Episode 154: MFA Mander's Four Arguments: An Introduction

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It should come as no surprise that, though influential and important, certain books suffer in reputation simply because they question more dominant media. I give an overview in such a book in this Episode 154: Mander's Four Arguments: An Introduction.

In this episode, I read from Jerry Mander's 1978 book, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television. I also recount from memory interesting tidbits from Jane Brox's 2010 book Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light. In future episodes, I hope to use material from her book to support my quibble with Mander's insistence that electricity was the watershed invention that changed humanity forever. I also hope this will not diminish Mander's conclusions, but rather clarify them.

Music-wise, I played Lee Rosevere's "What's Behind The Door" throughout, including at the close, just for fun. I opened the show once again with KMFDM, this time backing Mark Stahlman's observation about television targeted advertising.

I'm releasing this and all my episodes under a Creative Commons 4.0 attribution, share-alike, and non-commercial license.

Episode 153: No News Is Still Bad News

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I admit it: I tend to get distracted and wander off topic. Today, I get back to observing the collapse of journalism—and trying to prevent it—with some unhelpful help from public radio personalities in this return Episode 153: No News Is Still Bad News.

I read from two books by Robert McChesney and John Nichols: first, Our Media, Not Theirs: The Democratic Struggle Against Corporate Media; and then from The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again. If you want a truly deep dive into journalism, go read these guys' books.

I play: The BeeGees, in reference to Brooke and Bob; On The Media's episode titled "No News Is Bad News"; KMO from the C-Realm Podcast giving us a sarcastic "great"; Tenacious D doing snippets of "The Government Totally Sucks", that from their hilarious movie, The Pick of Destiny; Raphae doing "Intro"; and Visciera doing "Seething". I opened with KMFDM backing Jeff Jarvis, and I'm closing today with Mistle Thrush.

I'm releasing this and all my episodes under a Creative Commons 4.0, attribution, share-alike, and non-commercial license.

Episode 152: The Nuisance Economy

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Once and a while, it's good to expend a little more effort in order to expend a bit less effort. It's complicated. Anyway, enjoy the result, a chat with Chad Hill of the Hip Crime Vocab Blog in this Episode 152: The Nuisance Economy.

I would highly encourage you to check out Chad's blog, but do keep in mind that, since he cares not one whit about checking his readership metrics, he won't even know you were there unless you leave him a comment, which, I'm sure, he will appreciate.

I open today's show with Mr. Ceglowski's observations about what makes a good advertiser, that backed by KMFDM's "Attak"; and I close today with Julie and Rolf and the campfire gang doing "Over The Rainbow".

I'm releasing this and all my episodes under a Creative Commons 4.0, share-alike, attribution, and non-commercial license.