cultural gatekeepers

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Five comments about the information age

Submitted by richardcadler on Mon, 04/18/2011 - 21:42
url: 

http://chronicle.com/article/5-Myths-About-the-Information/127105/

The thing about this article by historian Robert Darnton is that he's not incorrect about any of these five points, but that they don't go as far as he seems to think they do. Given the quality of the work he creates in his own specialty, one wishes he would push himself to dig deeper.

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The absence of looting in Japan III

Submitted by richardcadler on Wed, 03/23/2011 - 07:51
url: 

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/22/how-people-really-be.html?utm_sourc...

BoingBoing offers a welcome post about how people really behave in disasters, which references not only Rebecca Solnit's A Paradise Built In Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise In Disaster, but also the excellent The Unthinkable, by Amanda Ripley.

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The absence of looting in Japan II

Submitted by richardcadler on Mon, 03/21/2011 - 03:46
url: 

http://reason.com/archives/2011/03/16/resilient-japan

Jesse Walker of Reason makes an argument along similar lines to Amanda Ripley's The Unthinkable, though he doesn't mention that book. A very Reason magazine PoV, but useful for the topic.

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The absence of looting in Japan

Submitted by richardcadler on Mon, 03/21/2011 - 01:21
url: 

http://www.amazon.com/Unthinkable-Survives-When-Disaster-Strikes/dp/0307...

One topic I've been interested in ever since reading Amanda Ripley's The Unthinkable is how people react in disasters. If you believe Hollywood, people left to their own devices become rampaging mobs when responding to a disaster. In fact, they tend to react in very different ways--some of them very cooperative--but you'll rarely hear that admitted from those in authority.

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Robin Crangie calls BS on TED format

Submitted by richardcadler on Thu, 03/10/2011 - 10:56
url: 

http://robinoula.com/culture/a-challenge-to-make-ted-relevant-part-1/

Robin Crangie calls out TED for elitism and a condescending attitude toward the masses, which is probably like calling water wet. But her article is a solid complement to Jeff Jarvis' memorable 'This is Bullshit' TED presentation (transcript here) a few months ago:

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Blessed by her critics

Submitted by richardcadler on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 09:42
url: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/books/review/Saletan-t.html?_r=1&pagew...

If Esposito and Saletan are anyone to judge by, Jane McGonigal is fortunate in her enemies. Saletan's review is particularly disappointing, because I expect much, much more than this lazy critique.

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Hollywood and the Crowd

Submitted by richardcadler on Wed, 12/29/2010 - 09:01
url: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/27/business/media/27movies.html?_r=3

A NYT piece argues that Hollywood is finding it harder to market sub-standard movies in the age of social media:

"As Hollywood plowed into 2010, there was plenty of clinging to the tried and true.... All arrived at theaters with marketing thunder intended to fill multiplexes on opening weekend, no matter the quality of the film...."

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Reason magazine: The Media aren't liberal

Submitted by richardcadler on Sun, 12/05/2010 - 08:40
url: 

http://reason.com/archives/2010/11/01/the-media-arent-liberal

Granted, this is coming from a Libertarian perspective, but Radley Balko still makes an interesting argument here, even if one should consider the source:

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jonathan chait on careers in traditional journalism

Submitted by richardcadler on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 07:35
url: 

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/the-kids-are-alright

While noting how newspapers are frantically hiring younger, inexperienced reporters in a bid to stay relevant, Chait offers an interesting perspective on how careers were built in the century past:

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