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Most parents know to screen television shows for sex, violence or other negative messaging—but what about children's shows themselves? Research by the University of Alberta's Augustana Campus contends that children's programming can carry underlying political themes that may surprise parents. After analyzing 23 episodes of Thomas and Friends, a show about a train, his friends and their adventures on a fictional island, political scientist Shauna Wilton was able to identify themes that didn't seem constructive for youngsters. "While the show conveys a number of positive political values such as tolerance, listening, communicating with others and contributing to the community, it...

Oprah Winfrey's exit from daytime TV will mean more than just a studio scuffle for the time slot she mined for gold for TV stations. It also likely signals, many experts say, the beginning of an inexorable decline for the daytime syndicated talk show, which has occupied a central spot in mainstream culture ever since "The Phil Donahue Show" rolled out nationwide nearly 40 years ago. snip But many observers say that the all-encompassing cultural role of "Oprah" is unlikely to be duplicated by another talk show on broadcast TV, thanks to the changes that have shaken society and the...

Even the cable networks that are today’s multi-revenue stream darlings are destined for the same “digital destruction” as advertising-supported broadcast television, newspapers and other traditional media. It’s just a matter of time. That likely scenario from former News Corp. president and COO Peter Chernin, represents the final blow to media conglomerates. which currently rely on their cable networks for at least 60 percent of their profits. Whether niche cable programming can survive and thrive in a streaming on-demand video world “is the single biggest question facing the media industry,” Chernin said Wednesday during a roundtable discussion USC Annenberg School for...

"For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world." (1 John 2:16) I was watching TV last night with my family (if you are curious, it was The Smoking Gun presents: The World's Dumbest). The show is a "countdown" of video clips of accidents or mishaps invovling a common theme, punctuated by commentary from a bunch of B-list actors and ex-celebrities (Danny Bonaduce from The Partridge Family, Leif Garrett, Tonya Harding, Gary Busey and some others(*)). It...

How bad are things in the (print) newspaper industry? Don't ask. After another jarring 3.5% decline over the past six months, print-paper circulation will drop to about 50 million this year--the lowest level since 1946 (62 years ago). That's during a period in which the US population has doubled, meaning that per-capita newspaper consumption has been cut in half. For more on this horrorshow, read the latest from the Dean of Newspaper Demise, Alan D. Mutter, at Newsosaur. Just don't do it if you've got friends or family (or money) in the industry. If your career, portfolio, or fortune isn't...

Discovery has laid off nearly a third of its Discovery Education division, cutting some 80 people. The cuts were a result of redundancies and inefficiencies created within the division after Discovery acquired some seven companies in the last 18 months, according to a Discovery Communications spokesperson. Discovery Education, whose main product is a school-based video educational service, will employ about 200 staffers going forward. The division, whose products are distributed in about 70,000 schools, has expanded over the past year and a half, launching new products including broadband homework help site Cosmeo. As a result, the division has bought up...

Who's Afraid of TV 2.0? If you work at NBC Universal, beware the ides of September. Peacock staffers are sweating bullets over the impending release of what the company is calling TV 2.0, a proposed top-to-bottom reorganization of the network to streamline it for the Internet age. While NBC Universal Television Group honcho Jeff Zucker is pitching the project—recommendations are due mid-month, according to one source—as a visionary look to the future, staffers suspect it will be a merciless look at the bottom line. "Everyone is waiting for the ax to fall," says an NBCer. "There was a board meeting...

Commentary: CBS should shelve the cute stuff and stick to ... the news NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - "I am very happy to be with you tonight." With those un-momentous words Tuesday night, Katie Couric, 49, was off and running as the new anchor of "The CBS Evening News." At last the hype was over and the former star of NBC's "Today" show would have an opportunity to prove herself as a serious evening-newscaster. She dropped the ball. At its worst, the show reinforced all of the worries of grizzled veteran journalists. This wasn't all Couric's fault. She was, as billed,...

For a glimpse of the television of the future, consider Matt McDonald's viewing habits in the living room of his home in Armonk, N.Y. He switches between traditional programs like "The Daily Show" and "24" to watching videos downloaded from the Internet -- all on his TV set. Mr. McDonald uses a digital video-recorder box from TiVo Inc. with a new feature that allows subscribers to download videos off the Web to their TVs. "Everything appears on the same 'now playing' list [on his interactive program guide]," says the 33-year-old risk manager. Movies and videos are exploding on the Web,...

Network ad sales are falling below last year By Kevin Downey Jul 28, 2006 Cable television is about to suffer a humiliation it’s never experienced before. Ad spending in the ongoing upfront will likely be down from 2005 when negotiations wrap up in about two weeks. That will be the first year-to-year decline since cable networks began actively selling ad time in advance of upcoming seasons way back in 1988, not including 2001, when cable TV and virtually all other media types suffered steep losses following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Negotiations have been dragging on for weeks and buyers are...

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Dramatic increase in ad spending for first quarter By Samantha Melamed Jul 18, 2006 Online advertising typically leads all other media in growth whenever a new spending report comes out, so it's no surprise that it's tops in the latest figures from Nielsen Monitor-Plus for the first quarter of 2006. What is surprising is the astounding growth the ad-tracking service reports: 46.4 percent for the first three months over the year-earlier period. That's well beyond even the rosiest forecasts, which have tended to range between 10 percent and 20 percent in the years since the internet began crawling out of...

Journo's never drawn auds in like predecessor The Anderson Cooper media bandwagon continues to defy logic, and ratings gravity. It's been nearly a year since Cooper was anointed CNN's youthful savior and given Aaron Brown's primo 10 p.m. timeslot. Since then, he's been TV news' media darling, most recently gracing the cover of June's Vanity Fair. But Cooper's stellar media masks an inconvenient truth: He's never achieved the ratings of even his predecessor. CNN sacked Brown believing Cooper could draw a bigger, younger audaud at 10 p.m. But that hasn't happened. And the VF cover hit just as April ratings...

Law & Order finally got rid of the worst character to ever appear on the show, Assistant D.A. Serena Southerlyn, played by Elisabeth "Let's See If Can I Open My Eyes Any Wider" Rohm. Made more stupidly ignorant liberal comments than Jill Hennessy did, is a terrible actress to boot; totally uncreditable. Best part was that the character was fired. Worst part was that as she was being fired, she inexplicably says, "Is this because I am a lesbian". Complete joke, which, unfortunately, Dick Wolf puts into this fine show all too often.