Axe Falls on Ning: It has just announced that it is killing off its free product, forcing
existing free networks to either make the change to premium accounts or
migrate their networks elsewhere. Related: [TechCrunch] [Posterous]
Seacrest Speaks: So what’s going on with TV’s leading multitasker? Is he overwhelmed?
More like overjoyed. After nine years of hosting America’s most popular
singing competition, he still love his job -- correction: jobs – though
he is contemplating letting one of them go. [LA TIMES]
Elmo and a slew of other Sesame Street characters arrived at the
Pentagon Tuesday to help debut a military-themed episode of its series
called "When Families Grieve." [CNN]
The Breakfast Club Turns 25: This week in Critics’ Picks, A. O. Scott looks at the 1985 film “The
Breakfast Club,” an exploration of suburban teen angst — and
detention — directed by John
Hughes, who died last year. Related: NPR Podcast > The 'Brat Pack' Grows Up [NYT Video] [Barking Robot via NPR]
The Myth of the Digital Native: One of the monsters is the "digital native" – the term, not the child.
Coined by author Marc
Prensky in 2001, the phrase has its usefulness in helping us adults
grasp the major media shift we're experiencing and embrace young
people's openness to it.
But two leading new-media thinkers – Sonia
Livingstone of the London School of Economics and Henry Jenkins at the
University of Southern California – both have concerns about the phrase
becoming too definitive. [NetFamilyNews]
Is Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Making Kids Smarter?: According
to a recent story in The Guardian, Oliver's Feed Me Better
campaign, which he launched in 2004, has helped cut the number of
absences typically attributed to illness by 15 percent in an area of
southeast London. It also improved the number of students who reached
proficiency on English standardized tests by 4.5 percent. [Good]
Poking and Tweeting Are Not A Media Plan: Social networking is more than setting up an online presence, and social
media is more than just blasting out press releases. Until brands
understand how to authentically join, rather than crash, the
conversation, they will continue to throw their money away. [AdAge]
This is a modest but important step toward officially recognizing where
the entertainment business has been heading for some time. The major
blockbusters across all media — film, television, gaming, music, and the
rest — have been transmedia affairs, though the term transmedia has
not necessarily been used. [Chris Rettstatt]
Gen Y Celebrates Diversity: Embrace our acceptance of diversity by showing Gen Y that your brand is
diverse. Brands and products that once only fit into a certain group or
niche have now spread into many groups and niches. We will take your brand and
make it our own. Take advantage of this and engage a larger group of the
20 somethings and teens. [Premise]
Why You Have to Understand Video Games to Understand Gen Y: Gen Yers love to keep score. They’ve been keeping score their whole
lives. They keep score in their personal relationships, in the
workplace, and even with the companies that advertise to them.
It all started with video games. If there were no scores, nobody would have
ever kept playing them. [GY Joe]
Growing Up Gaga: The self-invented, manufactured, accidental, totally on-purpose New York creation of the world’s biggest pop star. [New York Magazine]
