On March 17th (in most markets) PBS's Frontline will feature The Secret History of the Credit Card, a documentary that looks at how credit cards came to be a nearly ubiquitous part of our lives.
Ads like the one above have been appearing in public transit systems in Ottawa, Toronto and other Ontario cities over the last month, supposedly promoting a drug called “Obay” which prevents teenagers from having their own thoughts, hopes and dreams. It's a classic example of viral marketing: an ad campaign that doesn't actually name the product or service being promoted, but rather tries to get people talking about it in the hopes that when the product is finally unveiled the effect will be greater than a traditional ad campaign could have managed.
Two programs on Internet issues are airing this week. First, a three-part series (from Monday. March 3 to Wednesday, March 5) on CTV News Ottawa (Cable 7, Bell ExpressVu 196, Starchoice 311) on cyber bullying; you can watch the trailer here. Also, on Tuesday March 4 TVO's The Agenda is airing a discussion on how being online changes the way we socialize.
Despite a few attempts, air is still free – but airwaves aren't: on January 25th, 2008, the U.S. government began auctioning off rights to frequencies in the 700 megahertz spectrum. These frequencies, which until now have been used to carry broadcast TV signals, are the last important part of the spectrum that will be available for the expanding mobile communications market. These airwaves are being sold (or to be more precise, licensed for ten years) by auction by the Federal Communication Commission – you can watch it gavel-by-gavel at the FCC's Web site. The government hopes to raise $15 billion dollars from the sale, but various factors (particularly the stock market's recent troubles) have kept bidding lower than expected.
In Japan, cell phones and texting are much more widespread among young people than they are here. Much of what we do on computers is done through phones there, with the result that those students that own cell phones spend an average of two hours a day on them. Japanese TV dramas even feature scenes where the dialogue is entirely done through texting, with characters thumb-typing furiously while the messages appear as subtitles. Now another part of life has been squeezed onto the one-inch screen, resulting in the creation of the cell phone novel.
The Association to Reduce Alcohol Promotion in Ontario is accepting submissions for the ARAPO Recognition Award until Friday, February 29th. (Yes, it's a leap year.) In the words of their Guiding Statement, the award is for “recognition of individuals (e.g. journalist, teacher, student etc.) or organizations (e.g. schools, businesses) that have made, and continue to make, outstanding efforts to reduce the effect of alcohol promotion in Ontario.” Nominations must be made jointly in writing by two or more members of the community, following a format you can find here.
The Super Bowl has long been seen as the “tent pole” of American consumer culture: an annual game that routinely pulls in viewers at a scale otherwise achieved only by one-off events like series finales and celebrity car chases. It actually drives sales of TVs: the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association reports that 2.5 million people plan to buy a new TV for the express purpose of watching the game, part of an overall $8.7 billion in Super Bowl-related consumer spending.
The term “Web 2.0” was coined to describe (and, in part, predict) the rise in user-created content on the Net. Recently there have been two stories that show interesting developments in Web 2.0's evolution: bumps in the road to the anticipated convergence with television, and the rise of 2.0 as alternative journalism.
PBS' Frontline will be showing Growing Up Online on Tuesday, January 22.
A contest asks young people to make videos showing their vision of what sex education should be.