I don't know about you but if I was the pheasant lookin' up at this...I'd be runnin away like a chicken with my head cut off (quite literally if I didn't move quick enough).

I was browsing through the Des Moines Register Online's pheasant huntin' album and ran across this picture. After my weekend at home doin' the same thing as the giant in orange holdin' the dead bird, I got to thinkin'.

With this sort of perspective, no wonder those pheasants are scared of us. Not only are we going to kill 'em and eat 'em, but the discourse of this picture proves we're big and scary too. I bet the huntin' dogs ain't no treat for the lil birds either.

Discourse and the streets of New York

Everybody knows (or should know) that photos portray a certain discourse. The photographer is inviting you to look at the dominant reading. So when photographer Jeff Mermelstein snaps odd pictures from around New York City...what's his point?

---------------------------
The pictures refuse to load for me...so go check 'em out yourself. Just do it.
---------------------------

Mermelstein takes you on a tour of the city while looking at the ground. For example (if you didn't go check out the pics - you won't know what I'm talking about), the picture taken in the Flatiron District shows a burning shoe on the street (don't worry - nobody's foot was in it). What the heck is he trying to prove?

"I'm interested in things on the ground

-- the whirlpool of chaos on a street corner."

-Mermelstein

----------------------------------------
There you have it folks, the dominant reading of this text straight from the photographer's mouth. The burning shoe is representative of "the whirlpool of chaos on a street corner."

I'm not sure that's what I got out of it...but you can make your own choices.

"dramedy"?

NBC has recently made a ratings comeback thanks to Sunday Night Football and Heroes. However, they still haven't gotten their once-renowned sitcom reputation back.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip has not lived up to its hype. Debuting big, its ratings have since fallen. While many critics love the way the "dramedy" is set up, others feel the genre is too narrow for most audiences:

"What we're seeing with 'Studio 60', the audience is thinking that
it's too insider-ish. That's a common complaint. It's probably affecting the
viewership." -Michael Coristine, sports and entertainment analyst for
Brandimensions

-----------------------------------
Apparently U.S. audiences just aren't quite ready to take on this new genre. Bring back good ol' comedies - give us another Friends. Bring back good ol' dramas - give us the original E.R. (let's face it, ever since the original cast left, the show just hasn't been the same).

But please, please don't give us another "dramedy." It's too difficult to place within the genre system. We don't want to be confused, we just want to sit back and enjoy good ol' regular TV.

Again with the news genre...

The University of Indiana aren't the only ones raggin' on the news genre (they claim The Daily Show belongs in that catagory - look at my last posting for more information).

An article in the Oct. 8 Chicago Sun-Times agrees. Doug Elfman's story "What do you do when the news is a joke?" compares The Daily Show to late night shows such as David Letterman and Jay Leno.

"I would claim that in ways, "The Daily Show" is also
theoretically as balanced as network news [...] There's still some value there,
in addition to monologue jokes. David Letterman was the only person on TV,
journalist or not, who grilled George Bush on the subject of oil drilling in
Alaska for any length of time during the 2000 elections.

"But Letterman and Jay Leno and the rest of the network
comics have clung to olden variety-talk show formats, while Stewart has
turned "The Daily Show" -- now celebrating its 10th year -- into the strangest and most effective of evening-news/"Saturday Night
Live" hybrids. It's got civics lessons, political passion and
truthiness, all bundled in a mockery that Reynolds and others earn through
idiocy." - Elfman

In order for The Daily Show to be raised to the level of news genre, is the genre itself lowering its standards? While making no reference to The Daily Show, PBS columnist Michael Getler appears to think that maybe it has.

"I am a big fan of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
[...] I think it is the best news program on television. Whatever its
flaws, viewers are vastly better off, meaning better informed as citizens,
having this program in its current form than not having it, in my independent
opinion. I find its news summary more comprehensive than commercial news
broadcasts, and its individual segments almost always enlightening in some
fashion [...]

"As a viewer and journalist, I find the program
occasionally frustrating; sometimes too polite, too balanced when issues are not
really balanced, and too many political and emotion-laden statements pass
without factual challenges from the interviewer." - Getler

Going back to what Elfman said about how Letterman "grilled" Bush about Alaska's oil and was the only person to do so, perhaps Getler has a valid point.

If news journalists don't get the job done and comedians step up to the plate, do they earn their way into being classified within the news genre?

Jon Stewart...news genre?

I'm sure most, if not all, of you have watched The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. And I'll even go so far as to say that I'm sure most, again if not all, of you have laughed over its often hilarious content.

And I'll even go so far as to say that most of you would catagorize this as a "comedy." I certainly do. After all, it doesn't present real news. We all know it. So why does a current study by the University of Indiana claim that The Daily Show can be dropped into the genre known as "news?"

"It is clearly a humor show, first and foremost. But there is some substance on
there, and in some cases, like John Edwards announcing his candidacy, the news
is made on the show. You have real newsmakers coming on, and yes, sometimes the banter and questions get a little silly, but there is also substantive dialogue
going on … It's a legitimate source of news." - Julia R. Fox, assistant professor of telecommunications at Indiana University

Can the comedy genre and the news genre effectively and accurately be combined? I have my doubts but I'll let you decide.