Think American Idol Gets Big Ratings? Think Again

Last week the top rated show on TV was Sunday Night Football on NBC--the Giants vs the Cowboys played in the spanking new stadium in Dallas. There were 24.8 million viewers--a record for NBC's Sunday Night Football and the most-watched regular-season prime-time NFL game in 12 years. That's a 15.1 rating (percentage of all TV homes).

How did the Emmys do in comparison? They were the 5th most watched show last week with 13.5 million viewers. That's an 8.7 rating (percentage of all TV homes).

You can see the full Top 20 list if you are interested.

And you can find lots of fascinating ratings info and assorted details at TV By the Numbers.

But a recent article in the Plain Dealer about westerns on TV reminds us that these numbers are paltry when compared to the Golden Age of TV in the 1950s when shows like Bonanza routinely has a 39.6 rating (percentage of all TV homes).

As the Plain Dealer reports:

To put that in some perspective, consider that, during its best year, "American Idol" managed a 17.6 rating. But consider also that the 14th-highest-rated Western in 1959 was "Rawhide," with young Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates, and it posted a (ready?) 25.9 rating.

The Camel Logo is Back

Some of you may know the long and controversial history of the Joe Camel logo. The main criticism has been that researchers discovered that the Joe Camel character is particularly appealing to children. In fact, one study found that 6-year-old children were more familiar with Joe Camel than Mickey Mouse! Additionally, with the introduction of the Joe Camel character, Camel quickly became a very dominant brand among teenage smokers--with some studies reporting up to 30% saturation. (Of course the #1 brand among teens is Marlboro.)

In the late 1990s Camel voluntarily agreed to remove the Joe Camel character and its logo from all packaging. This was viewed as a conciliatory gesture as part of a massive Tobacco Settlement with the US government. So Joe Camel was no more.

Of course, we could have a lengthy discussion about the phallic design of Joe Camel too. But that's for another class perhaps. . . .

But now the New York Times reports that the Camel logo (although not Joe Camel) has returned on the box of a new product--Camel snus (pronounced "snoose")--a type of package that contains tobacco that you suck on, but since the tobacco is all self-contained in the packet there is not spitting involved like chewing tobacco.

This is an interesting example of tobacco companies trying to take back their logo, as well as a marketing a product that may be deemed controversial by many. The snus are are already popular in some European countries--including Sweden--but this is the first time it is being sold in the US.

Of course, as the number of cigarette smokers decrease, tobacco companies will need to continue making money with other products like these.

In terms of advertising, the ads for the new snus seem to be widely targeted but include a focus on young adults--in Rolling Stone the ads say that this is "sweaty outdoor festival friendly"--i.e., when you can't smoke, pop one of these in your mouth.

Would you try one of these new snus?

War of the Worlds

We talked in detail in class about The War of the Worlds radio broadcast. I wanted you to see these front page stories from the New York Times and the New York Daily News. As you can see this was all very real.

If you want to consider the whole event, then you might want to listen to the whole broadcast. It's about one hour long, but you can focus on the highlights that I concentrated on in class lecture.

We also talked about Edgar Bergen and his puppet, Charlie McCarthy. Maybe he really was the Jeff Dunham of that era.

Disney Grows Bigger--Buys Marvel Comics

The Disney company is already one of the top media giants in the world and last week increased their size with the purchase of Marvel for $4 billion last week. That's a Hulk-sized chunk of change.

Disney already has been acquiring many of our childhood favorites of the years, including Winnie the Pooh and the Muppets, as well as creating a plethora of new characters for us to love in its collaboration with Pixar (Buzz Lighyear, Wall-E, the Incredibles, Nemo, etc., etc.).

Now Disney gains access to a library of over 5,000 Marvel characters, including Spider-Man, the X Men, Iron Man, Hulk, and Fantastic Four--all of whom already have superhero-sized box office earnings.

As the New York Times points out, Marvel has already been doing a pretty great job of turning their popular superheroes into cash cows, but the muscle of Disney is even mightier. Now all of your favorite superheroes can be on TV (remember, Disney owns their own cable channel, of course, but they also own ABC), as well as at all of its theme parks, Disney stores, etc.

In addition, owning Marvel gives Disney some greater traction with an important demographic--young boys--who have not been particularly star struck by Hannah Montana or the very popular Disney princess collection.

But you need to stop and ask: do so much media need to be owned by one company? This is the complexity of media consolidation. It may be good for Wall Street, but is it good for democracy?

Lastly, nearly as soon as the ink was dry on this deal the Blogosphere erupted with Disney-Marvel mashups. They are quite fun, I'd say, and you can see more here.

Michael Jackson's Death: A Case Study in Media Effects

The death of Michael Jackson this summer sparked a media storm that, while having died down, is about to erupt again, I believe, with today's news that his death has been officially ruled a homicide. In addition, we still haven't had his funeral and there will soon be another worldwide celebration of his life and music. (Do any of you know where his body currently is? Plus, I had heard weird stories about his brain, but can't recall what they were.)

Here are several news articles that you should read. The first (in two parts) is from MSNBC and looks back on his career and how he broke so much new ground with his music and performances.

Here's the first part and here's the second part.

To understand this story it is crucial to start at the very beginning. His death was first reported by TMZ, not by any traditional news network. I think we will look back on this as the moment that TMZ, dare I say it, achieved real credibility. From now on, when they say something happened, everyone will know it is true.

In case you missed it, here's coverage of the actual memorial

And here's an examination of the memorial as a pure media moment.

Lastly, many feared that the Internet itself would crash the day of his memorial service. With great relief, it didn't.

As you read these, please think about the three major ways that media affect us: 1) Cognition; 2) Affect; 3) Behavior

Don Hewitt died last week

TV news legend Don Hewitt dies last week and there have been numerous tributes to him on television. Without him there would be no "60 Minutes," of course, but more importantly he helped create the 30-minute TV evening newscast and the whole idea of the TV "news magazine" format--both of which you could say have spawned our current era of 24/7 cable news. So, are his accomplishments praiseworthy, but the long-term effects the problem?

Welcome to COM 226

It has been a long, hot summer--ok, not really hot at all. And also not really long, was it? But fall is here since we are starting the fall semester and I am looking forward to this class with all of you. I will be using this blog to post articles in the news that we will be discussing in class. Sometimes I will be asking you to comment as well. (Don't worry, as the semester goes on your comments will become more sophisticated as you learn more about the mass media's role in society.)