Pop Culture and Religion
After my recent interview with Rev Dr. Tim Coombs on Blog Talk Radio (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/michael-massey) I continued to ponder on some of the issues we touched on-
1. Why have we as a society decided it is more appropriate to use the phrase 'Happy Holidays'? As Tim pointed out and I have to agree, that really means nothing to me. Especially here in the northeast as it appears that we are asking people to celebrate Winter.
2. I have wished my Jewish friends 'Happy Hanukkah' and in turn they have said 'Merry Christmas' to me and my family and guess what, neither one of us was offended.
3. Rather than discourage the production of shows such as 'Vampire Diaries', 'Supernatural' and 'Moonlight', or movies similar to 'New Moon' , 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince'-should we not encourage them to continue as they allow spiritual exploration, questions to be asked and curiosity about religion, faith and an afterlife to be pondered.
4. Finally, should we not welcome difference of opinion and media choices?
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Media Post-December 4 2009
I recently had to do a project with my fifth grade son on what my earliest memory was and I'm going to show my age here. It was the 1969 Apollo Moon launch-the famous 'one small step for man, one giant step for mankind' event. Keep in mind I thought all of the hoopla was about ME because it was a few days before my 5th birthday. Anyway, I remember them waking me up and watching it on a black and white TV with rabbit ears. 40 years isn't really that long ago, but in the TV landscape, it may as well be the age of the dinosaurs.
Ratings delivery in broadcast TV have seen a rapid decline in the the last 30 years. During the 1979-80 TV season, the top shows were 'M*A*S*H', 'Three's Company' and 'That's Incredible' with a household rating of 21.7. In the 2009-2010 season, the best of the best delivered a 13.0 household rating, a 41% decline in ratings which equates to less viewers and that means fewer consumers actually see your message if its on broadcast TV.
TV as we know it will not survive if it does not continue to evolve. Phil Leigh, of Inside Digital Media says 'whether its a monitor for video games, DVD player or laptop computer, the TV set is just a window into the Internet cloud.' And many new technologies are making it easier to hit that cloud and bypass the standard delivery format. In Q1 2009, there were 31 million TV households with a DVR, according to Mediabrands research, that number should surpass 51 million by 2014. Now I don't know about you, but you'd have to pry that DVR out of my hands.
Additionally, video streams increased to over 104.3 billion (yes billion) between January and October 2009 and Hulu had 583.2 million downloads in September 2009. Social media has also pulled consumers away from the set to watch friends, shows and dogs doing stupid things in a pool. According to Nielsen research, on-line video streams on social media sites has increased over 45%.
New gadgets are making their way into homes including Blu-Ray, Roku and Apple TV that stream movies and other content, but you may soon be watching your favorite episodes of 'Glee' and 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia' as well. And at Best Buy you can pick up an Internet connected TV with CinemaNow, giving users the ability to download movies. Other services like Zillion TV and Epix are developing similar technologies to give the users much more control.
The ultimate goal is a TV that streams quality content, lets me record shows or movies, play games, respond to ads I'm interested in, surf the web and work out all through one console. Hang on world, the future is upon us.
(source Crain Communications, Ad Age Nov 30 2009)
Ratings delivery in broadcast TV have seen a rapid decline in the the last 30 years. During the 1979-80 TV season, the top shows were 'M*A*S*H', 'Three's Company' and 'That's Incredible' with a household rating of 21.7. In the 2009-2010 season, the best of the best delivered a 13.0 household rating, a 41% decline in ratings which equates to less viewers and that means fewer consumers actually see your message if its on broadcast TV.
TV as we know it will not survive if it does not continue to evolve. Phil Leigh, of Inside Digital Media says 'whether its a monitor for video games, DVD player or laptop computer, the TV set is just a window into the Internet cloud.' And many new technologies are making it easier to hit that cloud and bypass the standard delivery format. In Q1 2009, there were 31 million TV households with a DVR, according to Mediabrands research, that number should surpass 51 million by 2014. Now I don't know about you, but you'd have to pry that DVR out of my hands.
Additionally, video streams increased to over 104.3 billion (yes billion) between January and October 2009 and Hulu had 583.2 million downloads in September 2009. Social media has also pulled consumers away from the set to watch friends, shows and dogs doing stupid things in a pool. According to Nielsen research, on-line video streams on social media sites has increased over 45%.
New gadgets are making their way into homes including Blu-Ray, Roku and Apple TV that stream movies and other content, but you may soon be watching your favorite episodes of 'Glee' and 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia' as well. And at Best Buy you can pick up an Internet connected TV with CinemaNow, giving users the ability to download movies. Other services like Zillion TV and Epix are developing similar technologies to give the users much more control.
The ultimate goal is a TV that streams quality content, lets me record shows or movies, play games, respond to ads I'm interested in, surf the web and work out all through one console. Hang on world, the future is upon us.
(source Crain Communications, Ad Age Nov 30 2009)
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