Communication Prof's News and Views: Art Lynch's Blog

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2012-02-03T14:48:00.000-08:00

2012-01-31T23:47:00.000-08:00

GENERATION NEXT: GEN-Y and the MILLENNIALS

2012-01-31T08:53:00.000-08:00

Generation Me!

The Millennial Generation

-by Art Lynch

(students note that references in this posting are APA, which is the required reference source citation for the course sections I teach).

The Millennial Generation is the largest generation in history, with Baby Boomers leaving us as they age, and Millennials growing up into a significant political, economic and eventual power brokering generation. They may represent to their children the same obsticles that their parent sand grandparents represented to them, holding jobs and influencing power in ways that limit the voice of the next two generations that follow.

Millennial students are now dominating college, universities, entry level jobs and much of the marketing target for the still youth centered media. They voted less in the 2010 election than 2008, are less likely to broadcast their politics and ideas (except on Facebook) and in many ways represent the largest shift in demographic make-up and power since the Eisenhower years gave birth to the Baby Boom.

To view the report and support material from other sources, plus a full reference list, click here.

Banner for this post is from PEW Trust...
Information form the PEW Research Center, click here.
Graphic below source, click here.

Communication Model and Basic Concepts Related to the Model

2012-01-30T20:33:00.000-08:00

The basics of communication can be found several places on the web. A suggested start is the University of Missouri, one of the top communication schools in the nation.

I. Foundation for School and Life Success
A. Introductions to not only the field, but to college and how to survive and prosper.
B. You must use the college requirements and learn the methods utilized at your school.
C. Notes, outlining, references, testing techniques, etc.
D. Assistance available through student services.
E. Use of computer, Angel, Word, Internet and so on.
F. Use of library, outside references, sources, tools.
G. Basic Research skills for life
H. Organizing thoughts
I. Outlining
J. Presenting your ideas effectively

The Shannon and Weaver model

II. Components of a Speech Transaction
A. Situation and Context
B. Speaker / Transmitter / Source
C. Channels / Media
D. Message
E. Symbols / Semantics
F. Encode
G. Decode
H. Feedback
I. Noise / Interference / Screens / Filters
J. Internal Noise
K. External Noise
L. Cultural Noise

M. All three forms of noise are interconnected and interact

N. Semantic Noise is not one of the three forms of noise, it means the signals or symbols of a transmission are not being understood properly due to outside factors (the other three forms of noise)
O. The components of a speech transaction occur simultaneously and are interdependent

P. All communication is transactional, involves a two-way passage of information, emotion, intent.

III. Intro into basic course concepts
A. Communication Model

1. Transmitter,
- Intent of Transmitter,
- What was meant to be communicated
a. Sender,
b. Source
c. Speaker
2. Channel,
3. Medium. Media
4. Message, intended message
5. Receiver,
6. Listener,
7. T2 (not Arnold!)
8. Feedback
9. Encode
10. Decode

11. Codes
a. Verbal,
- Words, actual language, vocabulary
b. Vocal,
- How you say the words, voice, inflection, etc.
c. Visual,
d. - Everything else, see, hear, smell, touch, etc.

12. Proofs,
- How we prove and argument, why we believe things
f. Ethos, Credibility, Power, Likeability, Trust, Source, Expertise, Position
g. Logos, Logic (some variance by culture)
h. Pathos, Emotion, Emotional Appeal
i. Mythos, Cultural, Cultural shorthand, David v. Goliath, Patriotism. Flag, etc.
12. Noise: Screens, \ Filters, Interference, anything that gets in the way of the message

13. Internal Screens,
- Whatever happens inside your mind or body to interfere with understanding the message as intended, or to interfere with transmitting the message in a way that will be understood
- Internal noise is what is occurring inside the transmitter or receiver. For example an event earlier in the day or in the life of the individual could change the way they interpret or send signals. Physical, psychological, cognitive forms of interference may impact how message is encoded or decoded, interpreted or received. Disabilities, health, fatigue, hunger, external events impact on how you feel or think, and unrelated thoughts are examples of internal noise.

14. External Screens
- Whatever happens outside of your mind or body to interfere with understanding the message as intended, or to interfere with transmitting the message in a way that will be understood.
- External noise is what occurred outside of the sender or receive. This could include sound, smell, lighting, temperature, time of day, events occurring at the same time as the message, other messages conflicting or concurrent with the intended message, environment, etc.

15. Cultural Screens
- Differences in culture (including Demographic, Psychographic differences) that interferes with understanding the message as intended.
- Differences in culture interfere with transmitting the message in a way that will be understood.
- Cultural noise comes from the self-identity, backgrounds, beliefs and culture of the sender and/or the receiver.
- Messages can have differing meanings. Protocol, prolific, etc.

16. Semantic Noise, not understanding the words, not understanding the language
- Not one of the three forms of screens or noise, because semantic can cross internal, external and cultural boundaries and it simply means tat symbols (usually words) are not being transmitted or interpreted the same between parties in the communication transaction,

17. Demographics as way of understanding yourself and your audience
a. Age
b. Gender (Sex)
c. Psychographics and Culture
d. Age and Gender are fixed properties
e. Psychographic is everthing else you can measure or put a number to
f. Psychographic differs as is is self-identified, what you volunteer yourself as

B. The Communication Process
1. Speaker/ Sender/ Transmitter
a. The source of the message
b. Requires technical skills
c. Requires enthusiasm and active stimulation
d. Involves intent
e. Requires understanding the Receiver
f. Requires decisions on how to send message
g. Requires knowledge, processing preparation and understanding

2. Channel/ media
a. How the message is sent
b. Tolls used to send message
c. Media or Medium utilized in encoding and decoding message
d. Means by which the message is communicated
e. One of more channels may be used
f. May involve technical support or intervention
g. Could be as simple as eye contact

3. Message
a. Whatever is being communicated
b. Intended and unintended messages can be transmitted
c. Verbal and non-verbal transmissions
d. May or may not be interpreted properly by receiver

4. Listener/ Receiver/ Audience
a. Every message is filtered through the listeners frame of reference
b. Listeners frame of reference is the sum total of their experiences, goal, knowledge, values, attitudes and beliefs.
c. No source and receiver have the exact frame of reference
d. A message and its transmission must be adapted to the audience
e. Noise gets in the way of the communication

5. Feedback
a. Message sent by listener to the speaker, receiver to the transmitter
b. The receiver becomes the transmitter
c. The transmitter become the receiver
d. Because all communication is transactional (involving a transaction of information, feelings or ideas) feedback operates under the same principals and rules as the original transmission and channel
e. Feedback may be immediate or delayed
f. Noise/ Screens/ Filter interfere with both the original transmission and the feedback
g. Successful speakers adjust their message based on careful studied reception of feedback

6. Interference/ Screens/ Noise / Filters
a. Anything that impeded the communication of a message
b. Can be internal or external
c. May also involve internal and external cultural filters
d. External comes from outside, physical or psychological, of the speaker or listener
e. Internal involves anything, physical or psychological, involving what is inside the sender or receiver, speaker or listener.
f. External may be noise, lighting, major events, size or shape of room, sound, temperature, other speakers and so forth
g. Internal may be poor listening skills, lack of concentration, the other 50-% of what is going on in your brain, physical ailments or disabilities, fatigue and so forth.
h. Successful speakers overcome interference in a wide range of ways, numerous times during their message

7. Encode
a. Selecting symbols to communicate a message
b. Determining how to transmit the message
c. Combination of verbal, vocal, visual and other
d. Anticipating the receiver

8. Decode
a. Understanding symbols uses to communicate a message
b. Understanding the intent of the message
c. Understanding and translating verbal, visual and other codes
d. Anticipating the intent of the sender
9. Codes
a. How a message is encoded
b. Verbal are the words used, the vocabulary
c. Vocal is how the words are said or transmitted, vocal tones, inflections, etc.

d. Visual is everything else, all sight, sound, smell, tactile touch, etc.

10. Proofs
a. Ethos - credibility, real and perceived
b. Logos – logic, common pattern of thought to a group
c. Pathos – emotional appeals
d. Mythos – myths, common stories and shorthand by culture

11. Demographics
a. Explains an individual, group, audience, market or culture
b. Numbers
c. Age
d. Gender or sex
e. Psychographic (anything else you can put a number to)

For additional information please click on "read more" below"

12. Cultural
a. The experiences and background of an individual, group, audience, market or culture
b. The common communication short hands of a group
c. The common beliefs or ideas of a group
d. May be geographic, biological, psychological, sociological, etc.

13. Semantics -language
14. Transactional – two way involving passing of information, community, feeling or idea
15. Situational
a. Time, place and circumstances of communication
b. Reason for communication
c. Environment of communication
d. Methods of communication

16. Negotiated Meaning- determining common ground on what a concept, idea, thought or object means

C. Multiculturalism
1. Understanding Diversity
2. How Diversity impacts Messages

3. Ethnocentrism
a. The tendency of a group to believe that its way of thinking, doing things or culture is somehow better or superior to anyone else’s.
b. Does not mean others are not respected or valid
c. Ours is better, our way is right
d. Nationalism. Religious evangelism. Democracy, Etc.
e. Can play a positive role in creating group pride
f. Can play a negative role in creating perception of being superior
g. Can lead to positive growth or to prejudice and hostility

4. Bias, Prejudice, Stereotype (see earlier in outline and also end of this weeks notes)
a. Bias is a tendency to feel one way or another about a person, place, object or idea. It is can usually be easily changed and may change by circumstance or environment
b. Prejudice is a strong culturally entrenched bias. It is not easily changed.
c. Stereotype is a bias that is used as a communication shorthand to quickly make judgments or understand and image or event. It is normal and may be prejudicial (difficult to change), situational or simple bias in its base. Television, film, commercials, first impressions all use stereotyping.
d. All bias, prejudices and stereotypes are value neutral; they may be good or bad based on the individual, situation, environment or circumstances of an event (communication).
e. Avoid prejudice in public speaking as it can create noise/filters/screens
5. Be aware and sensitive to today’s multi-cultural world
6. Be aware that thoughts, ideas, interpretations, mores, morals, ethics and attitudes are directly effected by culture and enculturalization
7. See the text. The subject is or can be highly controversial.

D. Other Key Terms
1. Stage Fright
2. Adrenaline
3. Positive nervousness
4. Visualization
5. Listener
6. Frame of Reference

IV. Transactional Communication,
A. All communication involves a transaction
B. Communication is irreversible
C. Communication is power
D. We judge people by their communication skills
E. How we judge varies by culture
F. The Greeks
a. Democratic Concepts
b. Proofs
c. Codes
d. Absolute Truth
e. Relative Truth
f. Other
G. Polarization, and how communication can help depolarize
H. Disclaimers, use of
1. Rules of CCSN and the course
a. No weapons, pornography, deliberate attack, drugs or alcohol
b. Turn off cell phones,
c. No gum,
d. No food,
e. Control your beverages
I. Cost of Education
J. Introduction to use of numbers and statistics

V. Communication changes over time, environment, culture
1. Definitions of words change
2. Understanding gestures changes
3. Audiences prefer conversational tone
4. Audiences prefer visual stimulus
5. Audiences can fact check on-line
6. Audiences are more questioning and less trusting
7. Minor mistakes are noticed and remembered more
8. Speaking may not involve video transmission, mediation, and other factors that may not have been a factor in the past
9. It is easier for audiences to record or photograph than in the past
10. Mass media has influenced audience preconceptions

VI. Skills
A. Listening
B. Being open minded
C. Understanding why people differ
D. Bridging the differences
E. Understanding what influences you
F. Understanding how to influence others
G. Research
H. Outlining
I. Presentation
J. Dealing with question and answers
K. Informing
L. Persuading
M. Proper Special Even Speech
N. Ethics
O. Understanding cultural diversity
P. Presenting ideas and information effectively
Q. Applying multiple skills effectively

VII. Elements to be Aware of : Opportunities and Challenges
A. Ethics
1. The standard of what is right and wrong
2. A basic moral code which keeps society functioning properly
3. By sending a message you do impact the knowledge, view, perceptions and actions of others
a. Do no harm
b. Be truthful
c. Be honest
d. Be aware of your impact on others
4. Mediated communication ethical challenge
a. Plagiarism
b. Impact
c. Truth or lack of truth in content
d. Diversity and depth of content
e. Ability to “pod” or “cocoon”
B. Critical thinking skills
1. Assess the validity of information
2. Used by both speaker and audience
3. Assess, evaluate, select and use ethically and effectively
4. Must be open to and consider contrasting information or views
C. Cultural Sensitivity
1. Be aware of cultural perspective and sensibility of audience
2. Be aware of Noise, screens, filters, and situation context
D. Visual and Presentation Aids
1. Learn and use software
2. Lear and use other tools
3. Be able to use traditional aids
4. Be aware that audience tolerance of mistake has decreased
5. Professional in appearance and use
6. Used at proper times
7. Used for correct purpose
8. Grabs attention of audience
9. Informs, persuades or impacts audience

VIII. Contexts of Human Communication
A. Interpersonal Communication:
1. Two or more people interacting with each other as unique beings
B. Group Communication
1. Three or more people interacting to accomplish a task, reach a shared goal or reach a compromise solution
C. Organizational Communication
1. Between or within organization for the objective of achieving common goals
D. Mass Communication
1. Originates with a media organization
2. Transmitted to a large, fairly anonymous and diverse audience
3. Or transmitted using electronic means to a non-exclusive audience
4. Or provided (such as in print or outdoor) for selection by a broad range of individuals choosing to receive the message
E. Public Speaking
1. An individual speaking or presenting to a group
2. Speaking or presenting to an audience over which the speaker has minimal control
3. Speaking or presenting with the intent of informing, entertaining, persuading or in other ways impacting audience members
4. Speaker has the primary responsibility for content
5. Time is limited or restricted for presentation

IX. Public Speaking skills are used everyday
A. Serves social, political and communal purposes
B. Informal in
1. Group meetings,
2. Classrooms,
3. Attempts to persuade
4. Attempts to inform
5. With strangers, family and friends
6. As part of civil duty and responsibility
C. Formally
1. Class presentations
2. Work presentations
3. Community presentations
4. Formal family events
5. Religious or other group events

X. Public Speaking: Underlying Need to Speak in Groups
A. Public Speaking is an evolving art
1. Style used and expectations vary by audience and event
2. Listening skills have deteriorated
3. Attention spans are reduced
4. Formality is less required than in past
5. Perception of Ethos has changed
6. Speakers are expected to use visual aids correctly
7. Speakers in some situations are expected to entertain
8. Audiences have access to sources, fact-checking and additional information during and after the speech
9. Oral Communication is and always has been instantaneous
10. Oral Communication can be taped, photographed and redistributed easier than in the past
B. Public Speaking and all Oral Communication remain a basic human interaction
1. Social
2. Practical
3. Communal purposes
C. Comparison over the ages of ways public speaking has changed (table 1.1)
D. Developing Multiple Communication Skills
1. Skills can be used in other areas of life or in other work
2. Builds Confidence
3. Helps overcome anxiety
4. Become better listeners
5. Research
6. Oral presentation
7. Understanding persuasion
8. Understanding others
9. Adapt to audiences, situations, context
E. Patterns of Speech Organization (explained in later lessons)
1. Chronological
2. Sequential
3. Spatial
4. Categorical
5. Cause-Effect
6. Problem-Solution
7. Others

XI. Back to basics. Why learn to speak in groups or in public?
A. Objectives
1. Understand the value of a course in public speaking and applications in students life of the communication model
2. Understand the long tradition of communication studies
3. Identify the major similarities and differences between public speaking and everyday conversation (interpersonal communication)
4. Understand that nervousness is normal, and even desirable
5. Investigate methods of using or controlling nerves, making it work for you as a speaker
6. Understand the elements of the communication process and how to use them in everyday life
7. Understand to adapt to and grow stronger from cultural diversity
8. Understand ethnocentrism, when to use it and how to avoid it
9. Understand the concepts in the textbook
10. Understand how to apply all of these concepts to speaking in public
11. Using the tools for your own self-understanding and advancement.
B. Public Speaking is vital
1. Spreading, using and resolving ideas, influence and knowledge
2. Public speaking touches everyone and every aspect of life
a. Helps gain success in every aspect of life
b. Vital as a means of civic engagement
c. Can be a form of empowerment
C. Power
1. Career advancement, understanding communication is a key resource
2. Career advancement, being able to speak to groups is a key asset.
3. Understanding and using Communication will lead to improvement in:
a. Grades, Academics
b. Success (Money and otherwise)
c. Understanding others and the world around you
d. Marketing and being marketed or sold to
e. Civic Responsibility (more later)
4. Skills
a. Organizing thoughts
b. Tailoring message to the audience
c. Response to and adapting to feedback
d. Seeking Maximum Impact
D. Differences from one on one interpersonal communication
a. Public Speaking is structured
b. Public Speaking requires more formal language
1. Appropriate to audience
2. Best to communicate complete concepts and ideas
3. You are being judged by listeners
4. Your ethos is directly involved in communication (more later)
E. History and players in public speaking (see text)
F. Similarities between public speaking and everyday conversation
1. Thoughts are organized, logically, emotionally or culturally
2. Structured with a need to engage, reengage and motivate
3. Time, environment, group interaction and relationships come into play
4. Message is tailored to the audience
5. Message is situational and fixed in a time or place
6. Message is meant and designed for maximum impact
7. Messages adapts to feedback
8. All parties leave changed in one way or another by the interaction
G. Public Speaking requires a different method of delivery
1. Language use
2. Structures or Designs
3. Goals and Expected Outcomes
4. Time limits or frames are vital
5. Feedback is usually not in the form of interruptions, but non-verbal in nature
6. Effective speakers develop their own method of delivery, avoiding distractions, being too informal or too formal (dependant on situation), avoiding distracting mannerisms and verbal habits…

XII. Changes over time, location and culture
A. Listening Skills, Attention Spans vary by time, group, culture
1. Lincoln Douglas Debates lasted hours, audience of farmers
2. Billy the Kid was classically educated
3. 1960’s Debates and State of Union watched, listened to
4. Retention skills diminishing with decline in reading
5. Multi-Cultural effects (good and bad)
6. Decline or evolution of vocabulary
7. Use of verbal, vocal and visual shifts
8. Various other education research finding
B. Need for visual aids and entertaining or reengaging audience
1. Maintain attention and comprehension
2. Reinforce narrative on multiple levels
3. Amplify examples
4. Explain concepts
5. Use ethos, pathos, logos and/or mythos
6. Should be geared to audience
C. Conversational tone
1. Not the same as conversation
a. Less colloquial
b. One way verbal
c. Slightly above level of audience
d. Use contractions
e. Use personal pronouns
f. Inclusive
2. Similar to conversation
a. Vocabulary at audience level or explained
b. Use of repetition to reinforce, explain
c. Adapts to feedback from audience
d. Gives impression of one-on-one conversation
e. Eye contact (explained elsewhere in course)
D. TV impact on public speaking
1. Appear to be talking to each viewer individually
2. Not cemented to podium
3. Use of gestures
4. Eye contact
5. Jerry Springer, Jay Leno
6. George Carlin, stadium, TV studio
E. Internet impact on public speaking
1. Immediacy expected
2. Current information and events expected
3. Audience may be more informed
4. Audience may have stronger opinions or views
5. Audience has shorter attention span
6. Audience can research what you say during the speech
7. Audience can check your facts
8. Audience can do further research later
9. Speech may be taped for later on-line review
F. Need to do Public Speaking and Groups over Video or Audio links
1. Video conferencing becoming common
2. Video of live events becoming more common
3. Video extension of interpersonal now a reality

XIII. Seven stages of developing and presenting a speech
A. Purpose: Overall Goal
1. Determine the purpose of the speech
a. Why did you select topic
b. Is it appropriate to the audience
c. What do you hope to accomplish
d. See private, public, general and specific in future notes
B. Be audience centered in selecting a topic and doing your speech
1. Audience centered communication
2. Audience adaption
3. Target your message to a particular audience, time and place
4. The same exact speech cannot be used with different audiences
5. All speeches are organic and need to change based on audience, feedback, situation, location, time, goals and so on…
C. Topic
1. Meets your purpose
2. Adapted to audience
3. Selected and polished through research
4. Willing to change based on research and new developments
D. Gathering Information
1. Begin with yourself: information you have knowledge on
2. Have a passion and interests in the topic
3. Seek help from others (librarian suggested, one with an MA)
4. Use differing sources, not just internet
5. Use academic sources (defined in later unit and lecture)
6. Seek out
a. Books
b. Periodicals
c. Videos
d. Audio
e. Microfiche
f. Data bases
g. Abstracts
7. Be strategic
a. Plan your search
b. Stay on focus or shift topic
c. Think of how audience will perceive source
d. Think of how instructor will perceive source
e. Other
E. Identify Main Points
1. Organize ideas
2. Group information
3. Organization and outline in text and in later units and lectures
F. Practice
1. BS is not rewarded as term continues
2. Many methods, one in the text
a. Complete sentence (not favored by this course)
b. Short reminder points
c. Decide if extemporaneous, memorized, manuscript, oratorical (explained later in this course)
d. Extemporaneous required in this course (without notes or with a few key notes to remind you0
3. Practice with note cards, eliminating them as you grow comfortable
4. Practice Needed for
a. Length,
b. To minimize missed materials,
c. To assist in finding place
d. To help reduce nerves
e. To reinforce knowledge of topic
f. To support ethos
g. To advance as a speaker and communicator
G. Managing the Tools and Your Speech
1. Voice (to be discussed later in the text, in later unit notes and lecture)
2. Body (also to be discussed later)
3. Audience Analysis: understanding your audience
4. Topic: knowing your subject and being organized
5. Presentation Media (practice with it)
6. Time
7. Make sure you
a. Do a speech appropriate for the occasion
b. Use your note card when you must but only glace at them
c. Make and keep eye contact (direct, sustained, distributed, deliberate and at least 80% of the time)
d. Make sure the audience can hear and understand you
e. Volume, tone and other factors appropriate for your subject
f. Use gestures
1. Appearing natural
2. Appropriate
3. Natural
4. Purposeful
5. Comfortable
g. Arrive early
h. Check out room, equipment and environment
i. Practice or dry run all technical equipment
1. Adapt or change if needed
2. Be read for anything to go wrong, have backup
j. Analyze and understand your audience
k. Monitor your time
1. Be ready to end early
2. Be ready to stretch length
3. Be ready to adapt to audience
4. Make sure main points are made
5. Make sure you have time for summary and action

XIV. Speech Selection / Topics / Ideas
A. Interesting to you
B. You should know about subject enough to start research
C. Have a passion about subject (if possible)
D. Interesting to your audience
E. Current
F. New information for your audience
G. Appropriate for the situation
H. Appropriate for the time allotted
I. Manageable
J. Worthwhile
K. Select based on requirements of speech
1. Most confident, use early in term
2. Lots of information, save for last two speeches
3. Major passion that requires a action, use as last speech
4. Think about your personal time allotment.
5. Research all term on all speeches, not last minute!
6. Ask how you can inspire, inform, transform the audience.
L. Selecting a topic
1. Make a personal inventory of what you know or are interests in
2. Talk to friends,
a. Things they can tell you that you know about
b. Things they are interested in, common interests
c. Sources they can assist you with
3. Brainstorm
a. Friends
b. Classmates
c. Yourself
4. Read
a. Textbook
b. These notes
c. Handouts
d. Research (how much is out there related to what you want to day, which is not the same as the overall topic!
M. Resources for inventing your speech
1. Always begin with your own experience, interests and knowledge
2. Look at general or directory sources of knowledge
3. Look into academic or juried sources of knowledge
4. Interview experts or primary sources
5. Conduct computerized searches
6. Consider specialized sources of information
7. Utilize librarians, professors, those there to assist you.
8. Never be afraid to ask!
N. Steps in Organizing A Speech
1. Open with impact, engage the audience
2. Focus on your thesis statement
3. Connect with your audience
4. Preview the body of your speech
5. Present your main points
6. Repeat key points (roadmap)
7. Summarize your main points
8. Close with impact
O. Ways to Close a Speech Effectively
1. Present a short memorable quotation
2. Use an anecdote or a story
3. Make a direct appeal (a call for action)
4. Return to your opening
5. Reengage your audience
6. Reinforce the reason for your speech
7. Make sure the audience knows what is in it for them
P. Methods of Delivery
1. Manuscript
2. Memorized
3. Impromptu
4. Extemporaneous (required in this course)
Q. Matching Purposes
1. Persuasive: To have a class develop a favorable impression or consider an action on an issue or idea of importance to you.
2. Entertaining: To have the audience share an enjoyable experience.
3. Informative: To teach, expand knowledge, grow
R. Informative Speeches may persuade
S. Persuasive Speeches must inform
T. All communication influences, intentional or not
U. We are all influenced by communication, whether we wish to be or not

XV. Dealing with Nerves
1. Prepare, prepare, prepare
2. Practice, practice, practice
3. Think Positive
4. Use the Power of Visualization
5. Understand that nervousness is normal
6. All professionals, experienced speakers and actors, feel some form of stage fright or nerves, and learn to use them to their advantage or for their character persona.
7. Understand how to compensate for and cover your nerves
8. Do not expect perfection
9. Acquire speaking experience
10. It’s only a Speech, no the end of the world!
B. Methods to deal with nerves
1. Realize it is normal
2. Realize it happens to everyone
3. Realize that this is only a speech, a minor part of your life
4. Gain experience where you can
5. Be prepared and in the right frame of mind
a. Research
b. Organization
c. Planning
d. Self confidence
e. Practice
f. Visualization
g. Think Positive
h. Be well rested
i. Use physical exercise if it works for you
j. Breathing exercises are used by many speakers prior to a speech
k. Be confident about your introduction and conclusion
l. Forget the past and keep moving forward
m. Focus on the end goal, result, point
n. Repeat if needed, as repetition is normal
o. Be ware that what you see and feel is not the same as the audience
p. Realize that unlike written words, speech does not remain, so your mistakes and much of what you say will be gone and over, leaving only your overall point and the impact of your speech
q. Make eye contact
r. Use presentation aids (often called visual aids)
s. Understand learning styles and their use
t. Concentrate on the message, on communicating with your audience, and not yourself or your nerves or words you had planned to say. The message is what is important.

C. Listening and Critical Thinking
a. Adults listen 50% or less
b. Teenagers listen 25% or less
c. Listening is a voluntary active process, it is psychological
d. Hearing is physiological
e. You can learn to listen
f. Studies show that those who practice listening skills are less likely to develop memory loss in any form
g. Studies show that those who practice listening skills get better grades, higher pay and achieve their goals more often than those who do not.
h. Critical thinking requires active listening
i. Critical thinking involves being able to access the strengths and weaknesses of an argument
j. Critical thinking involves being able to distinguish between the fact, theory and opinions of an argument
k. Critical thinking allows for thinking outside of the box
l. Critical thinking allows for compromise and growth
m. Critical thinking involves being able to judge the credibility of sources
n. Critical thinking requires accessing the quality of evidence
o. Critical thinking involves discerning relationships between ideas
p. Critical thinking involves priorities on what to remember and in what context
q. Critical thinking allows for fewer mistakes and reduces trial and error in everyday life
r. Critical thinking DOES NOT MEAN NEGATIVE THINKING!
s. Critical thinking is a normal process that requires practice and reinforcement
t. Critical thinking is an active process

V. Research:
a. The process of gathering and interpreting evidence in support of claims
b. Needed because
i. Knowledge evolves,
ii. Facts change,
iii. New information is always being discovered
iv. New interpretations are always developing

VI. Claims:
a. Statements you want your audience to
i. Understand
ii. Remember
iii. And/or act upon
b. Speaker must clarify and support their claims

VII. Evidence through research may be primary, secondary or tertiary.
a. Evidence is information used to clarify or support a claim
b. Academic primary evidence
i. Includes first hand knowledge or experience,
ii. Includes original documents or objects,
iii. Includes juried articles in academic articles or books
1. Usually through a University or Academic press
2. That are reviewed by at least three experts in the field
3. That are reviewed on a “blind test” basis
4. That are revised to assure accurate and factual material
5. That may include expert testimony.
6. That has checks and balances to minimize bias
iv. May include testimony or narratives from the original sources
1. Those who have experienced the event or issue considered
2. Those who have first hand knowledge of the experience or event
3. Those considered expert witnesses
v. May include oral or written testimony or narratives
1. Letters
2. Personal journals
3. Original notes
4. Original documents
5. Original articles or objects
6. Actual physical proofs
7. Complete interviews that minimize bias
8. Personal well done and professional interview with a primary source
c. Secondary references include
i. All other forms of reference that relate to the topic, specific thesis or point being made in a presentation or paper.
ii. Most books,
iii. Major news sources
iv. Major media outlets
v. Anything related to the thesis, subject, issue, point or sub points
d. Tertiary sources are other sources not directly related with the point, topic, points or specific thesis of a paper or presentation.

VIII. Directory media are those secondary or tertiary references that are used primarily to provide a foundation for, or general introductory understanding of the topic, thesis, point or subject.
a. Directory media include, but are not limited to,
i. Dictionaries,
ii. Encyclopedia,
iii. Atlases,
iv. Many or most commercial internet sources
v. And any book that provides primarily a source for other references, including those that are academic or primary.
b. Directory media are not, under most circumstances, considered primary sources.

IX. Supporting Materials provide substance, strength, credibility, and appeal.
a. Arouse Audience interests
b. Elaborate
c. Explain
d. Show the
i. Meaning of ideas
ii. Importance for receiver (audience)
iii. Substantive statements
iv. Substantiate controversial statements
v. Substantiate new information
vi. Substantiate surprising or hard to understand statements
vii. Credit ideas of others properly and support ideas derived from others or other sources
viii. Support statements made that are essential to speakers/transmitters arguments or points
e. Gathered through personal experience, library resources and expert interviews

X. Facts and figures tend to be most objective (judge the source objectively).
a. Factual statements can stand alone but
i. Source must be supported or believed by receiver / audience.
ii. Speaker can or even must interpret their meanings
iii. Speaker should carefully distinguish facts from interpretive claims derived from the information.
iv. There are usually multiple ways to interpret “facts”
v. Speaker must cite reputable sources in support of claims and/or “facts” alleged to be interpreted correctly or true.
vi. Speaker must be cognizant of potential bias in sources of “factual” information
1. All sources/writers/individuals select information based on their own filters, bias, objectives or thesis.
2. Even neutral sources and statements are colored by the culture of the source/reference/writer/ speaker/ individual.
3. Even objective sources must be selective in deciding what information to present and what to omit.
4. All of communications is filtered or limited by size, time, potential, bias, culture, intent or perceived intent…etc.
b. Figures, statistics and numbers are considered numerical “facts” (but may or may not accurately indicate what you are studying in their methodology, collection, statistical error, volume or interpretation.
i. Figures /statistics
1. Forms of numerical information that describe some population, event, relationship or real world data collected
2. Describe size
3. Describe scope
4. Make predictions
5. Illustrate trends
6. Support or disprove claims
7. Show relationships
8. May not be relevant when reexamined
ii. Speakers may
1. Unpack or present “meaning” of figures for the audience/receiver
2. Provide explanation
3. Provide analysis
4. Use visual aids to make the figures real or show relationships
c. Facts and Figures are needed
i. To support claims
ii. To make the unfamiliar failure
iii. To add or support credibility
iv. To help persuade on controversial topics
d. Facts and figures can
i. Be used unethically
ii. Be misleading
iii. Be mistrusted by the audience/ receiver
iv. Be misinterpreted by the source/speaker/transmitter
v. Be bias
vi. Be incomplete
vii. Be derived incorrectly
viii. Include distortions
ix. Have omissions through fault or in error
x. Clutter a speech if too many used or used too often
xi. Confuse the audience if too many used or used too often
xii. Be outdated (fallacy or regency)
xiii. Be too dependant on one source or easy sources
xiv. Be non-academic or academic in nature
xv. Can represent possibilities instead of certainties
xvi. Can be willfully misused by source or resource utilized
e. Speakers should not
i. Rely too heavily on one or just a few sources
ii. Ignore contradictory information or sources
iii. Seek out only sourced that support their own view or assumptions
iv. Omit material that is important for interpreting the information
f. Three devises for turning facts and figures into supporting materials
i. Definitions
1. Help audiences understand unpopular ideas
2. Help audiences understand unfamiliar ideas
3. Help audiences understand unfamiliar concepts
4. Should include at least two attempts to translate into terms failure with the audience
5. May have to be repeated in the speech as needed
ii. Explanations
1. May combine facts and figures
2. Are used to clarify a topic, idea or concept
3. Can be used to demonstrate how something works
4. Can be used to show why steps in a plan are needed
iii. Descriptions
1. Are word pictures
2. Can invoke vivid, mood setting images
3. Are needed for full understanding of image or perspective
4. Are used for visualization of images, concepts or ideas
5. Can be overused
6. Can actually confuse audience is used incorrectly

XVI. Additional Concepts for Review
A. Communication is ongoing, changing, and dynamic.
B. Communication is transactional, negotiated, and unavoidable
C. We live in a communication society, with marketing/capitalism/commerce very dominated by the process of communication.
D. We live and depend on an information society, growth areas of 21st Century
E. Self-identity is influenced and some day defined by communication.
F. Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, societal
G. Group dynamics include the roles of players, rules of interaction, situation, mores’ of group, structure of the group, role of the group.
H. Adults listen 50% or less, Teens 25% or less, Kids 15% or less.
I. Speaking in public is the number 2 fear of Americans
J. See review for midterm and final notes in future units for specifics on the exams and from the textbook (again it is important you read the text, as the exams are based on the textbook)
K. Education is repetition
- We need to hear messages more than once to be sure we are listening properly and to make sure we understand the message properly
-

XVII. Other Notes
A. Self Concept, how you feel about yourself, a relatively stable set of perceptions you hold about yourself
B. Self Esteem. Evaluations of self worth
C. Reference Groups,
1. The groups you use to evaluate yourself against
2. The groups you use to craft or reflect your self-image
D. Negotiation of Meaning, meaning is what is agreed upon or understood between the parties involved
E. Intent of Receiver, what was expected to be communicated
F. Symbols, all communication uses symbols, words are symbols, etc.
G. Transmitter sends with intent, receiver decodes with intent
H. Intent may differ, altering the communication
I. Perception, how we see or perceive things.
J. Selection, data we choose to pay attention to
K. Organization, how we process and store information
L. Constructs, the systems of association we use to access stored information
M. Magic T, how to increase your grade by seating choices
N. Textbooks go to other textbooks or Internet course notes if you do not understand lecture or what you read in the course textbook
O. Web CT use
P. Bell Curve
Assignments reviewed
Q. Point system to be used
R. Syllabus distributed and explained
S. Contract signed and returned for course
T. First Speech sign up
U. Introduce each other and tell a little about ourselves
V. Com Model
W. Proofs
X. Codes
Y. Intro to course
Z. Transmitter is the speaker, originator(s) of the message, source.

XVIII. Concepts Continued
A. Remember you have all semester to master these concepts, but keep in mind the exam and speech dates and reading assignment dates.
B. Receiver is the audience, respondent, intended target.
C. Channel is the medium/ media / method used to send a message. Usually multiple methods at one time.
D. Message is what is intended to be communicated.
E. Signals or Codes are the elements that are used to put together the message.
F. Meaning is interpretative and not fixed or constant.
1. To negotiate meaning implies that signals or codes may have more than one interpretation and can be impacted by the noise/screens/filters of both the sender and the receiver.
G. Feedback is the reversal of the model, where receiver becomes the transmitter, sending a return message back to the original transmitter.
H. Noise/ Screens/ Filters impact both the transmission and feedback, both sender and receiver.
I. Encode is to put the elements of the message together as signals.
J. Decode is to read and interpret the elements of the message or signals
K. Stalin example.
L. Greeks and the reasons for model, codes and proofs.
M. Codes: Visual, Vocal Verbal.
N. Verbal: words, the actual written language. Vocabulary, use of words.
O. Vocal: how you say the words. Subtext. Multiple meanings, Example: I love you.
P. Visual: everything else includes what you can see, feel, touch, smell, and hear.
Q. Visual aids are also called Presentation Aids because not all aids are seen.
R. Some cultures are more verbal, others more visual, and others more vocal.
S. Vocal, Visual, Verbal for most Americans.
T. Visual is the most memorable of the codes, but may not be remembered correctly or mean the same to all receivers.
U. Vocal is why you an understand foreign language films and helps to learn other languages.
V. Rhetoric; the codes used to transmit or receive a message and how those codes are interpreted. For example: waves crashing on a beach means sex.
W. (Screens, Filters, Interference) is the natural elements that may interfere with receiving the message as intended. Meaning is negotiated by understanding both the sender and receivers “noise”.
X. Semantic noise- when words do not mean the same thing and get in the way of the message, when words are not understood or have multiple meanings.
Y. There are three types of noise, all of which are interconnected and may influence or overlap each other.
Z. Demographics are numbers used to understand an individual, group, audience or market.

XIX. Additional Concepts to review and learn
A. Demographics are determined by how an individual, group or market identifies itself. They are self-volunteered information because identity and identification are most important in understanding the individual or group being studied.
B. Age and Sex (Gender) are the most commonly used Demographics and are for the most part quantitatively correct (most information is actual and not volunteered).
C. Psychographic are all other Demographically quantified information. Examples include income level, household income, geographies, geographic history, education level, racial and ethnic identity. Religion / Faith / Beliefs, group affiliations…
D. Cocooning: closing out the outside world.
E. Podding: letting in only what you want to hear, seem believe.
F. Codes:
G. Ethos: Credibility
H. Credibility comes from the perception of confidence, integrity, liability, power, competency, experience, and knowledge. Prestige, expertise.
I. Competence can be education, experience, knowledge, and performance
J. Integrity can be from being straightforward, truthful, open, honest, ability to look at all sides, commitment, following your own advice, etc.
K. Likeability comes from good will, personality, appearance, eye contact, facial expression (smile), conversational tone, relevance, and approachability.
L. Power comes from being decisive, the position you hold, leadership ability, etc..
M. Pathos is emotion. To tap Pathos use stories (narratives), examples, appeal to ethnocentrism, motivation (to action or change), strong beliefs, group affiliations. Pathos is the second most powerful proof for Americans. Marketing and civic utilize pathos.
N. Logos is logic. It is reflects what is rational. Logos may use numbers (facts, figures), expert testimony, basic ethics, shared unimpeachable beliefs. Pheno-Grecco-Roman-Anglo roots. Judeo-Christian logic.
O. Mythos. Myths. Cultural heritage. Examples may include stories (narratives), patriotism, heroes, and pride, historic deeds, group beliefs, shared experiences, things that cement and unify identity.
P. Underdog…David and Goliath.
Q. State Anxiety: An uneasiness caused by situation or state.
R. Physiological and Psychological Indicators are measures of changes that occur because of anxiety. These do impact screens/filters/interference/noise.
S. Catastrophizing means blowing things out of proportion.
T. Cognitive Restructuring: changing the way you think

XX. Communication Models
A. See textbook
B. Search Internet
C. Take notes in class
D. See Jillians Notes
E. Use this link:

http://muextension.missouri.edu/explore/comm/cm0109.htm

The Power of Words

2012-01-30T17:56:00.000-08:00

Media is "dumbed down"...Rockerfeller sees the decline of an educated electorate

2012-01-30T17:16:00.000-08:00

From the LA Times Company Town, click here for industry news.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) used a Senate Commerce Committee confirmation hearing for two new nominees to the Federal Communications Commission as a platform to do some media bashing.

At the end of a two-hour confirmation hearing for Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Ajit Varadaraj Pai, who have been nominated to succeed Michael Copps and Meredith Baker as FCC commissioners, Rockefeller said the television news has been "dumbed down" and entertainment programming has become too "obscene" and "promiscuous" for his taste.

"Everybody yells 1st Amendment so you never get very much done about it," he griped to the prospective FCC commissioners.

Rockefeller, who chairs the powerful committee that has oversight of the regulatory agency, asked Rosenworcel and Pai what the FCC could do to clean up the airwaves. Rosenworcel, who served as counsel to Rockefeller before her nomination to the FCC, said "video programming is really powerful stuff. Some of it is not so enlightening and not so healthy."

However, neither she nor Pai would go so far as to say the FCC needed to be harsher with regards to raunchy content.

Unfortunately for Rockefeller, the FCC's current indecency regulations are under attack from the courts. In June, the Supreme Court said it would hear arguments over whether the FCC's enforcement of its rules against foul language and overtly sexual content violate the Constitution. Last year, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that the FCC's rules were "unconstitutionally vague" and had a "chilling effect."

Rockefeller also said he's "not a great fan of Facebook" and expressed concern about the role social media plays in the coarsening of society.

Both Rosenworcel and Pai are expected to be confirmed.

This is not the first time that the Democratic senator has been critical of the media. At a hearing last November, he ripped Fox News and MSNBC and suggested he wouldn't mind if both went away.
"I hunger for quality news," he said. "I'm tired of the right and left."

RELATED:
Senator Rockefeller rips media
Supreme Court to decide fate of FCC's indecency rules
Comcast makes rare mistep in handling of Baker hire

-- Joe Flint
Photo: Sen. Jay Rockefeller on Capitol Hill in August 2011. Credit: J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press.

Twitter: @latcompanytown

Facebook: L.A. Times Entertainment

More in: Federal Communications Commisison

Losing Control,

Journalism in Grave Peril

From the LA Times Company Town, click here for industry news.
From / First Published 12-15-2011

Rhetoric

2012-01-30T15:05:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia Summary:
Rhetoric (Aristotle).

Painting depicting a lecture in a knight academy, painted by Pieter Isaacsz or Reinhold Timm for Rosenborg Castle as part of a series of seven paintings depicting the seven independent arts. This painting illustrates rhetorics

Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations.^[1] As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western tradition.^[2] Its best known definition comes from Aristotle, who considers it a counterpart of both logic and politics, and calls it "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion."^[3]

Rhetorics typically provide heuristics for understanding, discovering, and developing arguments for particular situations, such as Aristotle's three persuasive audience appeals, logos, pathos, and ethos.

The five canons of rhetoric, which trace the traditional tasks in designing a persuasive speech, were first codified in classical Rome, invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Along with grammar and logic (or dialectic - see Martianus Capella), rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse.

From ancient Greece to the late 19th Century, it was a central part of Western education, filling the need to train public speakers and writers to move audiences to action with arguments.^[4] The word is derived from the Greek ῥητορικός (rhētorikós), "oratorical",^[5] from ῥήτωρ (rhḗtōr), "public speaker",^[6] related to ῥῆμα (rhêma), "that which is said or spoken, word, saying",^[7] and ultimately derived from the verb ἐρῶ (erô), "to speak, say".^[8]

The Gray. Dreamworks has two hits but can they save the studio? Las Vegas's Kirkorian wants back into Hollywood. Will SAG and AFTRA Merge? The Actor goes to...

2012-01-30T14:32:00.000-08:00

Photo: Liam Neeson in "The Grey." Credit: Open Road

Note: From The LA Times Company Town Blog. Click here for industry news.

'The Grey' brings in the green. Liam Neeson's "The Grey" became the actor's third action hit in a row, taking in $20 million and easily finishing first at the box office. Doing better than expected was Katherine Heigl's "One for the Money" while "Man on a Ledge" fell off and went splat. Box-office coverage from the Los Angeles Times and Movie City News.

The Daily Dose: On Sunday, CBS' "60 Minutes" ran a profile of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. But anyone expecting a Troy Polamalu-like hit on the NFL's big boss by television's toughest news magazine was sadly disappointed. While it would be silly to expect one of the NFL's biggest customers to bite the hand that feeds it, the piece could have still raised some tough issues. For example, how about asking Goodell about how fewer fans can afford to go to games or whether he's worried about how rising television rights fees for his product leads to bigger cable bills for fans? Too close to home? Then how about whether he's comfortable with the league being in bed with so many beer companies?

Dilemma for DreamWorks. With its movies "The Help" and "War Horse" in the running for lots of Oscar love, the mood should be bright and confident at DreamWorks, the movie studio run by Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider. Instead, though, the production company finds itself facing questions about its financial future as their initial investment from backer Reliance Entertainment runs out. The New York Times looks at the challenges facing Spielberg & Co.

Hey DreamWorks, I solved your dilemma. While the New York Times writes about DreamWorks' potential money crunch, the Wall Street Journal says that 94-year-old billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who used to own MGM, again wants to be a player in Hollywood. While the WSJ didn't talk to Kerkorian (or even get a recent picture), Jay Rakow, one of his top aides, told the paper, "Our investment or investments could include a technology company with the potential to transform the entertainment industry to a studio or mini-major which can benefit from the infusion of cutting-edge technology." Perhaps Kirk can pick up the phone and call Steven Spielberg. Problem solved and my finder's fee is only 10%.

Too soon to tell? It's been a year since Comcast took over running NBC and the Financial Times says the move is paying off for the peacock network. The story notes all the money Comcast has pumped into NBC for programming and new leadership. It's true that NBC is spending a lot to develop new shows and beef up its local stations. However, the fact that Comcast is investing in NBC doesn't mean it is proving profitable for the cable giant. If the network rises out of last place and starts making more money, then Comcast brass can pop the champagne.

Wait, you mean that's wrong? The ethics scandal tearing through media giant News Corp.'s British tabloids picked up steam over the weekend when several reporters from the Sun were arrested as part of an investigation into illegal payoffs from the press to police. Details from the Los Angeles Times and BBC.

The lesson is report before reporting. Before legendary Penn State coach Joe Paterno died, an erroneous report of his death was posted by a Penn State student website. Then CBS Sports picked up that wrong story and posted it as well, giving it legs. Now CBS Sports has canned the staffer guily of posting first and asking questions later. More from the Washington Post.

Will they do it this time? Over the weekend both the board of Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artist voted to send a reforrendum to their memberships at the end of February to seek approval of a new union to be known as AFTRA-SAG. Details will be made available to members on a special web site starting this Friday. If the two performers unions merge they would form the largest single union in Hollywood.

Inside the Los Angeles Times: "The Help" was the big winner at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards. Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman saw his pay package drop by about 50% to only $43 million. A look at NBC executive Paul Telegdy, who oversees late night and alternative programming for the network.

-- Joe Flint
Follow me on Twitter. I won't censor your tweets at me. Twitter.com/JBFlint

Twitter: @latcompanytown

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More in: DreamWorks, Morning Fix, News Corp., News of the World , NFL

Childish Politics...You fix it!

2012-01-30T12:39:00.001-08:00

Black Man in the CIA

2012-01-30T12:00:00.000-08:00

An Open Letter To Newt Gingrich From A Black Kid Who Grew Up In A Poor Neighborhood

2012-01-30T08:25:00.000-08:00

Source click here

Dear Newt Gingrich,

I recently saw you stand up in front of a group of people and allow some of the most
idiotic, unfounded, racist, and ignorant words pass your lips that I’ve ever heard
from a member of a group of the most unqualified presidential candidates America
has ever seen.

To have the audacity to say that poor kids, and let’s be clear that’s republican speak
for black and brown kids, “have no habits of working and nobody around them who
works” is not only an insult to me as black man who grew up in one of those “really
poor” neighborhoods you spoke of, but it’s an insult to my mother. And it’s an insult to
many other black, brown and white children, adults, and hard working parents(often single
parents) who get up every single day to try to provide a better life for their children in
poor neighborhoods.

As a child who grew up in Compton in the early 90′s, one of the most dangerous
neighborhoods in America at that time, I watched my mother work tirelessly, sometimes juggling multiple jobs to provide for myself and my sister. Day in and day out like many other parents in poor neighborhoods, she did what she had to do in order to provide for us. You know what that turned into Mr. Gingrich?

A son who received academic and athletic scholarship offers from three Ivy League schools
and countless other universities, a son with a college degree in Criminal Justice who
graduated with honors from every school he attended, and a daughter who not only
attended a Gifted and Talented Education high school, but is one year away from
completing a degree at UCLA.

This is not just the case for my family. I know I speak for many other hard working
black, brown, and poor white families who have the same experiences in the poor
neighborhoods you look down upon from your elitist 1% out of touch pedestal. To say that
an entire community “literally has no habit of showing up on Monday” or “they have no
habit of staying all day” I say that is a load of shit.

Millions of poor children watch their parents show up Monday and many of them
sometimes have to suffer from the fact that their parents have to stay at work ALL DAY.
And lastly, you suggest that to remedy this “problem” as you so blindly see it is to make
poor kids assistant janitors and pay them to clean the restrooms? Your solution is child
labor. Degrading young children by suggesting they clean toilets while painting all union workers as lazy leeches. It’s a shame they don’t have the work ethic of hard working Americans like Kim Kardashian who worked so hard in her sex tape before we crowned her a role model for young girls and showered her with money and adoration or Paris Hilton who was forced to clean so many toilets as a teen to learn “work ethic” before her parents handed over the millions.

This not only echoes the depth of your ignorance, but just how truly unqualified
you are to ever be president of this country. Your assumption that poor people have no
ingrained work ethic and “have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash’ unless it’s
illegal” is not only dangerously ignorant but it proves you have no connection with the
true heart of this country.

I believe I speak for most if not all of “poor” America when I say Mr. Gingrich you have
no habit of performing, thinking or speaking in a manner that warrants becoming the
leader of the free world and the 45th president of these United States of America. You
represent a party of greedy, selfish, out of touch, wealth protecting, non tax paying,
destroyers of the middle class. You know nothing about us. But your words in your
speech in Des Moines told us everything about you.

Which is why I hope you win your party’s nomination. So that poor and impoverished
families can at least experience four more years of a man working diligently to help
them and the communities they call home that you have proven to know nothing about.
president number 44.

Travon Free

About Travon Free

Stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. Ivy League brains with none of the student loan debt. This is the home of my opinion. Everything I love. Everything I Hate. This blog is about TRUTH and INSPIRATION.

2012-01-30T01:39:00.000-08:00

Descended From Apes, Acting Like Slime Molds: Nathan Myhrvold

Illustration by Todd St. John/Hunter Gatherer

By Nathan Myhrvold Source: Bloomberg (click here for full story and other news)

About Nathan
P Myhrvold

Nathan Myhrvold, the former chief strategist and chief technology officer at Microsoft, is the founder of Intellectual Ventures, a company that funds, creates and commercializes inventions.

More about Nathan P Myhrvold

As we lurch from one high-stakes political drama to another, it is natural to wonder why societies aren’t better at avoiding self-inflicted crises. Here in the U.S. earlier this month, the government barely dodged default, even though economists reached consensus months ago on when the debt limit would need to be raised.

Meanwhile in Europe, one inadequate government response after another has all but assured that anxiety over the solvency of Greeceand the creditworthiness of Italy and Spain will continue to fester, roiling global markets and pushing the European Union to the brink of ruin.

Pundits have been referring to these spectacles as “train wrecks,” as if they happen at high speed. Hardly. These trains are moving at inches an hour; for years, we’ve seen the potential accident ahead. So why do we end up with the tangled mess?

It’s an important question because, looking down the track, it’s easy to spot other big trains on collision courses. In the U.S., our deeply flawed health-care system long ago lost its brakeman, and the Affordable Care Act, enacted last year, failed to fix the major causes of runaway costs. To the contrary, many argue that it exacerbated some of them. The problem of providing health care in the U.S. is not solved; we’re going to have to wait for some future crisis before it gets more attention.

The current funding structure for Social Security is going to run headlong into the demographic shift of aging baby boomers, bankrupting the program and perhaps the country along with it. Economists know this, but the political reality is that we cannot fix the system in advance; we have to wait for the crisis to occur. Europe and Japan face even worse trouble with their state pensions.

Ignoring Climate Change

We have yet to develop the technology that will be needed to meet the world’s fast-growing demand for energy. And although climate scientists are almost apoplectic about the economic and ecological risks created by global warming, no efforts to combat it have been even remotely commensurate to the challenge. Global levels of carbon dioxide continue to climb unabated.

Politicians don’t like to face unpleasant realities. In truth, nobody does, but as individuals, we have no choice; if we neglect to plan ahead, we are held accountable. Fail to meet your responsibilities at work, and you get fired. Ignore your car’s gas gauge, and you get stranded.

So why do we have trouble avoiding catastrophes as a society? The answer may lie in the biology of colonial organisms. Society, it turns out, behaves a lot like a slime mold.

A slime mold is a colony-forming creature that occupies the evolutionary middle ground between single-celled microorganisms such as bacteria, which generally fend for themselves, and truly multicellular animals such as humans, in which trillions of highly specialized cells organize themselves into the heart, eyes, brain and so on. Heart cells aren’t out for themselves -- they dutifully perform their very specific job of pumping blood to the rest of the cells in the body.

Colonial organisms, in contrast, are creatures that can live by themselves, but instead frequently band together in macroscopic collections. Sometimes -- as in ant hills and bee hives -- the members of the colony specialize to a modest degree, but they are still full-fledged individuals. Yet the colony as a whole acts like a larger organism. Certain slime molds, for example, can move, reproduce and exhibit other simple animal-like properties.

Brainless Organism

But a slime mold doesn’t have eyes or a brain -- or any other organ, for that matter. Creating an organ requires a deep subjugation of interests. The heart has to trust that the brain will run things and that the reproductive system will look after its long-term interests.

Although it may be tempting to think of social institutions as functioning like organs, human societies behave, in practice, much more like slime molds. They don’t have eyes or brains that are anything like human eyes and brains. So although any one of us can learn from our mistakes, foresee problems and act reasonably to solve them, collectively we don’t do a very good job of this.

Granted, our species is very intelligent and has developed exquisite communication across the world and through the centuries. But while people are smart enough to anticipate problems, they are also smart enough to make counterarguments. Every good idea in history has had to fight against many bad ideas before winning broad acceptance.

Like the individual mold cells in a slime colony, most people mainly pursue their self-interest, influenced only partially by a concern for the common good. And our individual agendas often conflict. You can’t balance the federal budget, for example, without goring somebody’s ox. Do we raise taxes, cut spending, eliminate subsidies? Every option is resisted by some people.

What’s more, society as a whole isn’t rational. In politics, religion and other areas of culture, people disagree on the worth of competing ideas. There is no equivalent to the scientific method that can determine in a robust way which ideas match the real world, and which ones can be ruled out. So conflicting ideologies persist indefinitely.

Economics suffers from this problem, too. Economists want their discipline to be a science, and they have nailed down a few precepts, but many of their debates are still clouded by ideology.

Absent a political counterpart to the scientific method, democracies rely on an error-correction system that is based partly on checks and balances and partly on elections. Checks and balances slow decision-making by giving rise to horse trading: Rather than block your tendency to overspend, I agree to fund your project, so long as you agree to fund mine.

Popular Policy Makers

Elections, for their part, are typically popularity contests rather than measures of candidates’ relative competency or effectiveness. Imagine if scientific truth were determined according to which scientist was most popular. To be successful, scientists would have to be charismatic and attractive -- and human knowledge would suffer terribly. It’s easy to blame politicians for their many faults, but ultimately we have the politicians we insist on having.

The net result of these limitations is that even advanced democracies are functionally blind, so they deal with problems only when they bump into them and perceive a “sudden” crisis. Americans put up with increasing air pollution for decades before the situation got so intolerable that Congress passed the Clean Air Act. Hundreds of species went extinct before systematic action was taken to save endangered plants and animals.

Unfortunately, this way of responding to problems runs the risk of being too little, too late. Not all problems can be fixed after they have become severe. If we wait until all the cheap oil is gone before developing alternatives, the resulting economic disruption will be traumatic. And if we wait until global warming is intolerable before making serious cutbacks in emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases, the physics of the atmosphere virtually guarantees that all our efforts will then be too late. To head off these problems, this slime mold needs to grow eyes and a brain.

(Nathan Myhrvold, the former chief strategist and chief technology officer at Microsoft and the founder and chief executive officer of Intellectual Ventures, is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this article: Nathan Myhrvold at nathanmyhrvold@hotmail.com

SAG and AFTRA to merge into SAG-AFTRA

2012-01-29T22:36:00.000-08:00

Messages from the presidents

Dear Member,

This weekend, the SAG and AFTRA National Boards took a decisive step to strengthen our future by overwhelmingly endorsing a plan to merge Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. If members approve the merger, the new union will be called SAG-AFTRA.

The vote of the unions’ National Boards came after more than a year of focused effort to hear from members about their needs for stronger union representation and to develop a merger plan to meet those needs. With the enthusiastic approval of our boards, the decision now rests in the hands of AFTrA and SAG members.

Merger referendum ballots are scheduled to be mailed on or about February 27^th – but all members of both unions will have access to the complete merger documents within the next couple of days on the SAG and AFTRA websites. Full printed merger documents will also be mailed to each voter with the referendum ballot, which will be due for return on March 30^th. This will give each member ample time to make a thoughtful and well-informed decision.

We’re also excited to announce that on Friday, February 3^rd, we will launch a new joint website to provide members all the information they’ll want to consider before casting their votes. The website will include complete merger details, FAQs, and a comprehensive calendar of events to alert members nationwide to informational meetings and other opportunities for learning about the plan. Watch your email later this week for details of the website launch.

After more than a year of intensive work, we are extremely proud to bring you this historic opportunity. We also want to acknowledge the ceaseless dedication of the AFTRA and SAG members and staff who came together as the Group for One Union (G1) to produce this remarkable plan. We look forward to sharing all the details and answering any questions you may have. Finally, we are confident that SAG and AFTRA members will embrace this singular chance to harness the true power of unity, and that SAG-AFTRA will protect members and shape the entertainment and media industries for decades to come.

In unity,

Ken Howard
SAG National President

Roberta Reardon

AFTRA National President

SAG Awards 2012: The Winners List

2012-01-29T22:32:00.001-08:00

SAG Awards 2012: 'The Help' Dominates Film Honors,

'Boardwalk Empire' Tops TV

SAG President Ken Howard Extols AFTRA Merger at SAG Awards

From The Hollywood Reporter. Click here or see the links below for full coverage.

Getty Images

Complete rundown of the 18th annual winners and nominees in all categories.

The biggest and brightest stars of film and television came together on Sunday, Jan. 29 to honor their peers at the 18th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Christopher Plummer and Octavia Spencer took home the evening's first awards for supporting actor and actress, while Alec Baldwin, Kate Winslet, Betty White and the casts of Modern Family and Boardwalk Empire were among the others earning nods during the ceremony. Receiving the night's top honors were Jean Dujardin for best actor in a leading role, Viola Davis for best female actor in a leading role and The Help for best ensemble in a motion picture.

Mary Tyler Moore accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award from Dick Van Dyke midway through the show, taking the opportunity to explain why she chose to use her middle name to separate herself from the six other Mary Moore's already on SAG's roster in the early stages of her Hollywood career.
Stay tuned for real-time updates as the winners are announced. See the complete list of nominees below.

ANALYSIS: SAG Awards Nominations Key Stats, Inclusions and Snubs

AND THE ACTOR GOES TO:

Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Supporting Role
Nick Nolte, Warrior
Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Armie Hammer, J. Edgar
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
*WINNER Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Supporting Role
*WINNER Octavia Spencer, The Help
Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs

Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Comedy Series
*WINNER Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Ty Burrell, Modern Family
Steve Carell, The Office
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Comedy Series
Julie Bowen, Modern Family
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family
*WINNER Betty White, Hot In Cleveland

Outstanding Performance By An Ensemble In A Comedy Series
30 Rock
The Big Bang Theory
Glee
*WINNER Modern Family
The Office

Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Television Movie Or Miniseries
Diane Lane, Cinema Verite
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
Emily Watson, Appropriate Adult
Betty White, The Lost Valentine
*WINNER Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce

Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Television Movie Or Miniseries
Laurence Fishburne, Thurgood
*WINNER Paul Giamatti, Too Big to Fail
Greg Kinnear, The Kennedys
Guy Pearce, Mildred Pierce
James Woods, Too Big to Fail

Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Drama Series
Kathy Bates, Harry’s Law
Glenn Close, Damages
*WINNER Jessica Lange, American Horror Story
Julianna Margules, The Good Wife
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Drama Series
Patrick J. Adams, Suits
*WINNER Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall, Dexter

Outstanding Performance By An Ensemble In A Drama Series
*WINNER Boardwalk Empire
Breaking Bad
Dexter
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife

Outstanding Performance By A Male Actor In A Leading Role
George Clooney, The Descendants
Demian Bichir, A Better Life
Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar
*WINNER Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Leading Role
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
*WINNER Viola Davis, The Help
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Outstanding Performance By A Cast In A Motion Picture
Bridesmaids
The Artist
The Descendants
*WINNER The Help
Midnight in Paris

Outstanding Performance By A Stunt Ensemble In A Motion Picture
The Adjustment Bureau
Cowboys & Aliens
*WINNER Harry Potter and the Deahtly Hallows: Part II
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
X-Men: First Class

Outstanding Performance By A Stunt Ensemble In A Television Series
Dexter
*WINNER Game of Thrones
Southland
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena
True Blood
\

Hollywood actors showered support on 'The Help,' giving the ensemble drama a trio of Screen Actors Guild trophies. | Read More

• Related: Live from the SAG Awards

SAG Awards 2012: The Martin Scorsese drinking game SAG Awards 2012: 'Bridesmaids' cast gets their drink on -- onstage‎ Zap2it.com (blog)
We Think The Bridesmaids Ladies Made Up Their Martin Scorsese ...‎ Crushable
Kristen Wiig: Balenciaga Beautiful at the 2012 SAG Awards‎ GossipCenter.com

SAG Awards 2012: The Winners List
SAG Awards 2012: The Winners' Reactions

SAG President Ken Howard Extols AFTRA Merger at SAG Awards

SAG Awards 2012: Mary Tyler Moore Honored for Lifetime Achievement: 'I'm Happy After All'
VIDEO: Michel Hazanavicius on 'The Artist's' SAG Awards Nominations, DGA Awards Win
SAG Awards 2012: 'Harry Potter,' 'Game of Thrones' Win Stunt Ensemble Honors

PHOTOS: SAG Awards 2012 Red Carpet Arrivals

SAG Awards Fashion: Angelina Jolie Plays It Safe In a Jenny Packham Black Halter Gown
SAG Awards Fashion: Michelle Williams Saves Color for the Important Carpets With Red Valentino

SAG Awards Fashion: 'Bridesmaids' Babes Rose Byrne, Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy Rock the Red Carpet

THR's Complete SAG Awards 2012 Coverage

SAG Awards: Michel Hazanavicius on 'The Artist's' Stellar Awards Season (Video)

SAG Awards 2012: Mary Tyler Moore Honored for Lifetime Achievement: 'I'm Happy After All'

SAG President Ken Howard Extols AFTRA Merger at SAG Awards

SAG Awards 2012: Red Carpet Arrivals

SAG Awards 2012: The Winners' Reactions

PHOTOS: SAG Awards 2012 Red Carpet Arrivals

USA Today coverage
Los Angeles Times
People Magazine Online
Reuters Coverage
Chicago Sun Times
MTV on the Red Carpet

SAG Awards: Mary Tyler Moore Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

SAG Awards 2012: Mary Tyler Moore gets lifetime achievement honor‎ Zap2it.com (blog)
SAG Awards 2012: Mary Tyler Moore Honored for Lifetime Achievement ...‎ Hollywood Reporter
Mary Tyler Moore: After SAG Awards, what could be next?‎ Los Angeles Times

SAG Awards: 30 Rock's Katrina Bowden anounces engagement

Morale

2012-01-29T14:27:00.000-08:00

Higher Education in Nevada in Trouble...Keep up and do your part to reverse the trend

2012-01-29T14:23:00.001-08:00

Michael Green

The discussion continues ....

NEVADA VIEWS: Higher education funding

www.lvrj.comIn the last legislative session, I introduced Senate Bill 374, which created the Committee to Study the Funding of Higher Education.

The Sanctity of Marriage

2012-01-29T13:39:00.001-08:00

2012-01-29T12:44:00.001-08:00

"We must not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around us in awareness."

(James Thurber, 1894 – 1961)

Communication and Motivation Seminar March 23 to 25th

2012-01-29T02:24:00.000-08:00

Judi Moreo SpeechCoach

Bea Goodwin-Aikens, Founder of Lanie’s Hope, shares her personal story of addiction and recovery, love and loss at the Life Choices event, March 23 -25 at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas. Throughout her career as a Casino executive, real estate broker, CEO and chairman of the board, Bea knew in her heart that she was being called to share her real story, the behind-the-mask struggle to overcome addictions that drove her from alcoholism to compulsive gambling to work-a-holism. Bea will share insights into:

■Balancing your life, releasing the “Dig Deep, Don’t Quit” mantra and learning to “be still”
■The importance of paying attention to “Cosmic Two by Fours”
■Embracing an abundant mindset and realizing your own “Twelve Dollars”
■Finding and recognizing your life calling
■Answering the call

SAG Board of Directors Approves Merger Package with AFTRA

2012-01-28T02:16:00.001-08:00

AFTRA's Board of Directors to vote on the plan on tomorrow Jan. 28 and then members of both unions would vote on proposal.

FROM The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to read this and other labor news.

The Screen Actors Guild Board of Directors announced today that it had approved a plan to merge with AFTRA.

Read the press release from SAG detailing the merger plan below:

"The Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors today voted overwhelmingly to approve and recommend a plan to merge with AFTRA. The board met in a regularly scheduled plenary meeting in the James Cagney Board Room at the Guild’s Los Angeles headquarters and voted after reviewing a merger package put forward by the SAG and AFTRA Group for One Union (G1) that includes a Merger Agreement and Constitution.

Collectively, these documents outline the plan of merger, dues and finance structure, membership requirements, and other basic attributes of the successor union. The same merger package must now be approved by AFTRA’s National Board of Directors which is scheduled to meet on Jan. 28, to review and vote on the package. Should the AFTRA board approve the merger package as well, a referendum will be sent out for a vote by members of both unions in the coming weeks.

The proposed name for the new union is SAG-AFTRA.

The resolution read:

“It was moved and seconded that the National Board of Directors, on the recommendation of the Merger Task Force, approves the proposed Merger Agreement between Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and further approves the proposed SAG-AFTRA Constitution. The National Board directs that the proposed Constitution and Merger Agreement be submitted for membership approval by mailed ballot referendum, in cooperation with AFTRA. The referendum materials and ballot shall be mailed on or about February 27, 2012, with a ballot return and tabulation deadline of March 30, 2012.”

Approved: 87.1% - 12.9%

The G1 held five rounds of meetings to create the successor union merger package. The meetings, which began in June of 2011, followed a historic Listening Tour conducted by SAG National President Ken Howard and AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon. The G1 finished its work January 16 with a vote approving the merger package debated and approved today by the SAG National Board."

FROM The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to read this and other labor news.

dis the Democrats

2012-01-27T14:12:00.000-08:00

How are the Millennial Generation doing as voters? They are credited with helping to elect Barrak Obama, and then changing the chemistry in the Senate and in governor's races the other direction.

Remember the source... In the case of this morning's Las Vegas Review Journal, as the editors wrote the head "Young voters now dis democrats, poll finds" on a page one story.

When you read the story you find that the Pew Trust found that registered voters 18 to 29 favored the Democratic Party 62% to GOP 30% in 2008, while a poll this past December shifted to 54% to 40%.

First off, is this a "dis"?

Second, be aware the poll was of voters, not all young people.

Third, and most important, when you visit Pew you will find an error for the demographics breakdown of +/- 8.5% or 17% total. The difference shown is a shift away from democrats of 8%, within the error margin.

The pew trust report, not highlighted by the RJ and its headlines, indicated, "large numbers of young adults like the president, but are dissatisfied with the rate of progress in changing Washington and fixing health care". The story goes on to say that younger voters do not understand the time it takes to craft compromises and the depth or nature of the political motivations of politicians and political parties.

Deeper into the copy, far beyond what headline readers or those who scan story would end up reading, the report by Hope Yen of the Associated Press reads "neither party has a hold on voters ages 18 to 29. They tend to vote far less than other age groups...Analyst find the fast pace at which young people live their lives, and both parties should take note of their fickleness."

Former George W. Bush strategist Matthew Dowd feels "they haven't become Republicans, and they aren't solid Democrats. They’re just looking for leaders who are where they are and will deliver...both parties should be cognoscente of the volatility of that group."

In addition, in contrast to all other demographic groups, only "34 percent" supported sending more troops to the Middle East and over "50% were dissatisfied" with what they see is escalation of the war.

The AP summary of the report goes on to say those voters 18 to 29, or the Millennial Generation, represent one quarter of the electorate but vote less frequently, so they had a lower impact on election results. The demographic tends to be less religious, more racially diverse, increasingly liberal on social issues, favor gay rights and contrary to the Tea Party or conservative movement, feel that government should do more to solve problems.

The overall Pew study covers only 2,020 adults reached by cell phone (considered more accurate as methodology for young adults) and landline between January 14 and 27. The overall estimated error for all groups studied was plus or minus 2 % (4%) with the harder to reach 1 to 29 at 8.5% (17% range).

From 2/22/2010

Star of the Artist Retires, Wagging his tail in farewell

2012-01-26T22:21:00.001-08:00

Los Angeles Times Entertainment

Uggie the dog is ready to hang up the acting collar.

'The Artist's' Uggie to retire at 10; that's 50-plus in dog years

latimesblogs.latimes.com

Uggie the dog, the canine scene stealer of "The Artist" will retire after the Oscars. Uggie had a huge 2011, with major starring roles in "Water for Elephants" and "The Artist."

SKECHERS Superbowl 2012 Sneak Peek

2012-01-26T21:47:00.000-08:00

Alpha Dogs of Super Bowl ads

2012-01-26T21:46:00.001-08:00

From the LA Times Company Store Blog.

This Super Bowl might be remembered for the underdog.

Not the New England Patriots or the New York Giants, but a French bulldog in red sneakers.
Manhattan Beach-based Skechers USA has traded in Kim Kardashian -- who starred in the shoe company's steamy Super Bowl advertisement last year -- for a cuddly creature named Mr. Quiggly.
"Last year our advertisement got millions and millions of views online and it came out among the top of the consumer surveys of favorite ads," said Leonard Armato, president of the Skechers Fitness Group. "I thought, 'How am I going to top that?' "

The answer is on view in a 15-second teaser Skechers released to promote its upcoming advertisement in the Super Bowl. The ad marks the Southern California company's third outing in the Big Game.
Billionaire Mark Cuban also will be featured in the commercial. But Mr. Quiggly's other co-stars -- sleek greyhounds -- have drawn the attention of animal rights activists who have protested the dog-racing theme. Skechers said no animals were mistreated in the advertisement, which was shot at a Tucson, Ariz., dog track.

Instead, the advertisement promotes Skechers' new line of high-performance footwear, Skechers GOrun.

"This is a metaphor for the technology and the spirit of the brand," Armato said. "Animals work really well in Super Bowl ads."
Skechers won't be the only company placing a dog prominently in its spot. While the details are under wraps (or perhaps under the couch), Volkswagen also has a canine theme in its highly anticipated ad, created by ad agency Deutsch LA. Last week, VW released a minute-long teaser for its advertisement called the "Bark Side," which quickly went viral online and has been watched more than 9 million times.

"There is nothing like the power of the pooch," said Rob Siltanen, founder of Siltanen & Partners, the El Segundo-based firm that created the Skechers spot. "People absolutely love dogs."

Siltanen should know. His team created the Super Bowl spots for Orange County-based carmaker American Suzuki Motor Co. -- the ad will run in 21 markets (although not L.A.) -- and feature Siberian huskies. So far, animal rights activists have not expressed any concern about the treatment of these sled dogs.

From the LA Times Company Store Blog.

Ethical Speaking (8 simple bullet points)

2012-01-26T21:26:00.000-08:00

Ethical speaking (applies to all forms of speech) involves

1. Responsible knowledge

2. Reasonable knowledge

3. Covers all major reasonable options

4. Covers all responsible options

5. Is fair

6. Is objective

7. Keeps in mind the effect on the listeners

8. Takes responsibility for the effect and response of listeners

Public Speaking Advice from Lt Co. Robert F. Cain III

2012-01-26T20:32:00.000-08:00

Passion is the key point.

Act like your bored and your audience will zone out.

I gave a powerpoint in Orlando just recently. Most of my slides were
images, and I was the most animated character in the room -- not what was
on the screen. I jumped, ran up and down the stage, raised my voice,
lowered my voice, made jokes (mostly about myself), and acted like I
CARED.

I am the actor. I am on stage. I am leading the troops, I am rallying
them, to DO SOMETHING.

A powerpoint presentation is secondary. It is your notes as the
presenter. It is not as interesting as you.

Get out from behind the podium, step out into the audience and stand in
front of people and ask them what they think. Ask them to explain
themselves.

Tell them what you think and personalize the information.

I was fortunate to have on the same agenda was the COL of the state police
who investigated Virginia Tech.

He was speaking of the investigation he headed up by order of the
governor. He did not jump up and down, raise his voice, or make jokes.
The subject was too serious. But the information he presented was
personalized from his point of view. he gave his opinion, he explained
the why and the how. No one questioned his opinion because of the
gravitas of the subject matter, but no one doubted that he cared.

One a clown...(me), one serious and to the point...but both caring about
the subject. Both will be remembered.

Lt Col Robert F Cain
US Army Reserve
Pentagon

Reposted as areminder for the remainder of the term...

First posted January 11, 2010

Is Journalism a Profession?

2012-01-26T18:57:00.000-08:00

Years ago a professor taught me that journalism, as a profession was limited to the central part and latter days of the 20th century. His reasons lie in the fact that while calling themselves a profession there were not standards or checks and balances found in other professions. Freedom also leads to the ability to manipulate, change and even practice without any repercussion. His predictions in the mid 1970's were a decline in the pay, number and outlets for balanced professional journalism while a geometric or even faster increase in outlets for those who have an ax to grind, feel they are the keepers of the truth, or who have a vested financial interests in manipulation. He predicted that ratings, popularity, entertainment and the ability to make people mad or get them fired up would win over reporting the truth through any sort of professional filter.

Where are the test, accreditation, minimum education requirements, apprenticeships or other methods on a supervised honing of the craft given today's economy and the publics greed for scandal, ammunition to hate or mistrust others and to be mushrooms living in a cocoon where events on the other side of the world are of no importance unless they impact our pocketbooks where we live and work?

Can any form of trust in the media and in journalist be restored as long as we have a profit, ratings or subscription, hits or direct response capitalistic system for determining what is news?

What will happen to our free society if the fourth estate disappears or is trusted far less than the society and government they are expected to report on and watch in our interests?

And, who will pay for it all, for what motive and to what impact?

Ethics & Morality

2012-01-26T15:12:00.000-08:00

Course Materials for Week One

2012-01-26T12:48:00.000-08:00

CSN Communication 101: Oral Communication

Instructor: Art Lynch Phone/Voicemail: (702) 714-0740

Email: CSN on-line campus Angel preferred (or dr.artlynch@me.com )

Web: Angle link http://www.csn.edu/pages/2212.asp,

REQUIRED TEXTBOOK:

Coopman, S. J. & Lull, J. (2009). Public speaking: The evolving art. With supplemental materials for the Department of Communication at CSN. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

OTHER REQUIRED MATERIALS: Scantron Forms 882e or 882es & # 2 Pencils (for exams)

Keep current on current affairs and on the subjects you choose to speak about.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Com 101, Oral Communication, satisfies the Communication requirement for related instruction for many certificates offered at CSN. Please check the CSN Catalog or your degree sheet to determine if COM 101 fulfills that requirement. The emphasis of this course is upon the principles of effective communication. We will study various communication strategies from both a practitioner's perspective as well as from the viewpoint of a recipient.

Syllabus:
http://www.comprofessor.com/2012/01/public-speaking-syllabus-art-lynch.html

About Instructor:

COM 101 Sections Taught Spring 2012:
http://www.comprofessor.com/2012/01/com-101-sections-taught-by-art-lynch-at.html

Readings for Week #1

Extra Credit:
http://www.comprofessor.com/2011/11/xtra-credit-for-csn-com-101-and-102.html

Other:

Generating Topic Ideas

2012-01-26T12:25:00.000-08:00

Airports, aviation, air planes lead to a wealth of possibilities for informative and even persuasive speech topics. Recently I spent some time in the main terminal and D Gate at McCarren International here in Las Vegas. The two stagnant exhibits led to topics from local history to how the Army Air Corps my father served in became the US Air Force, how Las Vegas led the way in the growth of air travel and modern resort marketing, how Boulder City almost became an international air hub, how air travel could have become a free service for tourist and why the Federal Government shot that idea down, the evolution of runways and terminals, and insight into the fields or museum cur ration and education.

Let your mind wander as you search for topics. Do not simply do the same old thing old thing others have done before. Start with something that interest you, then start to keep a list or do a mind map other things that topic may lead you to think about. From that list do another list, expanding one or two of those "branch" ideas into specific aspects of the topic. Once you have narrowed the list down to something you really find interesting, start to work on research, creative execution, outlining and presentation. Feel free to change, shift and improve as you move through the speech preparation and presentation process.

One way to approach this process is to start with your pet peeves. what annoys you? what gets you mad? What would you change if you could? Make a list. Next, make a list of the ins you enjoy. What makes you happy? What brings a a smile to your face? what can you share with others? Still another way is to think of where you have lived, cultures you have experienced, things that have happened in hour life.

If you use the brainstorm list and selection process explained above you will be able to find a subject that is new and interesting to your listeners and that you will enjoy sharing.

Rent-A-Person

2012-01-26T09:46:00.000-08:00

Use the Free Communication Labs at CSN

2012-01-26T09:29:00.000-08:00

COMMUNICATION LABS:

Hours of Operation – Spring 2012
Tentative, subject to change

Cheyenne Communication Lab
Monday	9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; 2:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Tuesday	9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.; 2:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday	9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; 2:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Thursday	9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.; 2:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Friday	9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Henderson Communication Lab
Monday	9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.; 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday
Wednesday	9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.; 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Thursday
Friday	9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

West Charleston Communication Lab
Monday	8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday	9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday	8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Thursday	9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Friday	9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Kiplings Critical Evaluation

2012-01-25T15:30:00.000-08:00

Click "read more" at end of story... and "Older Posts" for a wide variety of posts.

2012-01-25T14:41:00.000-08:00

Links for the study of Speech

2012-01-25T14:25:00.000-08:00

American Rhetoric

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/

This site features text, audio, and video for thousands of speeches given over the last several decades. You can explore the vocal delivery of various speakers by listening to the audio of the speeches provided, and the videotaped speeches give you an opportunity to see many different examples of physical delivery.

History Channel Speeches

http://www.history.com/media.do

Browse for speeches by topic, or review the entire list of speeches available on the site. What effective delivery strategies do speakers on this site use?

Martin Luther King Video Gallery

http://www.mlkonline.net/video.html

Part of the MLK Online website, this section features videos of Dr. King's speeches. Listen to and watch these speeches to learn how Dr. King used various delivery techniques to motivate his audiences.

PresidentialRhetoric.com

http://presidentialrhetoric.com/

Communication professors Martin Medhurst and Paul Stob developed and manage this website that focuses on information and resources related to the study of U.S. presidential rhetoric. The site includes speeches, links to online resources, and an annotated bibliography of scholarship related to presidential rhetoric.

Taming Anxiety when Delivering a Speech

http://www.hawaii.edu/mauispeech/html/speechanxiety.html

This site, hosted by the University of Hawai'i Maui Community College Speech Department, provides some useful tips about how to manage your anxiety while you’re delivering your speec

Understanding the Oral Tradition of Rhetoric

2012-01-25T13:53:00.000-08:00

From the American Communication Association On-line Textbook.

As you may be able to tell, the study of communication was based in the oral tradition. The oral tradition refers to the vocal transmission of information between people from generation to generation. History, law, tradition, culture—all were passed along by orally for centuries prior to the creation of the written word. Even after the written word was invented, the “oral tradition” remained intact due to the prevalence of illiteracy. Even today there are still traces of the power of the “oral tradition.” For example, some nursery rhymes, such as Humpty Dumpty, date back to 16th century England. Did you ever sing it as a child? Well, you many not know it refers to a cannon used in the English Civil War which fell from its perch atop a church wall when, in 1648, it was hit by enemy fire. It can be hard to believe, given that we live in a mass and computermediated society, that at one time the spoken word was the primary medium of communication, even over the written word.

The oral tradition of public speaking is most closely tied to the study of rhetoric. Rhetoric is generally known as the art of using discourse to persuade people. Most often, rhetoric is used to persuade individuals to take up or reject a belief, assign meaning to a person, event or object, or even perform an action. Rhetoric is actually one of the oldest disciplines studied in the Western world; its origins date about to around 476 B.C.! (Murphy, 1983) Rhetorical scholarship originally focused on both the creation of and analysis of public speaking since it has historically been the main vehicle of persuasion. Political assemblies and campaigns are still prototypical contexts of rhetorical, public speech. Ironically, rhetorical theory emerged from written classical texts from the ancient Western civilizations of Greece and Rome.

Historically, the study of rhetoric has been based in Western thought (specifically Greek and Roman), which solely reflects European culture and beliefs and promotes a western perspective from which rhetorical analysis is practiced. However, rhetoric and the practice of rhetorical speech were not exclusive to the West. Ancient African, Middle Eastern, Asian, and Latino cultures all have rich oral traditions which have largely been left out of the history of rhetorical study. Today, scholars are increasingly turning to the works of rhetors in regions such as China, Iraq and Egypt, to aid in the development of an evolving multicultural tradition of rhetoric rather than its static and unnecessarily narrow western one. For instance, an analysis of the rhetorical style of Mencius (371 – 289 BCE), a Confucian social philosopher from Ancient China, found that he used the common theme of water to help persuade people of his political belief that “the benevolent has no enemy” (Ma, 2000). Also, did you know that Enheduanna (2300-2225 BCE), a high priestess in the ancient Sumerian city of Ur (currently known as Southern Iraq), was the first author in recorded history and is largely considered a feminist?

Rhetorical Study in Ancient Greece

2012-01-25T13:45:00.000-08:00

From the ACA Open Knowledge On-Line Guide

Rhetorical Study in Ancient Greece
In the ancient city-state of Athens, Greece, public speaking was a central part of everyday life. To understand the importance Athenians placed on public speaking, specifically persuasive rhetorical speech, one must know the political context from which it arose. There are two main political reforms that occurred in Athens which served as a catalyst for the emerging need of public speaking and the study of rhetoric. They are: 1) the creation of a democratic state; and 2) a system of common courts (Conley, 1990).

Athens was one of the earliest (508-322 BCE) and most radically democratic governments in recorded history. Athenian democracy was founded on the principle that power should reside in the citizenry rather than a small group of elites. This principle was upheld through the establishment of the ekklesia, or Assembly. The Assembly referred to the regular meeting of the demos, or citizenry, to deliberate and vote on all aspects of Athenian life. Although women were considered citizens, only free men, whom were 18 or older and of Athenian descent could actively participate in the Assembly. Gender based exclusion from legislative activities was not unusual; in the US, women were ban from voting until 1920! That was less than a century ago. In spite of this omission, democratic participation was so highly valued in Athens that Assembly members were paid to attend meetings to ensure that even the poor could attend (Blackwell, 2003). Thus, once a member of the Assembly any man, regardless of class, was free to speak his mind. Freedom of speech was a hallmark of the Assembly since it was believed that without free speech no amount of deliberation would yield effective policy and law.

However, just because one could speak didn’t mean everyone would listen, individuals would have to learn the art of persuasive speaking to capture and keep the Assembly’s attention.

In addition to the Assembly, there was a full-time governing body of Athenian democracy called the Council which consisted of 500 high officials. Fifty council members were appointed, for a one year term, from each of Athens’ ten tribes. The main responsibility of the Council was the creation of the Assembly’s agenda. Thus, the Council acted as a preliminary voting body. If a majority of the Council voted to pass a decree that decree would then be sent to the Assembly for their consideration. Being a Council member did not carry with it the same connotations as being a member of US Congress; it did not make one a politician. For many, it was simply another democratic duty Athenian citizens had to perform. Also, it was believed that only appointing individuals best suited for the job of high office would ensure that people did not apply simply to increase his status or gain privilege. Power could not be obtained simply from one’s position but rather from an individual’s ability to persuade fellow citizens to follow a proposed course of action. Thus, public speaking skills became a highly sought after skill in Athens’ radical democracy.

The creation of the Heliastic court system, or the People’s Court, was the second development that contributed to the rising importance placed on public speaking. Any male citizen could be a member of a jury as long as he was at least thirty years old and was free of any debt to the government. Jury selection was done randomly by lot and at the last minute to prevent any type of bribery or patronage. Just as in the Assembly and Council, individuals were paid for their participation on juries to open access to even the poorest citizens. During their deliberations, jury members would determine a defendant’s guilt or innocence, as well as a reasonable sentence on guilty verdicts. The People’s Court gave citizens the power to file suit against any other citizen on criminal and civil charges. Also, it gave citizens the ability to appeal rulings by the Assembly or Council they were dissatisfied with. Whether overturned or not, the People’s Court allotted Athenian citizens an unprecedented opportunity to have their voices heard. In Athens, this common court system acted as “the ultimate guarantor of democratic rule” (Blackwell, 2003).

In the Assembly, Council, and People’s Court, public speaking became the most important skill one could have. The amount of social mobility possible was unprecedented and depended, in large part, on ones’ ability to be a persuasive speaker. In Athens’, having the power to sway the public could potentially defuse the privileges of status and bloodline. Citizens could gain office, prevail in lawsuits, and aid in the adoption or rejection of a proposed decree. In order to succeed in each of these situations, all one needed to be, at least in principle, was an effective public speaker. It was in every citizen’s interest to learn the art of persuasive public speaking, thus, training to be an effective speaker was in high demand.

The Sophists were traveling public speaking teachers that believed anyone, regardless of natural ability, could benefit from speech instruction. They would trek from city to city offering their paid services which included: public performance, speech writing and instruction in argumentation and style. The Sophists believed that human knowledge could not be certain due to the subjectivity of the senses. The closest humans could come to certainty was probable knowledge, which was reached through rationale debate (Bizzell & Herzberg, 2001). Thus, they taught individuals how to argue a point from both a supporting and opposing position. A persuasive speaker would, therefore, be able to examine an issue from all areas to determine its strengths and weakness and address both.

Yet, the Sophists also believed that language could never be objective since it was too culturally symbolic and emotionally charged to promote. Thus, learning how to be a persuasive public speaker entailed learning how to manipulate language to induce one’s desired audience response. Language was simply a neutral tool that could be used to one’s advantage. Ethics, therefore, only resided in the speaker, not speech.

Some noteworthy Sophists were Corax, Gorgias and Isocrates. Corax of Sicily is believed to have been the first person to develop a techne, or rational method of practicing a craft or art, for creating rhetoric. Although Corax is widely considered the first sophist, Gorgias is thought of as the most famous.

A gifted speaker, Gorgias believed that having a command over rhetoric would enable speakers to exercise control over others. For Gorgias, speech, not divinity, determined the extent things are good and just. In his most famous speech, The Encomium of Helen, Gorgias argues that Helen of Troy was a victim of persuasion and should not be blamed for initiating the Trojan War. Although a weak speaker, Isocrates was best known for his techniques for teaching rhetoric. Isocrates attempted to set himself apart from his fellow sophists because he did not agree with many of their teachings. Isocrates believed speech teachers should cultivate wisdom, a sense of justice and a commitment to the civic good rather than just persuasive techniques. But not everyone in Ancient Greece found the sophists to be “good” speech teachers.

Plato is one of the most influential Greek philosophers of the Western world. Plato was suspicious of rhetoric because, ethically speaking, it could be used for both good and bad. His views on rhetoric are found in two dialogues, Gorgias and Phaedrus. In Gorgias, which is named after the famous sophist, Plato expresses his disdain for “false” rhetoric by likening it to flattery. “False” rhetoric was used to persuade people of probable truths by simply telling listeners what they wanted to hear.

Thus, “false” persuasive public speech could create morally deprived listeners. In Phaedrus, Plato offers an account of “good” rhetoric—rhetoric that can persuade the listener’s soul to know transcendent truth. Plato believed that the type of rhetorical speech taught by sophists was “false” rhetoric because they did not try and persuade people of transcendent truth. Not surprisingly Plato’s account of “good” rhetoric is highly philosophical and can only be spoken by philosophically minded individuals.

Aristotle, one of Plato’s students, believed that the reason rhetoric could appear “true” and “false” was because persuasive speech was a neutral tool that can be used to argue both sides of a question. In Rhetoric, Aristotle offers a wide ranging theory on speech composition. Many of Aristotle’s concepts in Rhetoric are still used in public speaking classrooms today! These include Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric and his concept of artistic proofs. First, Aristotle defines rhetoric as “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion” (Aristotle, trans. 1984. Bk. I, Ch. 2). Once these means are determined, it is the speaker’s responsibility to utilize them ethically. Second, artistic proofs are constructed by speakers to make the speech more persuasive. These proofs are ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos commonly refers to a speaker’s credibility and character. Pathos refers to use of emotional appeals to evoke specific feeling in the audience. Logos refers to the logical reasoning underlying a speaker’s claims. Used together, artistic proofs support a speech by intellectually and emotionally appealing to an audience.

From the ACA Open Knowledge On-Line Guide

2012-01-25T13:17:00.000-08:00

Rise of Spanish Language Programming in English. Motion Picture Home to Remain Open. Battle over the Globes.

Protesters in 2009 rally against the planned closure of the Woodland Hills nursing home and hospital operated by the Motion Picture & Television Fund. Quinten Smoller, 5, center, and his family showed up to support his grandmother Ava Bliss, 85, an actress, rear center in wheelchair. Credit: Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times

The Motion Picture Home is Open for Business and will admit new residents.
Three years after a controversial decision to close Hollywood's best known nursing home, the Motion Picture & Television Fund has reversed course and said it would immediately begin admitting new residents to the Woodland Hills facility.

The decision marks a victory for residents and their families who waged a highly public campaign to fight the fund's decision in January 2009. Many residents accused the charity of losing sight of its mission to take care of entertainment industry workers and refused to leave, hiring an attorney to block evictions.

At the time, the fund's board members said they had no choice because its facilities were losing millions of dollars and threatening the charity with bankruptcy. On Wednesday, however, MPTF officials said the nursing home's finances had improved under new management, enough at least to justify admitting residents.

The board tapped former Panavision Chief Executive Bob Beitcher this summer to replace David Tillman, who resigned as head of the fund in February 2010 after bitter clashes with residents over his handling of the planned closure.

"I would give Bob Beitcher and his management team really a lot of credit for coming in and getting our house back in order, which it needed,'' said Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation and MPTF Chairman. "The results of it are that we can very comfortably expand our capacity."

The nursing home has only 29 of the more than 130 residents who lived there in January 2009. The fund will expand to at least 40 beds for now, with priority given to former residents who moved to other facilities. The nursing home is part of a larger retirement community in Woodland Hills operated by the fund.

"This will be a pivotal moment for current long-term care residents and their families, other campus residents and staff,'' Beitcher said. "It will restore the continuum of care on campus everyone has been hoping for."

Nancy Biederman, founder of the Saving the Lives of Our Own group, which fought the nursing home closure, said: "We applaud the MPTF on its stewardship and vision, and thank all who worked together to uphold the Fund's historic mission and move it forward.... That the MPTF has strengthened its commitment by embracing Long Term Care on campus is a victory for everyone."

The fund has been cutting costs by streamlining operations. The nursing home will operate on one floor instead of two, and last week the fund laid off 18 workers.

Fund officials also have spent months negotiating a deal with Kindred Healthcare Inc. of Louisville, Ky. Under a proposed deal, Kindred would invest $10 million to remodel an existing hospital building and would lease hospital and rehabilitation beds from the fund. That would give much-needed revenue to the charity, which provides various social and healthcare services to entertainment industry workers.
The signing of the deal, originally expected to be completed by the end of last year, however, has been delayed by uncertainty over whether Congress will extend a moratorium on the building of long-term acute-care facilities.

In the meantime, Wednesday's announcement should help backers such as Katzenberg raise charitable contributions at an annual fundraising event held the night before the Academy Awards ceremony Feb. 26.

"It's been long and it's been hard and very difficult at times, but the good news is that the bad news is behind us,'' said Katzenberg, who had previously supported the decision to shutter the nursing home. "Now I feel like this is really a new day."

Ricky Gervais hosting the Golden Globes.

Foreign Press vs. All American Dick Clark Productions (Clark is no longer a part of the company). The strategy of the Golden Globes owner, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., in its legal fight with Dick Clark Productions over who controls the television rights for the awards show became clear during the first day of the trial at U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

The battle grew out of a 2010 deal that Dick Clark Productions, which has produced the show for HFPA for almost 30 years, made with NBC to keep the Golden Globes on the network through 2018. That deal, worth about $150 million, was to go into effect starting with this year's show. Soon after Dick Clark Productions and NBC signed the contract, the HFPA filed a lawsuit charging that Dick Clark Productions violated the partnership because it did not have the organization's approval to renew the deal with NBC.

Dick Clark Productions has countered that a 1993 amendment to its partnership with the HFPA gave it the rights to to negotiate with NBC in perpetuity without the HFPA's consent, which would allow it to continue to be a 50-50 partner with the HFPA on the show. The HFPA disagrees.

"The contract says no such thing," said Daniel Petrocelli, the O'Melveny & Myers lawyer who is representing the HFPA, in his opening remarks. He added that the actions of Dick Clark Productions prevented "the rights from being sold to the highest bidder." The suggestion that HFPA would have signed an agreement that would allow that, he said, "defies common sense."

Petrocelli spent the first day of the trial grilling Fran LaMaina, the retired president of Dick Clark Productions who oversaw the company and its deal-making with the HFPA in 1993. Petrocelli kept asking LaMaina if the executive had made to clear to HFPA in 1993 how significant that amendment was to Dick Clark Productions.

"It was not my responsibility," LaMaina said in response, adding that he didn't think he "misled the Hollywood Foreign Press."

What Petrocelli appears to be trying to establish, however, is not that LaMaina should have told HFPA what Dick Clark Productions thought the amendment meant. Rather he is attempting to show that LaMaina and DCP did not have that interpretation of the amendment at the time. Getting LaMaina to acknowledge that he never discussed the idea that Dick Clark Productions would have the rights to co-produce the show in perpetuity as long as NBC held the rights seems aimed at proving that Dick Clark Productions is engaged in revisionist history and only recently decided that this amendment gave them the rights to renegotiate with NBC without HFPA approval.

LaMaina is expected to testify for much of Wednesday as well. Later in the week, current Dick Clark Productions President Mark Shapiro is expected to take the stand, as is former NBC business affairs head Marc Graboff, who was involved in negotiating the deal.

Hot market. Just days after News Corp.'s Fox announced it was launching a Spanish-language broadcast network in the United States, Mexican programming giant Televisa said it has struck a deal with production company Lions Gate to produce programming to sell in the U.S. Details from the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times.

Actors Fernando Colunga and Lucero in Televisa's telenovela "Soy Tu Duena," which produced huge ratings in the U.S. for the Univision network. Credit: Antonio Uribe / Univision

Spanish production gears to English Speaking Audiences. Santa Monica-based independent studio Lionsgate and Mexico's programming powerhouse Grupo Televisa are expanding their budding partnership with a new venture that aims to create television shows for English-language audiences.

The move continues a trend of major media companies in the U.S. looking south to Latin America for programming concepts and business partners. Earlier this week, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said it planned to launch a new broadcast network this fall in collaboration with Colombian broadcaster RCN.

Companies -- and advertisers -- are becoming increasingly interested in capitalizing on the growing clout of Latino consumers. They make up the fastest growing demographic group in the U.S.
Lionsgate and Televisa -- Mexico's largest media company -- said Tuesday that their new unit would tackle six to eight TV projects a year. The plan is to mine story lines from Televisa's vast vault of wildly popular telenovelas and adapt them into English-language comedies and dramas for U.S. broadcast networks and cable channels. Executives also intend to develop original concepts for scripted and unscripted shows.

The two companies first went into business in 2010 with a joint venture called Pantelion Films. Its purpose is to acquire and distribute feature films that appeal to Latinos in the U.S.

The parties declined to disclose financial terms of their new TV arrangement. The soon-to-be-named venture will be managed by Paul Presburger, chief executive of Pantelion Films. Presburger helped put the TV entity together with Lionsgate on behalf of Televisa.

Televisa separately has an equity stake in Univision Communications, the largest Spanish-language media company in the U.S. Televisa's programming fuels the prime-time ratings on the flagship Univision network, helping to build it into the nation's fifth most popular network.

A handful of projects already are in development for English-language programmers, including a comedic adaptation of Pantelion's first film, "From Prada to Nada." The firm is working on a scripted drama for ABC based on Televisa's smash hit "Soy Tu Duena." The new show will be called "Badlands." Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC Studios is collaborating on the series.

Until now, little of Televisa's programming was accessible to mainstream audiences. The new development, unveiled at the National Assn. of Television Program Executives convention in Miami, followed Univision's announcement that it would begin adding English-language subtitles through closed caption to its prime-time telenovelas.

Rob Lowe and Kaley Cuoco in Lifetime's "Drew Peterson: Untouchable." Credit: Lifetime.

The Daily Dose: Lifetime's movie "Drew Peterson: Untouchable," starring a heavily made-up Rob Lowe as the suspected wife killer, drew almost 6 million viewers Sunday. Lifetime brass was quick to grab glory for the performance. "This is an amazing way to start the year and is a direct result of our aggressive strategy to green-light quality programming," said Lifetime President Nancy Dubuc. While she did green-light it, the movie was put into development by her predecessors at the channel. What will be interesting to see is whether its success will lead Lifetime, which has struggled to create new shows in the last few years, to return to its women-in-jeopardy roots and move away from trying so many reality programs.

We're watching. This is a little out of our entertainment wheelhouse, but given its aspirations in media it is worth noting Google's latest moves in tracking consumer habits, which could raise privacy issues. Google, of course, not only is the largest search engine, it also owns YouTube, has its own email platform and a TV application. More on what the "don't be evil" folks are planning from the Los Angeles Times and Wired.

I could have rented them my place for less money. Time Warner has created a lab in its corporate headquarters to observe how people consume media. The media giant will see how people interact with television, magazines and video games, and react to advertising. Sounds like one of these deals where a company spends tons of money to learn the obvious. On the other hand, next time I'm in New York and need to get out of the rain and use a bathroom, I'll know where to go. More from the New York Times.

Boys' club. The British government is probing the lack of women both on and off the air at the BBC. "It is an issue that we must keep pressing at," Broadcasting Minister Ed Vaizey was quoted saying in the Guardian. "Some people might regard it as frivolous or something that makes good copy for a parliamentary sketch, but … we want to hear a balance of voices on the radio and to see a balance of presenters on the television."

Taking on Netflix? Amazon is considering offering its own standalone streaming service that would compete against Netflix, says the New York Post.

Inside the Los Angeles Times: Still debating the Oscar nominations? So are we. Here's a story about how comedy fared and one about whether "The Artist" will get a box office boost from all its nominations.

-- Joe Flint

Follow me on Twitter. It's like sitting in the peanut gallery all day. Twitter.com/JBFlint

From the LA Times Company Town Blog...click here for the latest industry news.

Twitter: @latcompanytown

Facebook: L.A. Times Entertainment

Blog posts worth a revisit

2012-01-24T22:19:00.000-08:00

Some blog posting for review and response

Casting bias against the disabled and other groups

What is Critical Thinking?

The Future of Theater? Live Theater on-line from London

The Barkside of the Super Bowl

Video is everywhere!

Unit One Notes: Getting Started

Has cable news become The Munsters?

The information/communication age has a dark side

False Dicotomy

Listening

Held by the Taliban

Tweet the News: Healthcare

Good Bye Boulder City News and Henderson Home News

Do Clark County schools prepare you to be in college?

Demographics: Youth is no longer related to age....How Psychographics are trumping Demographics

2012-01-24T17:04:00.000-08:00

Evolution of Psychographic over Demographic

http://www.marketingcharts.com/topics/asia-pacific/youth-no-longer-defined-by-chronological-age-35-is-new-18-6530/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Youth No Longer Defined by Chronological Age; Consumers Stay ‘Younger’ Longer

Center for Media Research Brief 11-7-08

The traditional demographic definition of “youth” is no longer applicable in today’s society, and marketers should target consumers based upon their engagement and participation in youth culture rather than on their chronological age, according to the “Golden Age of Youth” study from Viacom Brand Solutions International (VBSI).

As people worldwide delay the onset of adult responsibilities and stay emotionally and physically younger for longer, it is becoming more acceptable for older people to participate in youthful pursuits. To support this trend, marketers should routinely consider the often-overlooked 25-34 age group a part of the youth market, VBSI said.

“Contemporary youth should now be defined as ‘the absence of functional and/or emotional maturity,’ reflecting the fact that accepting traditional responsibilities such as mortgages, children and developing a strong sense of self-identity/perspective is occurring later and later in life,” the study said.

Indeed, 52% of all 25-34 year-olds agree they still have “a lot of growing up to do,” and this sentiment is highest in Asian (78%) and Latin American (66%) markets.

Click 'read more' below for additional information on this topic...

viacom-golden-age-youth-growing-up-to-do-august-2008.jpg

“Even in these financially challenging times, people are trying to stay younger for longer,” said Kevin Razvi, EVP and managing director of VBSI. “25-to-34 year-olds are continuing to consume music, gaming and the internet and are enjoying the pursuits of their younger years while benefiting from a greater level of personal and financial freedom. We therefore need to rethink what ‘youth’ actually means and how we and our partners can approach this constantly evolving group of people.”

Three Stages of Youth

Though those between 25 and 34 remain youthful, there are some important differences among them and their younger and older counterparts. The study identified three distinct stages of youth: “Discovery” (16-19 years old), “Experimentation” (20-24 years old) and “Golden” (25-34 years old), and found that the youth market has grown to include all three as the differentiation between traditional demographic groups has become blurred through lifestyle choice and spending power.

Key findings:

* 25-34 year-olds do not respond to the same marketing as teens and those who assume they do are seeing a “youth mirage.” Though they may look similar and access many of the same brands, only 9% of those 25-34 globally said that they would actually like to be a teenager in 2008. Agreement with this statement was lowest in developed markets: Japan (4%), Europe (5%) and the US (9%).

viacom-golden-age-youth-want-to-be-teenager-august-2008.jpg

* “Golden” Youth are happier, and more confident/secure and gravitate toward premium, understated and often luxurious brands and experiences to affirm their identity. In contrast, teenagers are highly focused on material gain and employ brands to define their identity.

* 25-34-year-olds are most likely to agree that they are happy or content with their personal life, and are 24% more likely than teens to agree that they “love life.”

* More than 80% of the global respondents say that that the 20s should be about exploring life and having fun.

viacom-golden-age-youth-20s-time-exploration-fun-august-2008.jpg

* Teens feel under pressure to figure out who they are and where they are going and are 23% more likely than those 25-34 to agree that their life is more stressful. This is particularly true in Europe and in the US.

* 17% of the global sample who said they’d “made some major decisions in life too early” were the most unhappy and stressed group of 25-34 year olds among all the respondents.

“Traditional adult brands need to adopt a more youthful tone to avoid being seen as irrelevant,” the study said. To support this, 23% of the 25-to-34-year-old global sample feels that financial institutions are aimed at those older than they are; while youthful brands have a new market beyond the core teenage target. In the traditionally young area of technology, one-third of 25-34 year olds agree they’re really interested in new technology, and 66% say that they take the time to learn how things work to get the most out of them.Other regional differences:

* Respondents age 25-34 who are married are significantly more likely to be happy (66%) vs. singles (30%).

* Only 36% of Europeans and 39% of Asians 25-34 feel like they’re struggling with their current financial situation vs. 55% in Latin America and 51%

in America.

* 71% of 25-34-year-olds agree they feel comfortable with who they are. Those who feel most settled with their identity live in Mexico (84%), India (83%) and Saudi Arabia (82%). Those who are least comfortable are the Japanese (26%).

* 35% of Europeans would find it strange if someone got married in their early 20s vs. only 20% of Americans and 18% of Japanese.

* In general, 78% are optimistic about their future. This is highest in Latin America (85%), lowest in Asia (67%) and the US (72%).

* 62% of Latin Americans felt they made life decisions too early vs. only 24% Japanese, 37% of Europeans and 50% of Americans.

The study also found that from a global perspective, 25 is the “ideal” age overall. Additional findings and regional differences:

* 27 is the ideal age to buy a house (25 in the UK, 33 in Japan).

* 22 is the ideal age to buy a car (20 in the US and UK, and 29 in China).

* 26 is the ideal age for love (25 in Saudi Arabia and 28 in Mexico).

* 23 is the ideal age to get a credit card (20 in the US)

* 19 is the ideal age to travel without parents (25 in Saudi Arabia).

* 27 is the ideal age to be a parent.

* 20 is the ideal age to lose your virginity (no differences by region).

* 22 is the ideal age to move out on your own.

* 26 is the ideal age to start saving for retirement (23 in US and 25 in Europe and Latin America)

About the survey: VBSI used both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to survey more than 25,000 respondents between age 16-46 in 18 countries. These included Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Italy, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, UK and the US. The survey was carried out between January and August 2008.

Graphs and other information are at link at the top.

VII. Bias
A. Bias – the tendency to feel one way or another about anything. Bias changes. May be positive or negative, or neutral in nature. Is a natural state of being and impossible to avoid, but it can be minimized.
1. Prejudice –
a. a subset of prejudice
b. a strong culturally entrenched bias,
c. very difficult to change
d. may be positive or negative
2. Stereotype –
a. communication shorthand that utilizes bias, often reinforced by
Media, community, others

Effective Listening Skills

2012-01-24T15:30:00.000-08:00

A competent listener:

Uses eye contact appropriately.
Is attentive and alert to a speaker’s verbal and nonverbal behavior.
Is patient and does not interrupt, waiting for the speaker to finish.
Is responsive, using verbal and nonverbal expressions.
Asks questions in a nonthreatening tone.
Paraphrases, restates or summarizes what the speaker says.
Provides constructive verbal and nonverbal feedback.
Is empathic, makes an effort to understand the speaker.
Demonstrates interest in the speaker as a person.
Demonstrates a caring attitude and is willing to listen.
Does not criticize, is as nonjudgmental as possible.
Is open-minded.
Works actively at listening and understanding.

An ineffective listener:

Interrupts the speaker, demonstrates impatience.
Does not make eye contact, allows his or her eyes to wander.
Is distracted and/or fidgety, does not pay attention to the speaker.
Is not interested in the speaker.
Gives the speaker little or no verbal and/or nonverbal feedback.
Changes the subject.
Is judgmental.
Is close-minded.
Talks too much.
Is self-preoccupied.
Gives unwanted advice.
Is too busy to listen.
Stops listening and does other things (text, read, videos, etc.)

Source: Open Knowledge On Line Guide.

Deconstructing and giving our Democracy to the 1% and Foreign Investors

2012-01-24T14:37:00.001-08:00

The Court’s Blow to Democracy

With a single, disastrous 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has thrust politics back to the robber-baron era of the 19th century. Disingenuously waving the flag of the First Amendment, the court’s conservative majority has paved the way for corporations to use their vast treasuries to overwhelm elections and intimidate elected officials into doing their bidding.

Congress must act immediately to limit the damage of this radical decision, which strikes at the heart of democracy.

As a result of Thursday’s ruling, corporations have been unleashed from the longstanding ban against their spending directly on political campaigns and will be free to spend as much money as they want to elect and defeat candidates. If a member of Congress tries to stand up to a wealthy special interest, its lobbyists can credibly threaten: We’ll spend whatever it takes to defeat you.

The ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission radically reverses well-established law and erodes a wall that has stood for a century between corporations and electoral politics. (The ruling also frees up labor unions to spend, though they have far less money at their disposal.)

The founders of this nation warned about the dangers of corporate influence. The Constitution they wrote mentions many things and assigns them rights and protections — the people, militias, the press, religions. But it does not mention corporations.

In 1907, as corporations reached new heights of wealth and power, Congress made its views of the relationship between corporations and campaigning clear: It banned them from contributing to candidates. At midcentury, it enacted the broader ban on spending that was repeatedly reaffirmed over the decades until it was struck down on Thursday.

This issue should never have been before the court. The justices overreached and seized on a case involving a narrower, technical question involving the broadcast of a movie that attacked Hillary Rodham Clinton during the 2008 campaign. The court elevated that case to a forum for striking down the entire ban on corporate spending and then rushed the process of hearing the case at breakneck speed. It gave lawyers a month to prepare briefs on an issue of enormous complexity, and it scheduled arguments during its vacation.

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., no doubt aware of how sharply these actions clash with his confirmation-time vow to be judicially modest and simply “call balls and strikes,” wrote a separate opinion trying to excuse the shameless judicial overreaching.

The majority is deeply wrong on the law. Most wrongheaded of all is its insistence that corporations are just like people and entitled to the same First Amendment rights. It is an odd claim since companies are creations of the state that exist to make money. They are given special privileges, including different tax rates, to do just that. It was a fundamental misreading of the Constitution to say that these artificial legal constructs have the same right to spend money on politics as ordinary Americans have to speak out in support of a candidate.

The majority also makes the nonsensical claim that, unlike campaign contributions, which are still prohibited, independent expenditures by corporations “do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” If Wall Street bankers told members of Congress that they would spend millions of dollars to defeat anyone who opposed their bailout, and then did so, it would certainly look corrupt.
After the court heard the case, Senator John McCain told reporters that he was troubled by the “extreme naïveté” some of the justices showed about the role of special-interest money in Congressional lawmaking.

In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens warned that the ruling not only threatens democracy but “will, I fear, do damage to this institution.” History is, indeed, likely to look harshly not only on the decision but the court that delivered it. The Citizens United ruling is likely to be viewed as a shameful bookend to Bush v. Gore. With one 5-to-4 decision, the court’s conservative majority stopped valid votes from being counted to ensure the election of a conservative president. Now a similar conservative majority has distorted the political system to ensure that Republican candidates will be at an enormous advantage in future elections.

Congress and members of the public who care about fair elections and clean government need to mobilize right away, a cause President Obama has said he would join. Congress should repair the presidential public finance system and create another one for Congressional elections to help ordinary Americans contribute to campaigns. It should also enact a law requiring publicly traded corporations to get the approval of their shareholders before spending on political campaigns.

These would be important steps, but they would not be enough. The real solution lies in getting the court’s ruling overturned. The four dissenters made an eloquent case for why the decision was wrong on the law and dangerous. With one more vote, they could rescue democracy.

The above is copywrite New York Times, and is a New York Times Editorial in its entirety.

first published 1-22-2010

For previous blog coverage of the Supreme Court Decision discussed above, along with links to NPR, Wall Street Journal and other souces, click here.

2012 Oscar Nominations Announced

2012-01-24T14:09:00.001-08:00

Best Picture
- The Artist Thomas Langmann, Producer
- The Descendants Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers
- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Scott Rudin, Producer
- The Help Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers
- Hugo Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers
- Midnight in Paris Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers
- Moneyball
  Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers
- The Tree of Life Nominees to be determined
- War Horse Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers
  
  Oscar Nominations 2012: Academy Award Nominees List
  
  From the Huffington Post, click here for entertainment news from the HP.
  
  The nominees for the 2012 Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday morning, and as expected, films about films led the way.
  
  "The Artist," the silent, black and white tribute to old Hollywood, earned a nod for Best Picture, and, after a series of recent critics and guild award wins, is considered the favorite. Writer/director Michel Hazanavicius received nominations for both Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
  
  Jean Dujardin was handed a bid for Best Actor for his turn as George Valentin, a silent film star who refuses to move into the era of the talkies; he earned the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy earlier this month. Bérénice Bejo, for her role as starlet Peppy Miller, earned a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
  
  "Hugo," Martin Scorsese's 3D family homage to film preservation, earned 11 nominations.
  
  "The Descendants," the Alexander Payne-directed dramedy considered the other top awards contender, was also nominated for Best Picture; Payne earned a nod for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, the latter of which he shares with writers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. George Clooney, who stars as a beleaguered father, soon-to-be-widower and trustee of sacred family land in Hawaii, earned a nomination for Best Actor; he was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama earlier in January.
  
  "The Help," the tale of domestic workers in segregated Mississippi at the beginning of the Civil Rights era, also earned a Best Picture nod, as well as a nomination for Viola Davis for Best Actress and nods for Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer for Best Supporting Actress.
  
  "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," the polarizing film about a boy in search of a secret from the father he lost on 9/11, earned a surprise nod for Best Picture, while Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" also slipped in. "Bridesmaids" earned a nomination for Best Original Screenplay for Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, while Melissa McCarthy got a nod for Best Supporting Actress.
  
  Relative newcomer Rooney Mara got a nomination for Best Actress for her chilling turn in "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," though director David Fincher was left out.
  Terrence Malick's artistic and polarizing "The Tree of Life," which starred Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain -- who earned nominations for other films -- got a nomination for Best Picture; Malick earned a nod for Best Director.
  
  Here's the entire list of nominees; check out snubs and surprises analysis by clicking here.
  
  Best Picture
  "The Artist"
  "The Descendants"
  "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"
  "Hugo"
  "Midnight in Paris"
  "The Help"
  "Moneyball"
  "War Horse"
  "The Tree of Life"
  
  Best Actor
  Demian Bichir, "A Better Life"
  George Clooney, "The Descendants"
  Jean Dujardin, "The Artist"
  Gary Oldman, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"
  Brad Pitt, "Moneyball"
  
  Best Actress
  Glenn Close, "Albert Nobbs"
  Viola Davis, "The Help"
  Rooney Mara, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"
  Meryl Streep, "The Iron Lady"
  Michelle Williams, "My Week With Marilyn"
  
  Best Supporting Actor
  Kenneth Branagh, "My Week With Marilyn"
  Jonah Hill, "Moneyball"
  Nick Nolte, "Warrior"
  Christopher Plummer, "Beginners"
  Max Von Sydow, "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"
  
  Best Supporting Actress
  Berenice Bejo, "The Artist"
  Jessica Chastain, "The Help"
  Melissa McCarthy, "Bridesmaids"
  Janet McTeer, "Albert Nobbs"
  Octavia Spencer, "The Help"
  
  Best Director
  Woody Allen, "Midnight in Paris"
  Michel Hazanavicius, "The Artist"
  Terrence Malick, "The Tree of Life"
  Alexander Payne, "The Descendants"
  Martin Scorsese, "Hugo"
  
  Best Original Screenplay
  Woody Allen, "Midnight in Paris"
  JC Chandor, "Margin Call"
  Asghar Farhadi, "A Separation"
  Michel Hazanavicius, "The Artist"
  Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, "Bridesmaids"
  
  Best Adapted Screenplay
  Alexander Payne, Nat Faxton, Jim Rash, "The Descendants"
  John Logan, "Hugo"
  George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon, "The Ides of March"
  Aaron Sorkin, Steven Zaillian, "Moneyball"
  Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughn, "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"
  
  Best Animated Feature
  "A Cat In Paris"
  "Chico & Rita"
  "Kung Fu Panda 2"
  "Puss in Boots"
  "Rango"
  
  Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
  Bullhead (Belgium)
  Footnote (Israel)
  In Darkness (Poland)
  Monsieur Lazhar (Canada)
  A Separation (Iran)
  
  Original Score
  "The Adventures of Tintin," John Williams
  "The Artist," Ludovic Bource
  "Hugo," Howard Shore
  "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," Alberto Iglesias
  "War Horse," John Williams
  
  Best Original Song
  "Man or Muppet," The Muppets; Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
  "Real in Rio," Rio; Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown, Lyric by Siedah Garrett
  
  Best Achievement in Art Direction
  "The Artist"
  "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2"
  "Hugo"
  "Midnight in Paris"
  "War Horse"
  
  Best Achievement in Cinematography
  "The Artist"
  "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"
  "Hugo"
  "The Tree of Life"
  "War Horse"
  
  Best Achievement in Costume Design
  "Anonymous"
  "The Artist"
  "Hugo"
  "Jane Eyre"
  "W.E."
  
  Best Documentary Feature
  "Hell and Back Again"
  "If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front"
  "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory"
  "Pina"
  "Undefeated"
  
  Best Documentary Short Subject
  "The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement?"
  "God Is the Bigger Elvis"
  "Incident in New Baghdad"
  "Saving Face"
  "The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom"
  
  Best Achievement in Film Editing
  "The Artist"
  "The Descendants"
  "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"
  "Hugo"
  "Moneyball"
  
  Best Achievement in Makeup
  "Albert Nobbs"
  "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2"
  "The Iron Lady"
  
  Best Animated Short Film
  Dimanche/Sunday
  The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
  La Luna
  A Morning Stroll
  Wild Life
  
  Best Live Action Short Film
  "Pentecost"
  "Raju"
  "The Shore"
  "Time Freak"
  "Tuba Atlantic"
  
  Best Achievement in Sound Editing
  "Drive"
  "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"
  "Hugo"
  "Transformers: Dark of the Moon"
  "War Horse"
  
  Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
  "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"
  "Hugo"
  "Moneyball"
  "Transformers: Dark of the Moon"
  "War Horse"
  
  Best Achievement in Visual Effects
  "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2"
  "Hugo"
  "Real Steel"
  "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"
  "Transformers: Dark of the Moon"
View By Film /
Printable List /
Select a Category
For the full list with photos and links:
http://oscar.go.com/nominees/

From the Huffington Post, click here for entertainment news from the HP.

2012-01-24T08:18:00.000-08:00

Oscar nominations 2012: 'Artist,' Scorsese's 'Hugo' shine brightest

"The Artist," "The Descendants," "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," "The Help," "Hugo," "Midnight in Paris," "Moneyball," "The Tree of Life" and "War Horse" received best picture Oscar nominations Tuesday morning for the 84th Academy Awards.

OSCAR NOMINEES: Clockwise, "Hugo," "The Descendants," "The Artist," "The Help" and "Moneyball" are among the nine films nominated for a best picture Oscar in 2012. (Paramount Pictures / Fox Searchlight / The Weinstein Co. / DreamWorks / Columbia TriStar)

Why is all TV geared for onlly 18 to 49 year olds?

2012-01-23T22:16:00.001-08:00

Company Town

The business behind the show

Cable network RLTV goes after the over-50 crowd

Photo: John Erickson, the founder of RLTV. Credit: Algerina Perna / Baltimore Sun

When Joan Lunden was first approached about doing a show for RLTV, the cable channel that caters to the over-50 crowd, she was a little reluctant.

“Oh man, do I want to be on Retirement Living TV?” the former host of ABC's "Good Morning America" recalled thinking to herself. The network, which has since dropped the phrase "Retirement Living" in favor of "Redefine Life," was interested in Lunden because of her experience caring for her elderly mother.

For Lunden, hosting a show on RLTV meant not only coming to terms with the idea of working for a channel aimed at Americans over 50, it also meant accepting the fact that at 61, she was right in their demographic sweet spot.

“I can't even wrap my brain around the fact that I'm 60-plus,” Lunden said with a laugh.
But after making “Taking Care With Joan Lunden” for RLTV in 2010, she's overcome any fears she had about being affiliated with the channel and has two new projects in the works. “The 50-plus audience is a force to be reckoned with,” she said.

Lunden's realization is what John Erickson, the founder of RLTV, is banking on. Erickson, who made his fortune building large-scale retirement communities, launched RLTV with a goal of programming to an older audience long ignored by Hollywood and Madison Avenue.

"We [as a culture] don't have a very positive attitude about aging, said the 68-year-old Erickson during an interview from RLTV's Baltimore's headquarters. “We don't celebrate these 25 or 30 years of life in any meaningful way that give people a sense of honor or dignity and involvement.”

For decades, the television industry has built its business around reaching the 18-49 demographic. Advertisers have always paid more to reach younger viewers, believing they are easier to persuade to try new products.

Older viewers, on the other hand, have always been taken for granted. As people age, they watch more TV, so programmers and advertisers figure they don't need to make any special effort to reach out to them or create shows tailored to them. Furthermore, there is a perception that as people age, they become stuck in their ways with regards to spending habits and adapting to new technologies.

Now, though, some of those executives who preached the gospel of 18-49 are singing a different tune as they find themselves inching closer to Social Security.

“We have seen in the last couple of years how a lot of advertisers are waking up to the fact that the 50-plus population is an audience they have to pay attention to,” said Kevin Donnellan, an executive vice president with AARP, the chief lobbying arm for older Americans and a producer of two magazine shows for RLTV. “We're no longer living in that era where people are thinking about their father's Oldsmobile.”

Currently available in 15 million homes (in Southern California it is offered on Verizon FiOS), RLTV hopes to double its reach by the end of 2012.

That growth will be key if RLTV is going to land major advertisers. Right now, its reach is too small to attract much national advertising beyond cheesy direct promotional spots. And it does not bother having its small audience tracked by Nielsen.

“There's no doubt about it, it's a hard sell,” said Paul FitzPatrick, RLTV's president and chief executive officer.

In anticipation of reaching a bigger audience, RLTV has been reaching out more to advertisers to build awareness for the network. Last fall, RLTV executives went on the road to New York and Los Angeles to pitch the network to top advertising agencies.

“I've looked at them a little more closely,” said Francois Lee, a vice president at MediaVest, whose clients include Wal-Mart, Kraft, Procter & Gamble and Microsoft.

As RLTV becomes available in more homes, it will start to open up its wallet to spend more on programming. Erickson said he hopes to invest another $40 million to $50 million on programming and promotion over the next few years and expects the channel, which he says is breaking even now, to become profitable at that time.

RLTV's current lineup is primarily made up of lifestyle and talk shows. “Brady Bunch” mom Florence Henderson hosts a talk show and co-hosts a cooking program. ABC News veterans Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts provide political coverage, and former “Today” co-host Deborah Norville has a show called “Making Medicare Work for You.” Reruns of NBC's popular Sunday morning political magazine “Meet the Press” also air on RLTV on Monday nights.

The network has dabbled in reality programming as well, with the dating show “Another Chance for Romance” and with “Sunset Daze,” best described as its version of MTV's “Jersey Shore” about adventurous senior citizens in Surprise, Ariz. In one episode a character talks about perhaps needing Viagra to keep pace with a woman who is particularly adept at grinding her hips.

RELATED:

RLTV targets aging boomers

-- Joe Flint

Twitter: @latcompanytown

Facebook: L.A. Times Entertainment

"Hey, aren't you an actor!"

2012-01-23T16:59:00.001-08:00

Working Actor on Acting, Observing, Research and Joy

'I'd Rather Be A Mystery': John Hawkes On Keeping His Hat Pulled Down

Categories: Movies

by Linda Holmes

Listen to the Story

All Things Considered

[8 min 19 sec]

Fox Searchlight John Hawkes and Elizabeth Olsen in 2011's Martha Marcy May Marlene.

John Hawkes' conversation with Melissa Block on today's All Things Considered begins as many of his conversations might: with her noting that when she told people she was coming to talk to him and rattled off his credits, she got a response that he undoubtedly gets a lot: "Ohhh, he's that guy."

Hawkes has been in the HBO show Deadwood, last year's Oscar nominee Winter's Bone, and this year's Martha Marcy May Marlene, in which he played a cult leader. He's done regular television — Lost and Psych and Monk and The X-Files and CSI. But still, to many people, he's "ohhh, that guy."

Melissa Block asks him whether he thinks it's a drawback to be a character actor rather than a huge star. "I think to kind of be thought of as 'that guy,' or 'I think I know you from somewhere' kind of guy, is an asset for me," Hawkes explains. "I have a difficult time sometimes believing movie stars playing characters." He says even if he had the face to be a household name, he wouldn't care to be one: "I'd rather be invisible. I'd rather be a mystery."

While he generally gravitates to smaller films, Hawkes does have a role in Steven Spielberg's upcoming Lincoln. Whatever he's doing, he explains that big movies don't always satisfy his desire for storytelling. "I feel like the art that changes the world, which is what I want to be part of," he says, "is never the storyteller guessing what the audience would like, but rather the storyteller telling the story they would want to tell it. Audience be damned, in a way."

Ultimately, Hawkes says, given the mix of projects in which he tends to become involved, encountering the public isn't always easy for a guy who's somewhere between recognizable and not.

"If someone comes up and says, 'I saw you in Winter's Bone, I'm usually thrilled. If someone comes up and says, 'My friend said you were in a movie, what movies were you in?' and things like that? It becomes more difficult to begin listing things — 'Well, I haven't seen that' 'Well, I haven't seen that.' Sometimes, it's easier just to keep your hat pulled down and move about and live a normal life."

From NPR's All Things Considered (click here)

Occupy Wall Street 1967 in words and pictures

2012-01-23T14:28:00.000-08:00

WALL STREET IS WAR STREET

The traders in stocks and bones shriek for New Frontiers—but the coffins return to the Bronx and Harlem. Bull markets of murder deal in a stock exchange of death. Profits rise to the ticker tape of your dead sons. Poison gas RAINS on Vietnam. You cannot plead “WE DID NOT KNOW.” Television brings the flaming villages into the safety of your home. You commit genocide in the name of freedom.

BUT YOU TOO ARE THE VICTIMS!
If unemployment rises, you are given work, murderous work. If education is inferior, you are taught to kill. If the blacks get restless, they are sent to die. This is Wall Street’s formula for the great society!

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2011/10/black-mask-wall-street-1967.html

The truth about who to blame for our defificit (Hint: We are blaming the wrong party)

2012-01-23T14:21:00.000-08:00

Two Foreign Companies form Mundo Fox to compete with Univision and Telemundo. Music sale sup 8% thanks to world market. Modern Family tops in Product Plaement. Superbowl is regional Northeast contest.

2012-01-23T11:26:00.001-08:00

From the LA Times Company Town Blog, click here for the latest industry news.

Caliente! Columbia TV Network and England based Newscorp aid to launch #1 rated Spanish Laguage Network in America. News Corp. announced early Monday that it is teaming up with Colombian broadcaster RCN to launch Mundo Fox, a Spanish broadcast network in the U.S. that will compete against Univision and Telemundo. The announcement, made at the National Assn. of Television Program Executives conference in Miami, said the channel should debut this fall.

Details on the new channel from the News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal, which broke the story. Corp.'s Fox International Channels and RCN Television Group, a Colombian broadcaster, are teaming up to launch a Latino broadcast network in the United States.

News Corp. announced early Monday that it is teaming up with Colombian broadcaster RCN to launch Mundo Fox, a Spanish broadcast network in the U.S. that will compete against Univision and Telemundo. The announcement, made at the National Assn. of Television Program Executives conference in Miami, said the channel should debut this fall.

The new channel, dubbed MundoFox, will launch in the fall of this year. The Spanish-language channel will look to compete against Univision and the Telemundo network, both of which have big head starts. News Corp. and RCN made the announcement Monday at the National Assn. of Television Program Executives conference in Miami.

For News Corp., the push represents the growing importance of the Latino demographic in the United States. The media giant already owns Fox Deportes, a cable sports channel that caters to Spanish-speaking viewers.

“There is an increasing demand for quality Spanish-language content in the U.S. from both viewers and advertisers. Fox saw similar dynamics in play 25 years ago when it launched the Fox network, and it would be a missed opportunity not to provide an alternative for the 50+ million Latino viewers who currently have limited options in Spanish-language broadcast television," said Hernan Lopez, president and chief executive of Fox International Channels.

RCN, which already provides programming to other Latino channels in the United States, will be heavily involved in creating original content for MundoFox.

Man behind the moustache. With the last name Murdoch a little bit tarnished, News Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey, known for his handlebar moustache and his no-nonsense approach to deals, has risen even higher in stature at the Rupert Murdoch-controlled media empire. The New York Times looks at Carey. The Los Angeles Times last year profiled Carey and his "everyone pays" revenue strategy.

From left, Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine and Bruno Mars -- a songwriting and production team known as the Smeezingtons -- at their recording studio in Hollywood. Credit: Chris Pizzello / Associated Press

Digital "music" surges 8% world wide.Sales of music on CDs may be in free fall, but digital music revenue has been climbing steadily, jumping 8% last year, with help from strong performances by artists such as Bruno Mars, according to a report released Monday by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

Digital music sales totaled $5.2 billion in 2011, up from $4.8 billion in 2010, according to the IFPI, a trade group that represents 1,400 music companies worldwide.

Although 32% of the music industry's global revenue came from digital sources, such as downloads and subscriptions to music services, some markets derived a far greater share from digital sales. In the U.S., digital music sales in 2011 surpassed sales of music in physical formats such as CDs, vinyl records and cassettes tapes, making up 52% of the industry's revenue. In South Korea, 53% of music revenue was from digital.

Bruno Mars, whose "Just The Way You Are" won him the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at last year's Grammy Awards, snagged three of the top 10 best-selling digital singles last year.

As the volume of purchased downloaded music continued to sizzle, growing 17% to 3.6 billion singles and albums last year, the subscription music business took off.

The number of paying subscribers to music services rocketed 65% to 13.4 million in 2011 from 8.2 million in 2010, the IFPI said. In Sweden, where the music streaming service Spotify is based, subscription revenue accounted for 84% of digital music revenue in the first 10 months of 2011.

The Giants and Patriots battling in the 2008 Super Bowl. Credit: Charlie Riedel / Associated Press

The Daily Dose: With the New York Giants set to battle the New England Patriots in almost two weeks, NBC couldn't have asked for an easier Super Bowl to promote. Not only did the contenders play in a nail-biter during the regular season, they squared off in perhaps the most memorable Super Bowl ever four years ago when the Giants topped the then undefeated Patriots in a stunning upset. Last year's Super Bowl drew a record 111 million viewers: Don't be surprised if this year's tops that mark.

Senior moment. RLTV, a cable channel founded by John Erickson, who made his fortune building retirement communities, hopes to convince Hollywood and Madison Avenue that the over-50 audience is worth reaching. The network, currently in 15 million homes, hopes to double its reach in the next 12 months and has attracted some familiar faces to go in front of the camera including Joan Lunden, Deborah Norville and Florence Henderson. But persuading big cable operators and advertisers to support the channel is no easy sell. A look at RLTV from the Los Angeles Times.

Unbeatable. Sony's "Underworld: Awakening," the fourth installment of a franchise I was unaware of until three days ago, finished at the top of the box office with $25.4 million. "Red Tails," a historical film about the Tuskeegee Airmen, delivered a stronger-than-expected $19.1 million. "Haywire," which I thought would do better, took in only $9 million. Coverage from the Los Angeles Times and Movie City News.

A fine line between clever and silly. ABC's "Modern Family" is on the top of every advertiser's list when it comes to product placement. But the show's producers are very selective about the companies they do business with and how products are incorporated into the show. The fear is being seen as a shill, a perception currently plaguing CBS's "Hawaii Five-O," which took heat last week for an over-the-top placement for the Subway sandwich chain. Advertising Age examines what it takes to make the cut and get your product in the hands of the cast of "Modern Family."

Report card. Steve Burke is wrapping up his first year as chief executive of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The New York Post gives him a report card that pretty much reads incomplete and questions whether Universal Studios stays in the portfolio. My question: Where would it go?
Inside the Los Angeles Times: A look at the unappreciated work of Hollywood makeup artists.

-- Joe Flint

Follow me on Twitter. You'll join an elite club. Twitter.com/JBFlint

Twitter: @latcompanytown

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More in: Fox, Fox News, Fox Sports, Fox Sports West, Morning Fix, phone hacking, RCN, Super Bowl Ads, Telemundo, Univision

From the LA Times Company Town Blog, click here for the latest industry news.

Not So Fast. Slow down Communication

2012-01-22T10:44:00.000-08:00

"We must reassert principles that have been lost in the blur. It is time to launch a manifesto for a slow communication movement, a push back against the machines and the forces that encourage us to remain connected to them."

Are we moving too fast, communicating too quickly, missing the passion and details of life? The Wall Street Journal featured a story by John Freeman arguing we need to take advantage of speed, but not let it run our lives. In short, we need to slow down, take the time to smell the roses and to actually live life to its fullest.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203550604574358643117407778.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

First posted August 22, 2009

Communication Prof's News and Views: Art Lynch's Blog

Crowe.mpg

GENERATION NEXT: GEN-Y and the MILLENNIALS

Communication Model and Basic Concepts Related to the Model

The Shannon and Weaver model

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Media is "dumbed down"...Rockerfeller sees the decline of an educated electorate

Rhetoric

The Gray. Dreamworks has two hits but can they save the studio? Las Vegas's Kirkorian wants back into Hollywood. Will SAG and AFTRA Merge? The Actor goes to...

Childish Politics...You fix it!

Black Man in the CIA

An Open Letter To Newt Gingrich From A Black Kid Who Grew Up In A Poor Neighborhood

About Travon Free

Descended From Apes, Acting Like Slime Molds: Nathan Myhrvold

Brainless Organism

Popular Policy Makers

SAG and AFTRA to merge into SAG-AFTRA

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SAG Awards 2012: The Winners List

Complete rundown of the 18th annual winners and nominees in all categories.

SAG Awards 2012: The Martin Scorsese drinking gameSAG Awards 2012: 'Bridesmaids' cast gets their drink on -- onstage‎ Zap2it.com (blog)We Think The Bridesmaids Ladies Made Up Their Martin Scorsese ...‎ CrushableKristen Wiig: Balenciaga Beautiful at the 2012 SAG Awards‎ GossipCenter.com

Morale

Higher Education in Nevada in Trouble...Keep up and do your part to reverse the trend

The discussion continues ....

The Sanctity of Marriage

Communication and Motivation Seminar March 23 to 25th

SAG Board of Directors Approves Merger Package with AFTRA

AFTRA's Board of Directors to vote on the plan on tomorrow Jan. 28 and then members of both unions would vote on proposal.

dis the Democrats

Star of the Artist Retires, Wagging his tail in farewell

Uggie the dog is ready to hang up the acting collar.

SKECHERS Superbowl 2012 Sneak Peek

Alpha Dogs of Super Bowl ads

Ethical Speaking (8 simple bullet points)

Public Speaking Advice from Lt Co. Robert F. Cain III

Is Journalism a Profession?

Ethics & Morality

Course Materials for Week One

Generating Topic Ideas

Rent-A-Person

Use the Free Communication Labs at CSN

Kiplings Critical Evaluation

Click "read more" at end of story... and "Older Posts" for a wide variety of posts.

Links for the study of Speech

Understanding the Oral Tradition of Rhetoric

Rhetorical Study in Ancient Greece

Rise of Spanish Language Programming in English. Motion Picture Home to Remain Open. Battle over the Globes.

Blog posts worth a revisit

Demographics: Youth is no longer related to age....How Psychographics are trumping Demographics

Effective Listening Skills

Deconstructing and giving our Democracy to the 1% and Foreign Investors

2012 Oscar Nominations Announced

Best Picture

Oscar Nominations 2012: Academy Award Nominees List

"The Artist," "The Descendants," "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," "The Help," "Hugo," "Midnight in Paris," "Moneyball," "The Tree of Life" and "War Horse" received best picture Oscar nominations Tuesday morning for the 84th Academy Awards.

Why is all TV geared for onlly 18 to 49 year olds?

"Hey, aren't you an actor!"

Working Actor on Acting, Observing, Research and Joy

Occupy Wall Street 1967 in words and pictures

The truth about who to blame for our defificit (Hint: We are blaming the wrong party)

Two Foreign Companies form Mundo Fox to compete with Univision and Telemundo. Music sale sup 8% thanks to world market. Modern Family tops in Product Plaement. Superbowl is regional Northeast contest.

Not So Fast. Slow down Communication

SAG Awards 2012: The Martin Scorsese drinking game SAG Awards 2012: 'Bridesmaids' cast gets their drink on -- onstage‎ Zap2it.com (blog)
We Think The Bridesmaids Ladies Made Up Their Martin Scorsese ...‎ Crushable
Kristen Wiig: Balenciaga Beautiful at the 2012 SAG Awards‎ GossipCenter.com