TV, internet and other media

Tuesday, 10 July 2018 18:25

Scandi Noir Comes of Age: The Best of European Television

Written by Dennis Broe

Dennis Broe reviews some recent European TV series. The EU itself may be breaking apart over the question of refugees as the 28 – now 27 – try to hammer out an immigration policy essentially driven by the far right, which is making hay on exaggerating this issue, since Europe…

Tuesday, 08 May 2018 19:03

It’s Netflix’s world: we just live in it

Written by Dennis Broe

in TV, internet and other media

Dennis Broe hits the global television beat, reporting from the biggest and most prestigious television festival in the world, Series Mania, in Lille in Northern France. France is trying to establish itself as throwing the best TV party, attempting to create at Lille the equivalent in the television world of the…

Friday, 04 May 2018 19:08

The media, manipulation, and democratic cultural policies

Written by Martin Cloake

in TV, internet and other media

Martin Cloake discusses issues around media manipulation and self-censorship, ownership, and the questions for a progressive cultural policy on the media to address. On the morning after the last General Election, Channel 4’s Jon Snow introduced the channel’s post-election roundup with the following words: “I know nothing. We, the media,…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Tuesday, 17 April 2018 09:55

A people's algorithm? Facebook and the rise of surveillance capitalism

in TV, internet and other media

Written by Tom Walker

Tom Walker discusses how corporate profiteers are capturing a vital social resource - information about ourselves. How can we de-commodify our everyday lives and even our resistance? The above image is 'Instruction', by Alix Emery. ‘You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies,’ as Facebook movie…

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K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 14 February 2018 16:25

Peaky Blinders and the Real Jessie Eden

in TV, internet and other media

Written by Graham Stevenson

Graham Stevenson reports on the recent Real Jessie Eden event in Birmingham, including Dave Puller's new poem on Jessie. Over 60 people crowded into the upstairs room at Cherry Reds café and bar in central Birmingham throughout the course of the Real Jessie Eden event, jointly organised by Culture Matters…

Peaky Blinders Jessie Eden morning star

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Sunday, 10 December 2017 21:22

Let's think about bread: the internet moves from community forum to shopping mall

in TV, internet and other media

Written by Dennis Broe

Dennis Broe compares the current attempts to overrule the principle of net neutrality with 18C French economists' rejection of bread price controls. The U.S. regulatory body the Federal Communications Commission is set to overrule the principle of net neutrality where all speed on the internet is roughly equal and instead…

Netflix Amazon Time Warner Marie Antoinette Voltaire

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Monday, 10 July 2017 12:58

Lenin didn't have Facebook and never watched the telly

in TV, internet and other media

Written by Peter Frost

Peter Frost discusses the uses and abuses of social media, and how its innately social character makes it a useful communications platform for socialists. Lenin died in January 1924. It was only later that very same year that in John Logie Baird’s laboratory the first ever flickering television pictures appeared…

Tuesday, 16 May 2017 18:19

How the media shapes our cultural ideals of body shape

Written by Melissa Oldham

in TV, internet and other media

Melissa Oldham charts how media representation of ideal body shapes, driven by the need to maximise profits, leads to negative body images in women and men. Feminine beauty, particularly in the western world is synonymous with thinness, whilst the male cultural ideal is to be tall, broad and muscular. This…

Friday, 10 March 2017 19:37

Distortion and groupthink

Written by David Cromwell and David Edwards

in TV, internet and other media

David Cromwell and David Edwards edit Media Lens, www.medialens.org. In a foundation essay on media culture, they explain how the British media distort reality and marginalise dissent. Media bias against the Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is likely to be prominent in the next few weeks, and we invite further…

Sunday, 10 January 2016 06:46

Deutschland 83: Replacing Reality with Fantasy

Written by John Green

in TV, internet and other media

John Green outlines the disappointing failure of the new TV series to accurately portray life and events in East Germany. The gullibility of even sophisticated audiences and readers when it comes to accepting pure fiction as reality never ceases to amaze me. This is particularly so with portrayals of East-West…

East Germany Cold War cliches Deutschland 83

Monday, 30 November 2015 18:33

The BBC: national treasure or tool of propaganda?

Written by Chris Jury

in TV, internet and other media

Chris Jury explains why we should defend the BBC against the free-marketeers. The period of public consultation on the BBC Charter renewal has already been undermined by the announcement that from next year the BBC will be responsible for the cost of providing free TV licences to the over-75s. This in…

TV media bbc privatisation state broadcasting democratic ownership digital morning star

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