Videodroming

Prof. Thomas Doherty from Brandeis University writes:

I'm gonna need a hacksaw and a waterproof bag,"
says Jack Bauer. No wonder: He has just concluded an interrogation by
shooting the suspect dead, and he needs the man's severed head to help
infiltrate a terrorist cell. The vignette -- from Season 2 of "24," Fox's

This is one of my favorite items about the entertainment industry working with the government. This was posted by The Memory Hole a few years ago regarding "email messages exchanged between a public affairs officer at the actual NCIS and a writer-producer of the show 'NCIS' [which was a spin-off from 'Jag']."

This entry is part of my "Videodroming Project," which you can read about here. Basically, it is to record my impressions of entertainment media that I watch...with a view especially towards semiotics -- or how entertainment programming and commercials draw on the social and political issues of the day.To follow up on my earlier entry about "Life on Mars" – here are my impressions of the ad spots that played during that hour (ABC, last Wed., 2/18/09, 10 PM). To start off with…there were ads for prescription drugs. One was a drug for treating Fibromyalgia. Right off the bat, the woman who was the main character of the ad said, "My Fibromyalgia pain is real." This seems to be the motto for this condition (or at least for the promotion of the drug treating it). I saw a truck some weeks ago that was painted with this tagline, advertising a website for clinical trials.

This entry is part of my "Videodroming Project," which you can read about here. Basically, it is to record my impressions of entertainment media that I watch...with a view especially to semiotics -- or how entertainment programming and commercials draw on the social and political issues of the day. So Wednesday night I flipped on "Life on Mars," not knowing anything about it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had a first-rate supporting cast: Michael Imperioli (of "The Sopranos"), Gretchen Mol and the one-and-only Harvey Keitel. Basically, it is about a man who is from the present day, but has been magically transported back to 1973, where he works as a detective in an NYC precinct under Keitel, with Imperioli and Mol as his cops-in-arms.

This entry is part of my "Videodroming Project," which you can read about here. Basically, it is to record my impressions of entertainment media that I watch...with a view especially to semiotics -- or how entertainment programming and commercials draw on the social and political issues of the day. Last Wednesday I watched CSI:NY. First off, let me say that this is a very well-made show. I liked the overall style, which used quick cuts and speeded-up zooming effects -- which mirrored the high-tech computer processes the investigators use to catch criminals. The filmmaking style heightens the sense that this is a fast-paced world where time is of the essence in solving crimes.

I have long thought that there needs to be a serious, in-depth analysis conducted of the entertainment media, since it's powerful effect on the general public seems to often be overlooked with all the attention spent on deconstructing the news. That isn't to say that sites like FAIR, Media Matters and The Daily Howler don't play an absolutely vital role in keeping a daily watch on the various tactics of spin & outright propaganda that permeate the news. Indeed, this is where most of the focus should be, since the news media is taken as an authoritative source for informing the public on especially the political reality in which we live.