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MEDIA

Back To The Future: Canadian Internet Goes Down — Fans Urged To Print Tickets For Shows

Rogers posted a notice on its website Friday saying the outage was impacting both its wireless and home service customers and is also affecting phone and chat support. - Toronto Star

And You Think You Have A Spam Problem (Twitter Removes A Million Accounts Each Day)

Human reviewers manually examine thousands of Twitter accounts at random and use a combination of public and private data in order to calculate and report to shareholders the proportion of spam and bot accounts on the service, Twitter said. - Reuters

Hollywood’s Answer To The World’s Problems: Only Superheroes. So Ordinary Humans Are Powerless?

There’s a preponderance of copaganda and superheroes saving the day and a category of narrative best described as wealth-aganda — stories focused on the interior lives of the rich, from the aspirational to the ridiculous to the unscrupulous. - Chicago Tribune

As Boris Johnson’s Prime Ministership Collapsed, British TV News Got Very, Very Weird

Featured on the commercial networks' coverage this week: a "Government Resignations Ticker", an anti-Brexit campaigner belting "Bye Bye Boris", a discussion of the Tories' future set to "Yakety Sax" (played at actor Hugh Grant's request), a star cameo by 10 Downing Street's resident cat, and a psychic pig. - Variety

Warning: Current Streaming Model Is Rotten, Must Change

The longer that this new “business model” is allowed to operate, the harder it will be to change. I often think about how 25 years ago the introduction of the DVD became a cautionary lesson in when you choose to fight.  - Deadline

Journalists Prize Access To Sources. But Too Much

I’ve come to believe that one of most overrated aspirations in journalism is access. This is particularly true in any story involving people who are wealthy or powerful, and who have experience in dealing with the press. They know that journalists and editors prize access above all else. -LitHub

CBC News Is Launching A New Streaming Service. But Aren’t They Providing Us Enough Programming Already?

There are the main TV and radio networks, a cable channel (CBCNN), streaming service CBC Gem, the app, the YouTube channel, the "documentary Channel" (sic), and the CBC.ca website with 70 different sections. Asks columnist John Doyle, "How much CBC News does the world need?" - The Globe and Mail (Canada)

How Social Media Platforms Decide Which Ideas Are Allowed

Platforms often claim that they are not in the business of creating the content that appears on their platforms, and that’s usually true. But it doesn’t mean they are neutral in public debate. Far from it. Instead of making arguments themselves, they rank, sort and order the ideas of others. - LitHub

Ridley Scott Called These Studios “The Finest Facilities In The World”. The EU Shut Them Down, And They’re Just Now Reopening.

"One of Spain's most notorious and costly white elephants, the Ciudad de la Luz (City of Light) film studios in Alicante, is to get a new lease of life 10 years after it was forced to shut by the EU on grounds of unfair competition." - The Guardian

Movie Theatres Have An Aging Audience Problem

Older audiences will only be around so long. If you teach the rising generation that the theatrical experience is completely extraneous, that experience probably won’t be around for the next one. - Washington Post

YouTube Has Grown Its Own Critic Class

Importantly, these commentators were not professional journalists, concerned experts or onlookers from outside the YouTube world. They, and their audiences, come from the same demographics. - The New York Times

HBO Max Will Stop Making Original Programming For Large Swaths Of Europe

"As the (new Warner Bros. Discovery) media conglomerate looks to recalibrate its streaming priorities, it will no longer produce originals for HBO Max in the Nordics, Central Europe, the Netherlands and Turkey, and will also remove some content from its platform in order to free up licensing deals elsewhere." - Variety

Canadian Entertainment Industry Census: A Diversity Problem

A voluntary self-identification census carried out among Directors Guild Canada members found 82.8 percent of the guild’s membership identified as white. Another 18.3 percent identified as Black, indigenous or people of color. - The Hollywood Reporter

Amazon Is Spending Big Money To Become A Player In Live Sports Media

The retailing-giant-turned-streaming-giant already has a $1 billion-per-year deal for NFL games and a similar deal for the UK's Premiere League soccer.  Now Amazon has acquired British as well as German and Italian rights for UEFA Champions League matches, which feature Europe's top soccer teams. - The Hollywood Reporter

YouTube Has Spawned A Crop Of Media Critics

"They almost certainly see themselves as comedians, not media critics, but they haven't hesitated to judge the content they discuss. They cover an arena influential among young people but sometimes ignored by traditional media. Knowingly or not, they have begun teaching their audiences media criticism." - The New York Times Magazine

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