret is safe with me

2007-12-03T17:28:00.000-07:00

Thirteen videos that discuss how governments are radically profiling all citizens. Today even technological strip searches are routine. What are they looking for? Maybe it's our civil liberties.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Travelers already need to prove image identity with driver licenses and passports. Our names are already screened for ethnicity. Our bags are scanned and hand-checked. Our shoes must be removed and our bodies are “sniffed” with mechanical smellers. Our fingernail clippers are taken away, and our toiletry fluids are confiscated. What is possibly left to discover? Feeling naked? Don't worry, some women DO receive full security in times of war - just not on Google.

Of course, big business has always wanted all our secrets. But, now governments want to keep records of everything we do, well beyond airline seating preferences and meal choices. We provide everything they want whether we know it or not. And still, these are not enough. Yes, governments also want to see us naked… and they want to keep this information on record for 40 years.

Privacy is a thing of the past. Still don’t believe? Ask your employer?

Is homeland securit y a joke today? If so, why? Who make these policies?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

god bless our cars

2007-12-01T16:21:00.000-07:00

One video - about automobiles. Something has changed in our world of persuasion. It deserves our attention. Car advertisements have taken the final, last step.

(Click image to view Quicktime video.)

Of course, persuasion in the car-world means saying anything, anytime, anywhere, at any cost, to any market, for any purpose. And particularly, saying it without actually communicating one fact. Or does it? Maybe these ads tell us a lot. Maybe they are alerting us that cars are no longer cars - literally. Cars are now our very existence, for they impart every cultural story, in every rhetorical manner, across every mode of transportation, to every person. Our life, our very existence, is automobile.

- Cars are better for families than homes.
- Cars define historically and culturally.
- Cars are best for traveling between Reality and Fantasy.
- Cars are a lot like Hippy drug art.
- Cars are both desire and instant gratification.
- Cars are the perfect image of nature.
- Cars save us from scary nature.
- Cars conquer and manipulate scary nature.
- Cars will save all Earth Nature.
- Indeed, cars are Nature. Better than Nature.

You will buy a car. Probably several of them. Car advertisements like these will persuade you. You cannot resist. They are the only stories we hear.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

violent kids - violent cameras

2007-11-23T07:43:00.000-07:00

Eight videos for your aggressive child's pleasure. Fight clubs, video gaming, even school recess – what is the difference today? Aggression is a blood sport for today’s youth. And it's even better when staged for the camera.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Is youth aggression something new? No. But something has changed. Personal video is combining with aggression. Fight clubs, or bum fights are not considered FUN, or validated, unless the acts are caught on video. Has WATCHING become an funny aggressive act? Should parents “just say no”, and send their kids outside and play!

Are there solutions to these growing trends? Is increasing violence - throughout all media - the problem? No, media is neither good nor bad. But it is also not neutral. Maybe, it is the kinds of programming being manufactured and consumed. Promote and support personal, healthy media. Try growing your own. There are too many other important kinds of stories to be told.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

giving kids hallucinogens

2007-11-21T07:25:00.000-07:00

Today's post is about legally offering psychotic and hallucinogenic visuals to infants and toddlers. It is done everyday on TV, and in this case, PBS is the pusherman. This Boohbah video is just the program introduction. Question: Why do it?

(Click image to view Quicktime video.)

If there is a drug epidemic in the world could it, just maybe, result from TV programming like this? That is doubtful, of course... but also inconclusive. And so the question remains, why make this? If incessantly watching TV is bad for kids, might incessant kinds of TV images have incessant affects.

Are the visuals in this BooBah any different than the oil-and-water-in-a-glass-pie-plate-on-an-overhead-projector variety used at Fillmore West to jack up that LSD dropping crowd spinning in front of Grace Slick?

Or how about those sweat-drenched days of ecstasy and poppers at the gay dance clubs, throbbing to the big-screen digital psychedelics projected onto every wall. In a mediated – VISUAL WORLD - these mushroom induced, rave style, Bjork–ish phantasmagoric images could be fun, harmless, even educational. But could these visuals also be seducing, or addicting, or stimulating and simultaneously numbing to toddlers?

Maybe we should look around at how children are behaving today. Even if there seems little connection, why offer such unnatural, sophisticated visuals like these to children? And... why do we not openly ask this question more often?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

you tube journalism

2007-11-02T18:59:00.000-06:00

Eight videos. What happens when 24 hour news organizations are motivated primarily by profit making? Answer: Everything becomes newsworthy, particularly cell phone images, blogs, even You Tube. When foreign bureaus are closed, international reporting curtailed, and visual content is ratcheted to ever-higher levels… newsrooms beg from amateurs from around the globe to fill their mandatory broadcast time. And what better place to find eyeball catching content than You Tube.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

But deep problems exist with this kind of reporting, and CNN even acknowledges some of them here - read the text in this lead video again:

1. “CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the origin of this material (nonetheless it is pretty compelling stuff)…apparently from a 14 year old.”

2. “This apparently taken from Haifa…the video quality on some of these is not great and you can see that just looking at it, it’s a bit grainy.”

3. “The fact that is so easily recorded, posted on the internet, and of course the quality not so great. But, some pretty amazing stuff that’s able to be captured pretty easily.”

4. “Some pretty amazing stuff, and this apparently taken from a rooftop in Beirut.”

What happens to journalism when You Tube performs as a ”funnel, and the filter.” You Tube, interestingly, is not responding to how “they are dealing with some of this video, whether they are filtering ithat they are taking down, where they draw the line in terms of how gruesome some of this video is,”

If You Tube is not journalism - and journalism should not be rebroadcasting content from amateurs - then, what is valid, accurate news today? And from where does it come? If news organizations do not adhere to the tenets of journalism – who will? Citizen journalists? Doubtful... but it is happening more and more.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

computers for poor kids?

2007-10-27T08:37:00.000-06:00

Thirteen videos: Nicholas Negreponte, from MIT and the Media Lab, loves $1oo dollar laptops. He wants every child in the world to have one. Why? To what global problem is this a solution? Negreponte comes up short in his explanation.

(Click image - and all links below - to view Quicktime video.)

Altruistic? Smart? Affordable? Who is kidding whom here? This is pure unadulterated business, and big business is for big profit more than any lie about education. Negreponte says TV is a non-issue because children in the 3rd world have no TVs? BUT COMPUTERS ARE TV, and kids will watch. And they will LEARN – how to lust, and how to consume.

Yes, computers can be excellent tools for learning. But foremost, they are "desiring machines". Rushing technology to the poor is simply another form of ideological enslavement.

Not all children are like Robin Williams’ kid. How will 3rd world villages exist on the web? …with websites? Will there be tech support when there is little else for existence? Will there be spare parts, peripheral equipment, and supervision to learn properly?

For instance, here is the promise of technology for our troops in Iraq. And here is the reality. We can’t even provide first class technology for training our troops.

If corporations want to help the 3rd world - stop selling lies - and work for clean water, effective sewage treatment, essential medical care, literacy education, and legitimate peaceful governments.

$100 for laptops? This is a very low priority since corporate pedophilia come in many forms.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

god in media or media god

2007-10-20T09:05:00.001-06:00

Eleven videos that illustrate the increase of spiritual exploitation in media - particularly when news packages religion for vacuous consumption. Why is this? Because everything - even religion - is fair game in the big world of capitalism. ...and, don't forget the internet.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Jesus Christ action figures may only be an animated comedy skit, but Christian representation increasingly embodies Western corporate ethic. And, what happens when the message of god is simply mixed in with all other media messages? But nothing is sacred on TV; all religions are easy parody targets. Zen Buddhism, in particular, is an advertisement favorite. It is exotic enough to ridicule, mysterious enough to claim special powers, and foreign enough to contrast with Western cults of capitalism.

But why stop there? Why not exploit Amazon indigenous peoples to sell pharmaceuticals? Or even stereotypes of Arab “shazzam” incantations. Who cares. It all sells, right? But then, we haven't seen anything yet. Just wait until the 2008 election campaign really heats up!

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

when media preys

2007-10-12T12:24:00.000-06:00

Ten videos. It is very difficult growing up in today’s world. Danger to children seems to lurk around every corner. It appears to come from every form of media. But who, exactly, are the predators? Television, for one, is always blaming someone else.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Media Nipple is intended to educate our viewers on matters concerning visual and media literacy throughout our mediated world. We have posted many times on how we all are exploited visually, mentally, spiritually, and physically by media conglomerates. This is nothing new, of course – but it needs to be illustrated again and again. What can we do about media predators? Viewers have two options, and one is better than the other,

First, we can all try to ignore and turn off the media streaming into our lives. But, unfortunately, this is almost impossible to do. Or second, the better option is to educate ourselves on the powers and seductions of media – and to participate actively and critically in our consumptions. Unless we understand media, we will continue to be exploited on every front.
Cultural Farming Free Video: Our Body Media

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

branding our world body

2007-10-06T09:14:00.001-06:00

Eight videos that illustrate the power of product placement. Yes, the shock is over, even with KFC. We are accustomed to cross-branding about everything on everything, everywhere - especially our bodies.... our sexy bodies.

(Click image - and ALL links - to view Quicktime video.)

Of course, in a mediated world, advertisements are not only ubiquitous, they are becoming us. We can sell our own body space for profit. Nothing can escape it inherent marketing potential. But this is nothing new.

What is different is our rush to acknowledge and accept this advertising into every facet of our lives. This is more than symbiosis; it is a cultural embrace of insidious monetization. Every thing is for sale – particularly the body. The image of the future is the image of product. Our bodies are being bought and sold into corporate slavery.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

politics and visual slander

2007-09-29T08:56:00.000-06:00

Ten videos that discuss visual language in a world of media politics. Whether in political parody, or off-handed yet premeditated comments, slanderous visual discourse continues on its merry way. Nothing is new.

(Click image - and ALL links - to view Quicktime video.)

Slander is often presented visually in forms like this TV advertisement comparing gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos, the Michigan son of Amway, to George Bush - or from John Spenser images that claim Hillary Clinton spent thousands of dollars on plastic surgery… whatever, this is the silly season once more.

None of this is inflammatory discourse is new, or exclusive to the United States. Slander, in all its forms, knows no boundaries. For instance, Russian President Putin “jokes” about rape and Israel’s president, while in Canada, the Liberal government calls an opposition leader “chicken cacciatore”. Will we ever move beyond this stuff? No. But, Media Literacy is one way the viewing public can help decipher the swirling visual slander, on all fronts, seen in the media every day.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

screen consumption

2007-09-25T10:23:00.001-06:00

Fourteen videos that discuss how our screen mediated world is designed for one purpose only – to consume. If technology is indeed “enabling," what exactly does it enable? Answer: Only newer, sexier ways to buy more stuff. And new tech purchases always create the lust for more tech purchases. Like Apple's new Jesus Phone?

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

As the phone, TV, computer, and the store window merge into one function, all technology becomes a gateway for consumption. For instance, wide screen TV ultimately has very little new to offer. Who is demanding the same horrible program content in higher definition? So then, why was the wide screen developed? The answer goes well beyond insidious notions of cross-marketing like Will Ferrell and Sprint / Nextel / Wonder Bread / et al… or Jessica Simpson and Costco.

The extra screen space, and band width, with HD will eventually be used for instant merchandising. If you like something – anything - you see on television, you will be able to purchase it immediately, right off your TV screen. Store front windows already offer this convenience. But why leave your sofa? You will soon grab your remote control to instantly purchase that nice suit the news anchor is wearing….or anything else your e-wallet can bear. Screen consumption is radically changing the definition of “content” in all of TV programming. But then, isn't everything in our world a screen - or a advertising space?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

news photo manipulation

2007-09-22T07:36:00.001-06:00

child pornographers

2007-09-18T09:00:00.001-06:00

Fifteen videos that consider how Big Media always blames someone or something else when criticizing the exploitation of children. But then, TV is a bastion of excellent educational and cultural experiences... like this example! Who says its all about money? Isn't this corporate pedophilia?

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Sexual innuendo is broadcast on television 24/7. It can be seen, heard, and felt throughout every day, yet no one takes responsibility. So how exactly does a public become “addicted to porn”? Is there really such a thing as media addiction? Aren’t Media Effects simply conspiracies of overreaction? I mean… child (TV) porn would not be out there if the little kids didn’t want it. Big Media is simply providing what the pre-teen - and adult - public want, right?

LISTEN TO TV AGAIN: TV PORN (8:30 mins.)

CNN Headline Primetime is not concerned with child pornography. If it were, CNN would be blaming television itself. This has always been the case. Turn to every channel, every network, and every media conglomerate… and you will find child exploitation of every stripe masquerading as news. Sexual exploitation is just the most "shocking”… and so it makes for the very best TV. When it comes to media production, children are money. So let’s fuck ‘em all.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

visualizing the excess of a fat culture

2007-09-10T14:28:00.001-06:00

Seventeen videos. Does television make us Fat, Stupid, and Ugly or, does it just show us that we all are? That's debatable. But mass media, body image, and consumption are certainly interconnected. As network TV searches for the most extreme images in order to stop channel surfing, viewers comply by pausing to gawk at the oddities... and still we binge through every program.

(Click image - and hot links - to view Quicktime video.)

This is the intention of broadcast marketing. Under the guise of fitness-for-health, the NBC show "The Biggest Loser" is also an infomercial that promotes consumption and obesity. And so, TV informs in contradictory ways. TV tells us that being grotesquely proportioned is fun, acceptable, and can even get you on TV - however, it is also important to hate your body image and then re-consume for glamorous change. The healthiest fitness advice for viewers would be to turn OFF the television and go outdoors. Or, if visual communication like this appeals to you, at least lie on your fat couch and try to parse this silly entertainment from targeted psycho-marketing. Either way, if you do not like your public image, no problem, you can simply re-visualize yourself.

Are we swimming in a world of excess? - or, is our excessive media symptomatic of something much bigger? What, exactly, are TV images telling us; but then, would we even care if we knew?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

the digital world is a visual lie

2007-09-09T22:37:00.001-06:00

Nine videos. What’s the easiest way to eliminate someone? Delete them. In our mediated world, life means having a digital presence. Without it, you no longer exist. But why stop there. Our entire world is sold to us - as fake - because virtual life is best, right? And we like it that way: We like the lie.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

We want to control others with our remote controls. We want our entire world designed for us - through out remotes. It gives us power over the universe. If I hate you I can just change the channel - or simply delete you from my existence. Forget this world, it's only good for a laugh . With a digital existence, a better reality is just a click away. Just one problem...what happens when real and virual collide? Even little things crash.

tags: VLOG, visual LITERACY, television MEDIA, communication CULTURE

Labels: literacy, reality, technology, virtual

katrina - news coverage that killed

2007-08-29T07:20:00.000-06:00

Media Nipple revisits how TV news failed miserably in its initial coverage of Hurricane Katrina. People died as a result, and still the TV networks remain unaccountable. Why say this? Because the responsibility of live “news” during Hurricane Katrina was to inform, not entertain. This is a 24 minute video... very long, but give it time to download. It reveals the cold reality of visual news today in our mediated world.

(Click image to view Quicktime video.)

TV news blatantly ignored their civic responsibility to inform the citizens of New Orleans of survival procedures, in favor of broadcasting sensational imagery. This unethical behavior killed citizens even as they watched TV. There can be no other position considering the senseless loss of life concurrent with these thinly veiled broadcast theatrics. Why wasn’t the media responsive to citizen needs…. instead of presenting Katrina like playing a thrilling video game?

As the great swath of devastation swept across the Gulf coast, news networks chose to concentrate their efforts on broadcasting titillating, sensational video. Information about immediate survival tactics, options for localized assistance, routines for medical emergencies, and pre-planning for a methodical recovery in the eventual aftermath were ignored. What is actually communicated with reporters standing in high winds - that the the hurricane is, in fact, survivable? Words and images communicate differently. TV clearly understands this, yet, in lieu of helpful, usable information, our national media continues to exploit catastrophic events merely for eye-grabbing monetary gain.

Television news does all American citizens a grave disservice by broadcasting extreme images. How many of the 1836 Katrina related deaths could have been avoided if TV news had aired escape routes and survival techniques instead of emphasizing the spectacle? Every network newsmaker owes an apology to the citizens of the Gulf coast for its unconscionable reportage during Hurricane Katrina. It also owes a heartfelt promise to inform responsibly next time, from the onset.

Media Nipple Video Blog #2: When the Levees Broke
The real conspiracy is how TV news fails to inform in our greatest times of need.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

media nipple vacation

2007-08-22T21:09:00.001-06:00

Media Nipple is taking a much needed vacation. Stay tuned... more to come soon.

(Click image to view Quicktime video.)

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

when TV kills every animal in nature

2007-08-18T13:44:00.000-06:00

Twenty eight videos that ask... Humans - Television - Nature: Exactly who is killing whom? One thing is certain, TV is stoking our fear, stupidity, and ignorance about the natural world - all for our entertainment. And so, in a mediated world, we must defend ourselves, right? Simply put, in TV visuality terms, Nature is going berserk and it wants us dead. That is unless we can force animals to be like us... so we can gawk at their oddness.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Of course, television like all businesses must make money to survive. And one of the very best ways to attract viewer eyeballs for advertisers is to create fear. This makes Nature a perfect target for exploitation. In a mediated world, humans must fear all that is natural.

And so, Nature is presented as no longer gentle or natural - instead, it is visualized as something dangerous, something conspiring to attack us. Nature wants revenge. Animals are portrayed as either stupid funny or evil-doers, so be prepared to fight back. That is unless humans are doing the exploitation? Maybe if we buy more TV products we can finally make peace with Nature once again? Then again, maybe TV is trying to kill us too? Just in case, let's kill them first...and eat them all...before they eat us.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

will google buy privacy in second life?

2007-07-31T19:24:00.001-06:00

media nipple media

2007-07-31T10:41:00.001-06:00

Ten videos about media breasts. After more than 18 months and 500 posts with 2,500 videos that discuss issues of visual literacy and media image manipulation, Media Nipple must occasionally remind its half million viewers why female nipples continue to grace each vlog entry.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Every aspect of our public sphere is continuously marketed upon the bodies of women... particularly their nipples. That little brown spot sells a million media products each day on TV, and beyond. If Media Nipple discussed the print publishing industry there would be still more examples of female body exploitation from almost every magazine on the newstand. But television media is our focus - and there is a lot to collate.

In order to understand visual exploitation on TV, there are few better "objects" for considering objectification than boobs on the boob tube. At every turn, the female body is commodified for our consumption - because we viewers greedily stop to "eat" every breast we see. Television loves to sell us the female nipple. We can't get enough. Watch TV and see for yourself.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

the facebook conspiracy

2007-07-27T14:43:00.000-06:00

Eleven videos that discuss rumors of the Facebook conspiracy? First, let's take a closer look and define this thing called social networking?

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Now that we've defined the social media genre, is Mark Zuckerberg the person behind the Facebook conspiracy? Maybe, but would a kid in flip-flops create such a dangerous mode of communication? But SHARING with others is a good thing, right? So then, is this conspiracy fueled by Facebook itself - or by ignorant (read: lacking common sense) users?

In an interconnected mediated world no one person alone can perpetuate any conspiracy. So who else could be behind these rumors? Let's ask some "seasoned experts" about the backstage machinations at Facebook. Can you smell conspiracy? If not, then what exactly is the problem here? Can globally publishing personal information be bad? What's the big deal about some little company making a little profit on a new technology? No worries, right? ...no need for litigation?

The bottom line is that every business, in every industry, now understands that citizens will increasingly make personal media and submit personal information to the internet. And as long as we comply with these expectations, every industry venue will continue to exploit everything about these growing trends - particularly social networking information - to maximize corporate profits. Conspiracy is a two way street.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

the dark side of the camera

2007-07-21T19:20:00.001-06:00

Eleven videos. What happens to the photographer, after the photograph? What happens to our memory of an difficult image? Can an image remain long after it has been deleted?

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Tony Zumbado of NBC will not forget the images he recorded in New Orleans. Never. He was paid to do his professional job. We too record images every day, but what happens if we record something personal, tragic, exploitative, profound? What do we do with that image? Do we sell it to the highest bidder? Do we delete it out of respect for the subject? Do we share?

Question: Would you want to be photographed during your time of greatest vulnerability?
The problem is not about our ability to capture endless photos - rather it is about our lack of ethical respect for the inherent power of a recording camera. So, the question remains: Can we delete difficult images from our memories? And it not: Should we take fewer photographs until we can more fully answer that question?

tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

editing for stimulation over cognition

2007-07-18T07:35:00.001-06:00

These two videos illustrate how the language of editing is increasingly marketed simply to stimulate. The recent movie CRANK is a perfect example.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

The trailer for CRANK, which is 30 seconds long, has approximately 120 individual edits – or 4 edits per second. Human cognition cannot process visual information at this speed…. but our involuntary human senses can.

Question: Then why do it?
Watch the CRANK video again in slow motion.

Editing is a classical form of montage - juxtaposing images to create new meanings. But Crank's editing is not about meaning. Our eyes can see the edits, but our brains cannot process the information. What is left is sensory overload. And so, our instinctive reactions become more primal. Emotional response kicks in. Flight or fight. The trailer is manipulating our emotions – it cares little for storyline or verbal text. This will simply be an emotional rollercoaster Action Movie.

Fast paced, quick-cut editing is only one way media corporations visually exploit viewers. When media is constructed this way we cannot look away. We are mesmerized by the extreme and strobing visuals. Our minds freeze as we instinctively try to grapple with our inabilities to piece together a message.

Answer: In this state of mental suspended animation, we become primed for still other messages and influences. Try to remember to look away.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

female fashion folly

2007-07-11T15:42:00.000-06:00

Twelve videos that discuss distortions of female beauty. In a mediated world, ideas of beauty are constructed and commodified. But is something more involved?

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Can our notions of beauty be genetic, or whims of biology? Can our perceptions of beauty be directly tied to ovulation? Dr. Martie Haselton from UCLA thinks so. She compared photos of women before and after menstruation cycles and now believes that female notions of beauty can be linked to periods of fertility. But is this “well beyond random chance?” Is it chemical, maybe? Is this indeed “statistically significant” and a “subtle but systematic effect?" Again, maybe. But is there more at work here?

The key to this research, however, lies in the central question asked: “In which photo is the woman trying to look attractive.” …..TRYING to look attractive. Let’s all think about that today… at the mall. It's so much easier being unfashionably..... male.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

nature is dead - long live the screen

2007-07-11T12:27:00.002-06:00

Fifteen videos. Remember when nature was something real, tangible? Not just exploited in museums called national parks or manipulated for TV? How did that happen? When did nature die? Well, it occurred in parallel with the rise of the screen. Our bodies now are little more than projected surfaces. Our new realties exist only on the screen. If fact, we're convincing ourselves we love it that way.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Today, all our senses are being reproduced. What will this new digital future look like? Certainly not like this. Our new virtual bodies will be sold to us, one product at a time, until flesh and blood fade into digital bits.

The fun of a newly re-mediating behavior appeared innocuous enough. But it's too late version two is here. Everything is becoming a screen... including you and me, because we all look better - and "reality" looks better - when we watch each other on our screens. Stick a fork in it, nature is dead. We love our own images better.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

subliminal perversion

2007-07-07T08:06:00.001-06:00

Four videos: New technologies, like TiVo, are encouraging new never before seen advertising models. With more and more viewers fast-forwarding to skip through commercials, more advertisements are constructed in slow-motion so as to re-appear on-screen in “real-time." But another curious tactic is also occurring – new forms of subliminal content: GE One Second Theatre. ...or, placing ads within ads.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

With personal digital video recorders, viewers now have the ability to watch all TV frame-by-frame. And so, to encourage this closer inspection of advertising content, corporations are embedding subliminal content to surprise and entertain viewers… like this GE commercial with the dancing elephant in the rain forest. At first glimpse, this is a fairly typical 45 second ad. But now, lets look closer:

One Second Theatre #2: For starters, we are reminded how TiVo cooperated with General Electric by asking TiVo owners to the “press thumbs up” button on their remote. This insidious style of cross-platform promotion is nothing new, but, something deeper is also happening.

One Second Theatre #3: When the ad is slowed down even more, we see hidden content. A red theatre curtain, images, and text.

One Second Theatre #4: Slowed down yet again, we begin to see an entirely new and different embedded advertisement. Of course, “The Lost Casting Tapes” is simply another promotional device to entice viewers to investigate GE advertising.

Subliminal advertising has a long and nefarious history in broadcast television. Oddly, there are few FCC guidelines in theses matters. Watch TV more critically – and less often. You will quickly see the differences between technical glitches, and the techniques used by corporations to exploit viewers and new technologies.

Now, can you see it again in this GE commercial?

Here's another by Iron Chef and McDonalds.
And, another pathetic "trick" to promote KFC and CBS.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

the human touch of bio security

2007-06-30T08:10:00.000-06:00

Thirteen videos that discuss how today’s security technology is visualizing everything about you. The whole world is watching.

(Click image - and links below - to view Quicktime video.)

Little Brother – the name for the ever-growing myriad forms of security technology – is now embedded into every facet of our lives. There is no escape. Fingerprints, voice patterns, facial features, eyeball composition, body odor… everything is captured secretly, analyzed by computers, and filed into endless databases. Everything about you is recorded somewhere - like Google - and accessible to someone, for some purpose.

These invasive technologies go well beyond old forms of identity snooping like credit cards or phone records. Bio-Metrics is a euphemism for social engineering, psycho-manipulation, cultural and behavioral control. It promotes a polarizing insidious loop: Manufacture global fear and then market invasive technological responses that provoke still more fear which, in turn, is used as a rationale for more invasive technology…. Stop fearing everything and everyone. Of course, manufacturing any fear is a primary media marketing strategy. But, try to resist these invasive technologies. They have more potential for harm than good.

Media Nipple Bonus Video: Designing Homeland Security

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

media is capitalism

2007-06-26T08:57:00.001-06:00

The twenty videos below are just a few obvious examples of how broadcast television has devolved into a "desiring machine," constructed for the sole purpose of serving as the mouth-piece for corporate capitalism. Television has become the national anthem of seductive exploitation for constant consumption. Nothing is sacred when profit is king:

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

2. Punk Capitalism
3. Zen Capitalism
4. Communist Capitalism
5. Pakistani Capitalism
6. Black Capitalism
7. Hippy Capitalism
8. Socialist Capitalism
9. Feminist Capitalism
10. Peace Capitalism
11. Christmas Capitalism
12. Bush Capitalism
13. Kid Capitalism
14. Parody Capitalism
15. Jesus Capitalism
16. Catastrophe Capitalism
17. Pet Capitalism
18. Pregnant Capitalism
19. Girlfriend Capitalism
20. Iraqi Capitalism

Is this all TV can be? Can there be a less exploitative, more democratic implementation? Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

sexual fetish and erotic technology

2007-06-23T08:12:00.000-06:00

Fourteen videos: Possession and objectification of the female image by the sexualized male mind. What happens when sexual pleasure is performed by technology? Is physical satisfaction as one-way communication, preferable? What happens when human passion, love, sex and human relationship are enacted with machines? Are we truly beginning to believe - and love - our digital world?

(Click image - and links below - to view Quicktime video.)

- Real time polygon stimulation games.
- Interaction that is seemingly believable.
- Seeing 3D characters as alive.
- The holy grail of sexual virtuality.
- Consuming non-human forms of eroticism.
- Japanese erotic doll art.
- Perfecting symbols of male sexual desire.
- Qualities of aliveness and intangibility.
- Growing demand for idoloid Love Dolls.
- Containers for objectification and projection- Future You.

Historically, most visual communication technology advancements have been spearheaded, expanded, and normalized through practices of pornography, for instance, the VCR, 1-800 phone numbers, digital video, CD and DVD, internet, etc. But, what will we find when the seductions of Second Life, XBox, You Tube, and Maya combine to provide one alienating, but irresistible orgasmic fetish … who will say no? Who will even think to ask? But then, who cares? We are literally fucking our machines already.

Media Nipple bonus mash-up: Thai Pink

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

fight club for girls

2007-06-22T08:50:00.000-06:00

marketing to infants and toddlers

2007-06-20T12:09:00.000-06:00

These seven videos examine Walt Disney, Hot Wheels, Barbi, and NASCAR – and how major corporations (and nations) exploit children for profit by building their brands.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Merchandizing to kids is like shooting fish in a barrel. Or, stated more bluntly, these examples are nothing short of corporate pedophilia. Of course, Disney family products have long been a mainstay of global consumerism. Today, green with envy, every company races to win fast-money from demographics as young as 2-6 year olds. And when NASCAR is on NBC, we see full frontal marketing assaults.

The trick, however, is to hook them young - as early as possible. Business plans are devised to imprint colors, logos, stories, folklore into homes eager for entertainment and recognizable tradition. Once complete, companies can sit back and watch their coffers swell. Kids are a captive audience. Let’s steal their allowance.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

manufacturing style

2007-06-12T22:00:00.001-06:00

These seven videos examine the debut of Katie Couric on CBS and how the majority of media reviews focused on Couric’s image presentation rather than news content.

(Click image - and links below - to view Quicktime video.)

More than any other topic, Couric’s style and on-camera look dominated most discussions. And of course, that discussion particularly revolved around her face. These are bad enough, but oddly, this review illustrates the disconnection between reality and mediated image construction. Botox? These discussions assume the on-air image of Couric is REAL. This entire segment discounts “production value” – make-up and lighting…and MSNBC and CNBC often have bad studio lighting.

Network news lighting is an exacting art; every attempt is made to flatten and soften by employing various types of light and multiple angles. How can analysts or viewers not recognize this? No one with media savy appears –willingly– on camera without stylistic help. Still don’t get it? Now watch Barbara Boxer again.

Every TV anchor goes to great lengths to enhance their media image. And who can blame them? Media teaches us that at every turn. We live in a picture-perfect world.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

racial profiling with visual technology

2007-06-08T21:55:00.000-06:00

Technological profiling today is no longer strictly about what crimes you may do with new technology. It is also about the kinds, and amounts, of technology you buy – and your skill level with these technologies.

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

As security measures transition from detection to prevention, red flags rise when consumers of middle eastern descent purchase large amounts of technology – whether it is for personal resale or not.

But the Machinac Bridge? Is the connecting infrastructure between Michigan’s Lower and Upper Peninsula a strategic national target? Will denying free intra-state commerce, like potato pasties and cheap Indian moccasins for tourists, really sway American foreign policy? A majority of Americans have never even heard of the Machinac Bridge.

In an era of tech terrorism, disruption can be as effective as destruction. Why bomb insignificant bridges with cheap cell phones, or airplanes with cheap hand lotion, when faking global pandemics can be almost as costly?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

human image and reality

2007-06-04T08:25:00.000-06:00

Seven videos. Flat Daddy. Flat Mommy. Flat reality. These videos examine how image representation is increasingly inter-changed with human reality.

(Click image - and links below - to view Quicktime video.)

Of course, coping in times of great stress, like having your loved ones shipped off for war, family psychological demands can manifest in unlikely and abnormal behavior. But we are also clearly seeing deeper examples of images being accepted, even encouraged, as the real thing.

Photo images, in these cases, are not merely hung on walls or mantles for respect and refection. These images of loved ones are not being honored or revered like posters hung on a teenager’s bedroom walls. These life-sized images are also not doll substitutions. Instead, these images are mentally transformed into human reality. The picture is the Daddy - for child and adult. Whether this image replacement is done in 2D or 3D, are we increasingly interchanging human existence with image representation – with a “screen reality? Do we prefer to view reality through images and screens? Can we tell the difference?

Media Nipple Vlog #2: Screen Realities

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

visualizing bad weather

2007-05-28T14:28:00.000-06:00

media predators

2007-05-25T13:19:00.000-06:00

television racism

2007-05-21T11:13:00.000-06:00

Eleven videos. Today, racist visualization on TV goes a bit further than Danny Bonaduce and the Partridge Family. Even well-intentioned advertisements are constructed with visually racial stereotype overtones. No child has only two choices as suggested by the public service advertisement above - getting gunned down on a street or staying in school is a false premise - but constant racial exploitation remains.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Blacks are typically portrayed in the media as underprivileged, backward, and technologically ill-suited for the modern world. Even when cable news rushes in to expose the travisity, it is difficult to judge if CNN is explaining the predicament or promoting it for profit. Jim Crow lives, even when individual citizens try to take matters in their own hands. While Don Imus get's publicly linched for "nappy headed ho's" - corporate visual exploitation continues at every turn. And if you don't believe it, check out some of the BET programming.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

visual communication literacy

2007-05-16T07:51:00.000-06:00

Eleven Videos. In a verbal world, culture is primarily expressed and recorded with words; and of course, those who master words become the primary spokespeople and builders of that culture. Our growing understanding of Visual Communication, however, is reconsidering the privilege of words.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

In a visual world, image construction and visual design gain equality, and forms of visual expression gain communicative currency. Font design is a perfect example of this transformation. Individual letters grouped together communicate words and ideas, but they also communicate other notions with their visual form and design. But, this can also be performed badly.

In our mediated world of endlessly streaming images, visual literacy is vital to deciphering the visual languages surrounding us. For instance, most everything within your field of vision has been designed by someone. But what do these things communicate – what is being said? (One example: What is the communcative intention of the images of the female breasts in this video blog?)

Television, like so much of the world around us, is a visual medium. It is a medium where words say one thing, but the accompanying images often communicate something entirely different. But what? Here is the problem: Do TV designers understand the language of their images? If so, how can so many visual designers communicate so badly? This issue is becoming so wide-spread, it is now one of the primary problems of modern tele-visuality? Watch TV more critically, and learn to read the language of mediated images, especially when presented badly.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

images, war, and propaganda

2007-05-09T11:38:00.000-06:00

finger tip consumption

2007-05-04T07:40:00.000-06:00

Nine videos: In one very real sense, our technologically mediated world is designed for one purpose only – to consume. If technology is indeed “enabling”, what exactly does it enable? Answer: Only newer, sexier ways to buy more stuff. New tech purchases always result in ever more tech purchases.

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

As the phone, TV, computer, and the store window merge into one function, all technology becomes a gateway for consumption. For instance, wide screen TV ultimately has very little new to offer. Who is demanding the same horrible program content in higher definition? So then, why was the wide screen developed? The answer goes well beyond insidious notions of cross-marketing like Will Ferrell and Sprint / Nextel / Wonder Bread / et al… or Jessica Simpson and Costco.

The extra screen space, and band width, with HD will eventually be used for instant merchandizing. If you like something – anything - you see on television, you will be able to purchase it immediately, right off your TV screen. Store front windows already offer touch-screen purchases. But why leave your sofa? You will soon grab your remote control to instantly purchase that nice suit the news anchor is wearing….or anything else your wallet can bear. In the very near future, touch screen consumption will radically change the definition of “content” in all of TV programming.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

fox news on air force one

2007-04-30T11:55:00.000-06:00

Here is the video clip of FOX News announcing that the TVs on Bush's airplane, Air Force One, will no longer be tuned to their station. Listen to how Bret Hume can barely contain his laughter.

(Click image - and link below - to view Quicktime video.)

Maybe the switch to CNN news network is because FOX is:
“kinda married to the viewer” and offers
“some way to understand the story” for their
“news audience” that wants a
“Washington perspective” and
“choices” because they
“thankfully trust us”.
Can a promo for a newscast be any worse than this?

Is Fox News “Fair and Balanced”? Hell no. But apparently saying it again and again makes it true to viewers. Some CBS stations are learning fast how to lie in exactly the same ways.

Consider visual literacy communication and grow better media
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

third world technology

2007-04-27T11:46:00.000-06:00

Nicholas Negreponte, from MIT and the Media Lab, loves $1oo dollar laptops. He wants every child in the world to have one. Why? To what global problem is this a solution? Negreponte comes up short on an explanation.

(Click image - and all links below - to view Quicktime video.)

Altruistic? Smart? Affordable? Who is kidding whom here? This is pure unadulterated busines, and big business is for big profit more than any lie about education. Negreponte says TV is a non-issue because children in the 3rd world have no TVs? BUT A COMPUTER IS TV TODAY, and kids will watch. And they will LEARN – how to lust, and how to consume.

Yes, computers can be excellent tools for learning. But foremost, they are "desiring machines". Rushing technology to the poor is simply another form of colonial enslavement.

Not all children are like Robin Williams’ kid. How will 3rd world villages exist on the web? …with websites? Will there be tech support when there is little else for existence? Will there be spare parts, peripheral equipment, and supervision to learn properly?

For instance, here is the promise of technology for our troops in Iraq. And here is the reality. We can’t even provide first class technology for training our troops.

If you want to help the 3rd world - start with clean water, effective sewage treatment, essential medical care, literacy education, and legitimate peaceful governments.

$100 for laptops? This is a very low priority when considering all the real problems children face.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

youth video violence

2007-04-16T13:44:00.000-06:00

Thirteen videos. On this day of insane tragedy on the Virginia Tech campus, we are reminded again of growing youth violence. But what we are also seeing is how these violent acts are recorded for our prurient viewing pleasure.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Does video beget violence? Are youth compelled to mimic media violence - or do they simply perform violence for the camera? Bum fights... girl fights... bus fights... wilding... violence overwhelms our media. Is it becasue we love to watch? Is it for fame or notariety? Or is it because we constantly desire more extreme images to maintain our curiosity. Why do our children love violence? Do you hear them begging to see it? Or is it because we feed the addiction to perform it, and watch it?

Throughout this day, as CNN regularly updated the Virginia Tech body count. However, CNN also made sure to promote just how many new hits accumulated for their exclusive "citizen" video. What is to blame - Our media? This will not be the last violent youth incident in our mediated lifetime. The worst is still to come. We are growing the consequences of our media right now.

tags: VLOG, visual LITERACY, television MEDIA, communication CULTURE

television & vaginal predators

2007-04-06T11:33:00.000-06:00

Twenty Three Videos here. Who or what is the real sexual predator today? Who really stalks little girls all day, everyday? It is television. Who hasn’t seen adult sexual inference and extreme animated imagery targeting children on TV? How can content like this get broadcast into every home? In a ‘free” media market, money rules regardless of who it hurts, even if it means exploiting our most vulnerable.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Big media considers itself proactive in regard to community service. By airing PSA’s broadcasters feel they are doing honorable work by informing the public. However, as usual, these two advertisements from Comcast and the Ad Council conveniently neglect to mention that TV content, like some cartoons, can "stalk" children in equally dangerous ways - and more frequently.

Networks blatantly defy, circumvent, and ignore existing governmental guidelines including those that outline content suitable for children, and at what times of the day that content can be aired. They disregard realities of unchaperoned viewing throughout the day, and time shifting. Certainly no one can believe these pathetic "parental warnings" do any good. Plus, in public, the networks oversimplify and obfuscate dangers with illogical comparisons. There is an obvious difference between an anvil dropped on a coyote’s head and a “princess” pulling up her dress to expose her genitalia. FCC crimes are committed at every turn, but our “police” look the other way... as big media gets richer.

Sexual and violent content that objectifies girls is promoted everywhere. Everyone knows it, acknowledges it, and watches it. Televison, visually exploits girls at every turn , even if it is packaged as phony news. Is any of this entertaining? Ultimately, viewers swim in an immersive environment of visual, sexual distortion that is continually ratcheted upward to more extremes… BUT, we are also choosing to watch.

One small way to inoculate yourself from the avalanche of sex and violence is to consider media and visual literacy communication and grow your own, mash-ups. Try it. Click to see just one small example.

tags: VLOG, visual LITERACY, television MEDIA, communication CULTURE

the digital world is a visual lie

2007-04-05T11:06:00.000-06:00

clinton obama in 1984

2007-03-22T10:44:00.000-06:00

Seven videos about Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Macintosh 1984, YouTube, political advertising, and our new social media landscape. Is "Hillary 1984" an amateur video? Is this a clever product-placement marketing ploy by Apple Macintosh? Is this the new expressive face of citizen media?

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

How did this Remake become a political statement? Let’s examine both more closely. Here is the famous, ideological, Original Macintosh 1984 Superbowl TV ad. And here is the new ideological Remake of the same commercial. What are the differences – and do these differences make any difference?

To better compare, see them again side-by-side. These are almost identical. But there are few significant observations:

1. In the Original, the woman (athlete, Anya Major ) wears no iPod. Why? It is because Apple authorized a remake of the Original in 2004 to publicize the company’s 20 year anniversary… and, of course, to promote their new iPod product. Apple digitally composited the iPod onto her body. The Remake video was manipulated from this second version. Why?

2. In the Original, Big Brother is announcing totalitarian propaganda. In the Remake, Hillary is discussing her presidential candidacy. Is this the same thing? Maybe, but in comparison, Clinton’s language is warm, earnest, and inviting. Nor does she look menacing. Her head remains largely within the frame, not as tightly shot as Big Brother. Why?

3. In the Remake, the technical expertise of the visual manipulation is rather crude, as is the audio splicing. Is this intentional? For instance, the shapes of the video screen are not accurate; the Obama logo on the t-shirt is poorly positioned; and the over-all editing is not identical – the Remake has several fast cross-fades, instead of the hard cuts in the Original. Why?

4. The Remake video is longer, by seven seconds, in order to extend Clinton’s spoken text. Why? In this extension, Hillary speaks of “joining the team, the American team.” Why?

5. But this same extended segment also contains new text superimposed across the large screen. It reads: “BE PART OF THE TEAM. (cut to troops, cut to hammer toss, cut to close-up) THIS IS OUR CONVERSATION.” Is there a hidden message here? If so, what is it? Are we being asked to join some covert discussion group? Why? What kind of “oppositional reading” does this Remake inspire?

6. The credits also are dissimilar length, because the Remake used a shorter, partial clip, and then slowed it down (the clothing does flap as fast), over which new type is scrolled. Why?

7. In the Remake, the fake Obama-Apple logo is missing the bottom blue stripe. Why? Is it just clumsy artwork?

In all, what is the big fuss here? There are MANY other, more biting, disparaging, and cynical political statements than this. Does this video manipulation add up to any kind of critical political persuasiveness? No, instead, it portends something much worse - because there is no clear indication of who made this Remake (parkridge47), or why. In our fragmented media environment, manipulations of this sort (it is not a ‘mash-up” in the traditional sense) are the most dangerous kinds of personal media. How so? It is because the video is UN-SIGNED. Conspiring to speak publicly in this manner – without contextual accompaniment - is cheap, deceptive, and itself a dirty political trick.

The Internet is a public sphere; and within it, political discourse is a public duty for every citizen. Making political movies of ANY ideological stripe can and should be attempted by everyone. It is good that parkridge47 exercised this right and privilege. Hiding behind anonymity, however, is the work of cowards and Little Brothers - it should not be tolerated, promoted, or rewarded. In our rush to join political partisan dialogue, citizen videos like these, without ownership, become media terrorists – visual suicide bombers against free speech and open democracy… they innocently walk up to us, explode and damage; without a face, without a warning, without a remedy. We must all take responsibility for our media; it is the primary democratic privilege that enables all others.

NOTE: Philip de Vellis, a strategist with Blue State Digital, the firm which designed Obama's Web site, acknowledged he is "ParkRidge47,'' creator of the ad.

tags: VLOG, visual LITERACY, television MEDIA, communication CULTURE

the cult of TV occult

2007-03-19T11:59:00.000-06:00

Ten videos. There are increasing proclamations throughout the media of an upsurge in Christian Fundamentalism. This is probably true. But there is another trend in the media that is rarely mentioned – the rise of programming that considers the super-natural.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Watch TV more closely. Notice new programs that revolve around witch-craft, cults, the spirit world, and the occult. Of course, TV is also filled with the “cult of personality” - where we essentially worship before these graven images. But just maybe for every increasing Christian (media) action, we are also seeing an equal but opposite super-natural reaction? Regardless, we can be sure that our media will do their best to turn all these issues into profit.
Consider media and visual literacy communnication and grow a better media... and bash cults the right way.
Media Nipple Vlog #2: Great Cults

tags: VLOG, visual LITERACY, television MEDIA, communication CULTURE

laughing at gays

2007-03-17T10:03:00.000-06:00

Twelve videos. If there is one acceptable style of humor in media today – it’s gay (or lesbian) bashing. Gay humor apparently appeals to every audience. Arab jokes are falling to a distant second. And African-American and quadriplegic humor have run out of gas completely. What gives?

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Gays are rarely represented normatively on network television. They are protrayed as exotic, mysterious, dangerous... but always good for a joke. Maybe even George Bush is gay?

Media Nipple scans a lot of TV, and it is our humble opinion that Conan O’Brian regularly airs the most "gay inuendo" humor. That big gorgeous redhead from Massachusetts always offers a heaping helping of homophobic humor several times every night. Can it be that funny? Pick it up a notch, Conan. Click here: and see typical excerpts from ONE (Late Night with Conan O’Brian) show for yourself. But are our ideas of gender researchable?

Media Nipple Vlog #2: Brokeback Disconnect?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

faith television

2007-03-15T08:29:00.000-06:00

Eight videos that illustrate the increase of spiritual parody for boosting corporate sales. Why is this? Because everything is fair game in the big world of capitalism.

(Click image - and links below - to view Quicktime video.)

While Jesus Christ action figures may only be an animated comedy skit, it is because Christianity embodies Western corporate ethic, and so it remains too controversial to blatantly exploit on TV. But other religions are easy targets for media exploitation. Zen Buddhism, in particular, is an advertisement favorite. TV advertisments mock everything. Exotic special powers, nature retreats, and foreign behaviors easily contrast with Western cults of capitalism.

But why stop there? Why not exploit spiritual Amazon indigenous peoples to sell pharmaceuticals? ...even stereotypes of Arab “shazzam” incantations. Who cares? Our faith can be resold for everything.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

educational television consumption

2007-03-11T10:18:00.000-06:00

Ten videos. Can network TV be used for education? Certainly, there are examples of excellent educational TV: ... but, are the Muppets different than: ABC Kids, or Comcast, or Disney, to name only a few. But what does TV teach?

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

What kind of education does network TV actually provide? Since network television’s main purpose is to promote consumption via entertainment, will it create classroom content for kids any differently than for adults? Do educational products simply encourage another kind of insidious TV consumption?

Watch TV advertisements for student programing... and ask yourself: Is this what children really need? Will CNN “student” news be any different than an American Express ad? Do books today balance our desires for TV education and consumption. Do our schools work? How do we educate our children? And HOW are we letting consumer practices dictate WHO gets to educate them?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

fat TV fat world fat losers

2007-03-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

Eleven videos. Does television make us Fat, Stupid, and Ugly? That's debatable. But mass media, body image, and consumption are certainly interconnected. As network TV searches for the most extreme images to stop channel surfing, viewers comply by pausing to gawk at the oddities... and still we binge through every program.

(Click image - and hot links - to view Quicktime video.)

This is the intention of broadcast marketing. Under the guise of fitness-for-health, the NBC show "The Biggest Loser" is also an infomercial that promotes consumption and obesity. And so, TV informs in contradictory ways. TV tells us that being grotesquely proportioned is fun, acceptable, and can even get you on TV - however, it is also important to hate your body image and then re-consume for glamorous change. The healthiest fitness advice for viewers would be to turn OFF the television and go outdoors. Or, if visual communication like this appeals to you, at least lie on your fat couch and try to parse this silly entertainment from targeted psycho-marketing. Either way, if you do not like your public image, no problem, simply visualize yourself under the surgeon's knife. What, exactly, are TV images telling us; would we even care if we knew?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

iPod your sex

2007-03-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

Three videos. You knew it was coming, right? We love our iPods so much….let's have sex with ‘em. Yeah, baby, where’s the speed control? Maybe they’ll offer a nice pink, fleshy feeling sort of cover for it… never mind, they make it already.

(Click image to view Quicktime video.)

Kids love it! What do you get for $1.99?... media that loves to love you back! Come to think of it, get an iBuzz for your partner too… or maybe a dual earphone jack... for buzzing together. It could be the new threesome. Three-way sex with an Apple - just like in the Garden of Eden. Blowing out your eardrums doesn’t seem so bad now. In fact, forget your partner, load an image of your face - and screw yourself into oblivion. iPod and fresh meat.

Consider visual literacy and grow better communication media.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

optical exploitation

2007-02-27T08:21:00.000-07:00

Three videos. The language of editing is increasingly marketed to stimulate. The movie CRANK is a perfect example.

(Click image - and link below - to view Quicktime video.)

The trailer for CRANK, which is 30 seconds long, has approximately 120 individual edit – or 4 edits per second. Human cognition cannot process visual information at this speed…. but other human senses can.

Question: Then why do it?
Watch the CRANK video again in slow motion.

Our eyes can see the edits, but our brains cannot process the information. What is left is sensory overload. And so, our instinctive reactions become more primal. Emotional response kicks in. Flight or fight. The trailer manipulates our emotions – it has little storyline or verbal text. It is simply a visually emotional rollercoaster - an Action Movie.

Here's another: 50 cuts in 14 seconds.

Fast paced, quick-cut editing is only one way media corporations visually exploit viewers. Media is constructed this way because we physiologically cannot look away. We are mesmerized by the extreme, strobing visuals. Our minds freeze as we instinctively try to grapple with our inabilities to piece together a message.

Answer: Fast editing exploits. In this state of mental suspended animation, we become primed for still other messages and influences. Try to remember to look away.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

the paradox of information

2007-02-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

Two videos directly from TV. What happens when we receive opposite messages, back-to-back? Which should we believe?

(Click image - and link below - to view Quicktime video.)

Television is not constructed for informing viewers (citizens). Instead, it is a paradox. In one breath TV promotes graphic sex and murderous violence. In the next breath it promotes a public service announcement about depression. How does the brain process continuous, unending, paradox.

In this video we see how saving nature, manufacturing medicines, and representing terrorism can combine to mean absolutely nothing. Nothing, that is, unless the veiwer is able to critically decipher these messages. What is true? What is Fiction? Visual literacy can help in these situations. Gowing your own media is one way to promote media literacy.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

appropriate images

2007-02-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

Four videos about Visual Communication. Again, Media Nipple discusses constructed images on television and appropriateness. In this vlog we see the human body as a living image.

(Click image - and links below - to view Quicktime video.)

Here, we can see it is OK to broadcast the image of Jesus going down this man's back and into his pants... and it can even show the man's nipples.... but, the nipples of the female tattoo on his chest must be blurred out of focus. Nipples on men are also OK to televise? Why? How are they different from female nipples in Sports Illustrated? These questions go far beyond exposing bared breasts. What do images mean? Who decides visual meaning - and what is appropriate for viewers?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

subliminal advertising

2007-02-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

Four videos. Is TiVo encouraging subliminal advertising? With more and more viewers fast-forwarding to skip through commercials, more advertisements are constructed in slow-motion so as to re-appear on-screen in “realtime." But another curious tactic is also occurring – new forms of subliminal content: GE One Second Theatre.

(Click image - and links below - to view Quicktime video.)

With personal digital video recorders, viewers now have the ability to watch all TV frame-by-frame. And so, to encourage this closer inspection of advertising content, corporations are embedding subliminal content to surprise and entertain viewers… like this GE commercial with the dancing elephant in the rain forest. At first glimpse, this is a fairly typical 45 second ad. But now, lets look closer:

One Second Theatre #2: For starters, we are reminded how TiVo cooperated with General Electric by asking TiVo owners to the “press thumbs up” button on their remote. This insidious style of cross-platform promotion is nothing new, but, something deeper is also happening.

One Second Theatre #3: When the ad is slowed down even more, we see hidden content. A red theatre curtain, images, and text.

One Second Theatre #4: Slowed down yet again, we begin to see an entirely new and different embedded advertisement. Of course, “The Lost Casting Tapes” is simply another promotional device to entice viewers to investigate GE advertising.

Subliminal advertising has a long and nefarious history in broadcast television. Oddly, there are few FCC guidelines in theses matters. Watch TV more critically – and less often. You will quickly see the differences between technical glitches, and the techniques used by corporations to exploit viewers and new technologies.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

1984 today

2007-02-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

Four videos. The revolution will not be televised, but your own death probably will be. And you'll get to watch it on television - as it is happening.

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

Remember the good old days, with fears of 1984 Big Brother watching everything? Was it that long ago? Today, we want to watch everything and everybody - particularly our own death. Personalized snuff broadcasts. Who could turn that off? (Certainly no passengers on this JetBlue flight.) And if by chance you survive... you can watch it again at eleven o'clock!

Does mass media influence? Is news technology changing our behavior? Is news "journalism" when broadcasts simply stream in real-time? Who cares? Let's all gather near the pending disaster... so we can get our faces on TV!

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

sex and visual communication

2007-02-08T08:14:00.000-07:00

Nine videos. If there were any concerns last year about the Howard Stern departure to Sirius Satellite Radio, TV networks knew exactly how to retain their most sought after, high-spending, male teen demographic. How? Simply start running phony, sex filled, spring- break programming in early January like everyone does.

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

But E! Entertainment TV isn’t alone in running soft-sex programming... all networks are ramping up extreme sexual content to levels never before seen on US TV. For broadcast marketers, using a woman’s breast is best for selling their products. But some programming goes even farther. The parental rating system - TV14SD - is shown for 14 seconds at the beginning of the program. After that - it’s a visual, sexual, free-for-all. Consider visual literacy and grow your own - diverse - media.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

citizen journalism and ethics

2007-02-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

Ten videos about broadcast journalism, and its code of ethics. What are ETHICS? Why are they important? Who should obey them? In a world where egregiously bad reporting is growing at every level, will Citizen Journalists (Is there such a thing?) do any better? The future looks dark, unless we gain a full understanding of how the purpose, principles, and practices of this craft are easily fouled.

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

(From: Elements of Journalism)

1. Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth.
2. Its first loyalty is to citizens.
3. Its essence is a discipline of verification.
4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.

7. It must strive to make the significance interesting and relevant.

8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
9. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

nature news and tv

2007-02-04T20:18:00.000-07:00

Six videos showing how television mocks Nature, in all its forms. Car commercials? Talking animals? Hardly a day goes by without news images of "rampaging" nature. Animals running for their lives. Think it's hard living in a mediated world? Try being an elephant.

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

The reality of Nature is NOT what is aired on television. Nature is for exploiting, destroying, and conquering, right? In fact, Nature must be either feared or stopped. Please, stop lying about nature just to sell products.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE