Fantasy TV shows are always a huge hit. Think of Game of Thrones, or the new Netflix show, The Witcher. Even if you don’t watch these shows, I guarantee you’ve at least heard of them. They have huge fan bases, and oftentimes huge controversies, so it would be hard to have not heard of them.

Fantasy is a huge genre. It can be anywhere from dragons, to space. There is, however, a connection between almost every fantasy show: their treatment of female characters. 

Women in fantasy TV is something I’ve always been passionate about. Maybe not always, but definitely since I got into fantasy TV around 7 years ago. I’m passionate about it because, yes I am a feminist. It would be hard to ignore how fantasy TV shows present their female characters. 

The way these shows present their female characters, is similar in most cases. They try and make their characters seem strong and independent, but in the process, take away their emotions. As a female viewer, I want to see all kinds of women. Eventually, the “strong independent woman” trope gets overused, and that is what tends to happen in a lot of these shows. 

Obviously, I get a lot of information on this topic from the actual TV shows themselves. Game of Thrones is always one I turn to when talking or thinking about this topic. The Magicians is another one of my favorite TV shows to use as an example when talking about women in fantasy TV. 

However, I don’t just watch the shows to get the information. TV news sources such as IndieWire or Screen Rant, for example, will often have articles about this specific topic. 

I also follow this topic on social media. I will see it talked about a lot on places like Tumblr and Twitter. On social media, I’m an active participant in conversations about women in fantasy shows. 

We talk about all sorts of things on these sites. One big thing we talk about is the sexual harassment a lot of female characters face in fantasy TV shows. Out of any other genre I’ve watched (and it’s a lot), fantasy is the genre with the most sexual harassment. 

However, different media sources speak out against this. Game of Thrones is a huge example of this. After repeated rape, and general mistreatment, on the show, people started to speak out. 

This just goes to show how this topic is treated. In TV shows, women are mistreated a lot. However, on social media and in the news, people are speaking out against it. 

 

Nevada was the first state to regulate sports wagering in 1949. Since what seems like forever they remained the only legal option for betting on games. Sports wagering has always had a public image of being seedy. Reserved only for those who had organized crime ties or for those willing to fringe on the line of an illegal market.

Does this taboo fringe public perception hinder a product, or in this case, a market from flourishing? In the case of sports betting the answer is simply no. In an article written by NBC https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/think-sports-gambling-isnt-big-money-wanna-bet-flna6C10634316 we get a glimpse on just how much money is wagered on all different sports every single year. Let’s just say the numbers are staggering as they are in the billions.

When looking at the numbers, we learn that by far the majority of the money being wagered has been illegally. Either through illegal bookmakers or on unregulated off shore websites. Eventually these numbers could no longer be ignored and we subsequently in recent years have seen a more accepting stance on sports wagering.

May 14, 2018 the US Supreme Court ruled that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (which banned sports wagering) actually violated the tenth amendment.  What does this mean for the booming billion dollar industry? Marc Edelman a senior contributor for Forbes gives us a great rundown in all the new legislation in his article Explaining The Supreme Court’s Recent Sports Betting Decision. https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcedelman/2018/05/16/explaining-the-supreme-courts-recent-sports-betting-decision/#2ff7ad30537c

So can you sports bet nation wide? The answer is no! The Supreme Courts decision simply allowed states to make their own decision on the matter. Nevada has been an example of a thriving regulated sports market and we are seeing many other states follow their lead.

As a long time sports bettor, I am fascinated on how this market will be covered in media, and it’s acceptance in society. We have recently seen many more sports journalist work the point spread into their pregame analysis, or mention the over under (a type of bet) of a game.

A great example of this incorporation of gambling into sports media is in ESPN’s flagship program Sports Center where the days sports action is recapped. Host Scott Van Pelt features a segment titled Bad Beats were he highlights the most brutal point spread outcomes of the week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMEIw1-NxyE

There are countless other mainstay media corporations who are actively covering sports wagering. It seems everyone wants a piece of the pie. The bottom line is sports wagering is here to stay and I can’t wait to see how it will continuously be covered in the media and you can rest assure I will be right here to report on it.

Francisco Healy

I’ve chosen skateboarding in the Olympics as my blog topic, because I love skateboarding. I first picked up a skateboard 10 years ago when my parents gave me the option to either go to the skate park with my dad and little brother or pick a sport at school. I didn’t like the rules and practice times of regular sports so I chose skateboarding and I’ve been hooked since. Skateboarding becoming an Olympic sport gave it so much more credibility around the world. It has also divided the skateboarding community and cause a lot of skepticism about whether or not this is going to be a good thing in the long run.

A lot of the mainstream media coverage has focused on the skateboarders who are Olympic hopefuls (like this article from the LA Times) and their views on it. These skateboarders view it as a positive, and in many senses this is going to be very true. It will benefit the women in skateboarding, who, have historically not been treated equally. It will also expose many new people to skateboarding. Jagger Eaton, an Arizona native and pro skateboarder, talked to Reuters about this.

When the possibility of skateboarding becoming an Olympic sport became a reality and not just a far fetched dream many pro skateboarders didn’t like the idea. Skateboarding being in the Olympics isn’t just affecting skateboarders in the United States either.

China has started promoting skateboarding more since it was announced to be included in Tokyo this year. For many Chinese skateboarders this is an unwelcome change.

I normally get my skateboarding news from Thrasher Magazine and Jenkem Mag. These cover skateboarding in a much different way than other major news organizations, and that’s because they don’t care about the newsworthiness of the subject, they care about how it affects skateboarding and skateboarders.

Thrasher only really talked about the Olympics when it was first announced to be an official sport. Since then the closest it’s gotten to the subject has been in interviews with pros and a skate event that was hosted at the Montreal Olympic Stadium, but had nothing to do with the actual games.

Jenkem has stayed closer to the subject by publishing stories about the possible rules and regulations, how China is gearing up for the games (aside from the one I’ve already linked above), and the first Dominican Olympic skateboarder.

Overall, I think that the mainstream media is covering it in the best and fairest way considering how their audience will appreciate the articles. I’m going to stick to reading the stories from Jenkem, though. To me, as a skateboarder, these are more significant and worthy of my attention.

The current state of AM/FM radio is a lot different than what I was accustomed to growing up in the 70s and 80s. Back then you could hear new music on the top 40 stations while deejays talked between songs. Older music was relegated to the oldies stations; it was unheard of to hear older songs from the 50s and 60s outside of the oldies station or an old movie. You could switch on the rock station and hear a whole album played front to back. At certain times of the week, you might catch a Dr. Demento show, which played odd novelty songs, or Rock Over London, which played current hits from Great Britain. And who could miss Casey Kasem counting down the top hits of the week on his show, American Top 40. Radio was everything in my teenage life (along with MTV when they still played music videos.)

The format of radio began to change in the 90s with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The goal of the bill was to deregulate the broadcasting markets. The result has been the consolidation of media ownership by only a handful of corporations. The effects on the broadcast radio industry has been detrimental, with changes in policies and formats that have left radio listeners turning to satellite subscription services such as SiriusXM or streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora.

Part of what has made me turn away from listening to radio is that lack of a personal connection that I used to feel as a teen. I no longer here the familiar voice of a local deejay announcing the names of songs in between the music. We now have automated stations that are programmed by a computer to play music and advertisements. Radio is also no longer my place to go to discover new music. In fact, on my local alternative rock station, ALT 94.7 FM KKDO,  out if the last twenty songs played live, over half were older than two tears old, with some spanning back to the 90s. Which brings me to what I said earlier about not hearing anything 20-30 years old on the radio unless you were listening to the oldies station.

The issues with modern broadcast radio go beyond just the monopoly on station ownership and formatting changes. In the last couple of months there have been developments that are troubling. Country stations are coming under fire (Rolling Stone) for not playing enough female artists and iHeart Media is laying off 1000 on-air personalities (Rolling Stone). Media is starting to take notice that one of our oldest broadcast media channels is struggling to stay afloat. I still have a difficult time finding relevant news articles about this subject, but my goal for this blog is to find what I can and see how it measures up.

On the Big Screen

“If a million people see my movie, I hope they see a million different movies.”

-Quentin Tarantino.

The cinema has become one of the world’s most cherished forms of entertainment. Getting to go into a theatre, have a break from reality for 90 minutes and become completely engulfed in a story is one of the many reasons why movies are loved by many. As a child going to the movies was a special occasion. As I grew up with three older brothers we rarely got out and did things, so when we did, it was magical. The thing that made me really fall in love with the cinema was the storytelling aspect. The way that the cinematographers and directors could completely enthrall an audience was my allure. I was the kid who would always break that fourth wall when seeing visual effects, or special effects. From an early age I developed  love for movies, and film.

. . . .

But is my love of film shared with the rest of the world? Probably not so much. The way that the media talks about movies, tv shows, and the entertainment industry in general can be a little negative. But let’s talk about the movies themselves, and how the media covers the press for new and upcoming movies.

. . . . 

My go to entertainment media outlet is E! news. They cover a wide variety of topics but are always on top of the press coverage for all highly anticipated movies, of all genres. Another go to media outlet would be Rotten Tomatoes.  Rotten Tomatoes is a movie critic/ movie review website, and I feel as though a lot of people looking to see if they should see the movie or not turn to Rotten Tomatoes. The New York Times is also another go to place for movie reviews, or coverage of press. I believe that in general the media does a pretty good job of representing the movies and the actors in them with integrity, authenticity, and has the audience’s best interest in mind.

. . . .

But if we get a little more niche, the genre I enjoy most is horror. The horror movie genre is very black and white topic. Either you love it, or you hate it. A source I regularly turn to for horror movie reviews is a YouTuber name Sarah Hawkinson. I really enjoy her reviews and I think we have similar taste in movies, so I always look to her channel for her thoughts on the upcoming horror movies set to release in the near future.

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As 30 Rock’s cheerful NBC page Kenneth Parcell says in the second episode of the show’s third season, “There are only two things I love in this world: everybody and television.”

I could not agree more.

Well, alright, there might be a few more things that I love, but television is unquestionably one of them. To me, TV makes for such a great storytelling medium because it has the advantage of time. Sure, some shows experience a drop in quality the longer they run and, yes, the wait between seasons can be excruciating when cliffhangers are involved, but, when done well, there’s nothing better. It’s exciting to watch a story unfold, episode by episode, over years of our lives.

Of course, with subscriptions to services like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+, years worth of stories can be enjoyed in a week if you try hard enough.

It has been fascinating to watch (and partake in) the rise of streaming over the past decade. The successes and failures of these streaming services are reshaping the medium in a lot of ways. Over the next few weeks, I am going to take a look at how the media is covering television’s new frontier. With so many new streaming services being rolled out right now, there is plenty of material to work with.

Overall, I think the coverage of streaming services and the changing television landscape has been good. There is a decent amount of variety in terms of how journalists and media outlets are approaching the topic. For example, many outlets are taking on the role of the friend who’s here to help you make sense of it all. Over the past few months, I’ve seen a lot of pieces like this one from NPR that guide readers through the process of deciding which of the myriad streaming services they should be subscribing to.

I have also noticed that some journalists with a focus on the business side of things have taken a more skeptical approach when covering streaming. These stories tend to ask questions about the sustainability of the streaming model or misleading viewership metrics.

A lot of interesting discussion about the deluge of new content is also taking place on Twitter. I have been following critics like Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone and Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker for years and it’s always enlightening when their thoughts on the changing role of the critic in this streaming-heavy era pop up in my timeline.

Other sources that I regularly turn to for coverage include the New York Times and NPR. Both are good for reviews of new or returning shows and coverage of newsworthy items. Outlets like Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide can be fun, but their content often feels more like PR than news. I’ve found that The Hollywood Reporter is good for stories examining the business side of things, while Vox’s Recode and The Verge take a more tech-centric approach to their coverage. The Verge even has a dedicated section for coverage of the ongoing streaming wars.

Finally, Vulture just started Buffering, a weekly newsletter that covers the transition from traditional television to streaming. I signed up and have found it interesting so far. It provides a nice round-up of the week’s biggest stories with some added commentary.