What's American Idol?

I have never been a fan of the television show Dancing with the Stars, but apparently this season is top notch. Every since Pamela Anderson did the Cha Cha in the first episode, the ratings have surpassed those of American Idol, according to Chuck Barney from MercuryNews.com "But Anderson is just one of several reasons "Dancing With the Stars" (8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, Ch. 7) is enjoying frothy buzz and occasionally thumping "American Idol" in the ratings. With water-cooler personalities such as TV octomom Kate Gosselin, Olympic skating champ Evan Lysacek and "Bachelor" dreamboat Jake Pavelka, 'DWTS' is reinforcing the creed that, in reality TV, casting is everything".

Apparently, it is all about who is on the show as well as its judges and apparently the host, at least between American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. It's also about the content of the show. "While 'Idol' delivers a parade of bland, generic crooners that has us missing the raucous showmanship of Adam Lambert, 'DWTS' gives us juicy conflict, a few laughs, a hint of scandal, some razzle, some dazzle and 'sex, sex and more sex!'". Apparently, I need to be watching this show!

With all things said and done on these two shows, television will always be competing for the most ratings as well as the most interactivity. We have talked a lot about these topics in the past few weeks of class. Reason being is because so many jobs are requiring such interactivity from its audiences, in this case with the voting for your favorite singer and or dancing partner. It will be interesting to see how the season finales will play out for both shows in terms of their ratings and the amount of viewers watching. At least there is always something to look forward to in "reality" TV.

Transmedia, a new form of Media

So what exactly is Transmedia? The truth is, it is a mixture of all things media. According to Keith Kelsen from Digital Design Today, "transmedia attempts to create 'entrypoints' through which consumers can become immersed in a story world. Whether a full-fledged cinema experience or an ad, it all boils down to the engagement point and the products and services sold around the experience".

Its interesting, because Kelsen also says that it cannot just be cinema, TV, the internet, mobile, or digital out of home, but its "all screens all the time" also known as Transmedia. This topic has come up a lot in class lately and Henry Jenkins says it perfectly in his article Convergence Culture (which we also read for class) that Transmedia is story telling across various different forms of media with each element making very distinctive contributions to a viewer's or user's point of view.

By using different forms of media, Transmedia provides consumers and viewers an opportunity to engage with one another and can "become immersed in a story world" (Kelsen). We can see this story world all over the place, especially on the internet with Facebook and Twitter. These two social medias provide that story world atmosphere where viewers and consumers can come together and share stories as well as learn of the content.

New Forms of Marketing

One of the things that we have talked a lot about in our class are the various uses of social medias, specifically big-named ones such as Facebook and Twitter. Those two names seem to be thrown around a lot these days and for all different reasons. It might be that a new fan page was created for a musician, someone received a "tweet" from their favorite baseball player, or just a company marketing its content. This is what people are calling the newest form of marketing: social media marketing.

According to Heidi Cohen from ClickZ, "every marketer feels that they must have a social media marketing campaign to be in turn with the times. But the reality is that most organizations are doing social media marketing wrong". In this article, Cohen suggests that social media marketing should not be a one time campaign, but so much more. She specifically says, "to take full advantage of social media marketing requires breaking down internal corporate silos and integrating social media strategies across your entire organization. It needs to permeate your entire organization. Social media marketing is the glue that truly enables integrated marketing across channels".

The rest of the article gives a twelve step guide on how to effectively use social media marketing for your organization. Organizations need to go beyond their everyday marketing strategies and need to access all areas of their company in order to accurately use social media marketing as well as get positive response from it. With the way the world is shifting to a more technological based environment, it is very important for organizations and companies to learn how to use the different social medias because it will only help their cause, not hurt them. It is a very different world we live in these days in terms of journalism and marketing so it is important for companies to keep up to date with the latest trends, even in the business world.

Loving Glee

Not even a week after Glee returned back for its second season, the polls were in that its viewers increased from 7.3 million viewers to 13.7 million viewers, according to the Times Columnist. The article also suggests that the show has "position[ed] the TV show for a move from cult fan status to mainstream hit" which is something we have discussed many times in class, especially recently.
As a HUGE fan of the show, these numbers don't surprise me. Glee is absolutely an amazing show and I have turned so many people on to watching it now. Although, I admit I randomly throughout the first season caught a couple of episodes but was so behind I couldn't keep up. Once the season was over, one of my roommates and I started watching some online and then caved and bought the entire season on DVD. We watched the entire season in no time at all. In fact, when I went home for a weekend, I dragged my parents out to Borders, bought the season on DVD and the three of us sat in together all day and night and watched all the episodes. Now, they are just as big of fans.
It is truly amazing what this show has done. Not only has it received increased ratings, but you are constantly able to engage in things from Glee. For example, I already bought two of the albums from iTunes and have them on my iPod. I also have purchased new songs randomly from iTunes since the season has started. I have even looked into getting tickets to see Glee on tour. It is absolutely crazy the amount of things you can do with just the songs from Glee. This is stuff we have talked a lot about recently in regards to fan culture from the fan perspective as well as the business or networks' perspective. There are so many opportunities to involve yourself with a show even when the show is not on TV.
This show may not be the number one show on the air, but I still love it and rave to everyone I know about it. It is so refreshing to see such a fun, non-complicated, and just straight funny show to be on the air. Not to mention, it is so entertaining, especially if you love music-which I do.
The article from the Times Columnist is titled "Cult hit Glee hits Mainstream" and it is true. What was once just a cult of specific and limited fans has now become a mainstream hit where people of all ages are learning to love this show. I just cannot wait for the Madonna episode to come out tomorrow!

Say Goodbye to TV and Hello to the Web

With the opportunity to watch almost any movie or TV show on the internet, people will start to pay less and less for all those television stations they are paying for now. Including the channels they have never even watch but still have to pay each month for. One website that is really taking a toll on people's cable bills is Netflix. An analyst said, "with Netflix’s recent studio distribution deals including access to television shows, the online DVD rental pioneer’s vaunted streaming service could entice subscribers to opt away from monthly cable bills".
People are going to be less willing to pay for cable subscriptions as well as even renting movies from the video store because accessing movies and TV shows has become so easy no one is going to want to spend that money to do so. From new released movies to old movies to foreign films to last week's sit com episode, online streaming has become so popular that analysts are convinced that sales will be going down in DVD sales. Also, Netflix will be increasing the number of episodes and movies that it will have on its website which will give viewers who subscribe the opportunity to watch it immediately. That's also another thing, anyone who pays at least $8.99/month or greater gets the opportunity to stream all these things right to their computer or even television. "With Netflix offering free streaming to any subscription plan that is $8.99/month or greater, we believe [it] could easily begin to eat into the estimated $66 billion [cable] market for basic and premium home subscriptions,” Eric Wold with Merriman Curhan Ford in New York wrote in a note.
I know for me, streaming shows has never been something I've been apart of, however, when I have to watch movies for my Spanish class I joined Netflix so I could have easy access to these movies and watch them as I please. I don't see myself continuing my subscription after this semester, but I do agree that people won't be as willing to pay for all those unused cable channels or even think going to the local video store necessary to rent a movie. Instead, they will turn to sites like Netflix or HuLu to watch the latest episode or stream a movie right to their home.

Conan's Back!

It's official, Conan O'Brien is back and is joining the TBS network. According to Alan Duke, O'Brien will be returning to late-night television in November. His new talk show will air during the week at 11:00pm leading into George Lopez's show, however, the show has not been given a name.
Luckily, Lopez is extremely excited to have O'Brien's show lead into his, because otherwise there could have been more issues in late-night television. Supposedly, it was Lopez who contacted O'Brien asking him to consider joining the TBS network which eventually led into the business negotiations.

"In three months I've gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I'm headed to basic cable," O'Brien said in a news release. "My plan is working perfectly."

Since January, O'Brien has been off the air where NBC paid O'Brien and his staff about $40 million to clear the air and allow Leno to return to the "Tonight Show" host chair that he once handed to O'Brein. The settlement between NBC and O'Brien allows him to launch a competing show after September 1st of this year. With his new show starting in November, he is in the clear and ready to begin.
With all of these late-night television hosts it'll see who gets the ratings.

Less and Less Paper

As the world continue to become more and more involved on the internet, printed works are becoming less and less. For one company in particular, they are combining three of their newspapers to just one to ensure less printing. Media General Inc. (MEG) said "It will consolidate copy editing and page design for its three metro newspapers, the Tampa Tribune, Richmond Times-Dispatch and Winston-Salem Journal". A spokesman from MEG said that some people would be losing their jobs, which is unfortunate.
"Media General now has 12 of its 23 metro and community newspapers as part of, or moving to, a consolidated editing-and-design operation. It expects to have all of its newspapers' editing-and-design operations consolidated by the end of this year". This will most likely result in saving more than $1 million a year and it would be used as part of the savings for "intensified local-news coverage".
Its amazing to see how printed press is becoming less and less necessary because more people are turning to the internet to find their news. Whether its local, nation-wide, or world-wide news, people are going to the internet to find that information. And now, with the iPads and laptops and even cell phones, people are able to access news so much easier and faster that printing won't even be a thing anymore. Which for some is sad because I know a lot of people enjoy picking up a newspaper for the day and reading from that.
It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few years in terms of newspapers limiting the number of printed press.