#usc annenberg

[recentlyheardcom]

Medically Accurate Storylines Educate Viewers

Medically accurate storylines about abortion can help educate and inform viewers “across all political leanings,” according to a new study from USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center and UC San Francisco’s Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health program. In their paper “Abortion Depictions on Television: Impact on Audience Knowledge and Mobilization,” researchers surveyed 1,016 adult…

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Rowaida Abdelaziz at HuffPost:

Earlier this month, the University of Southern California announced that Asna Tabassum would be the Class of 2024′s valedictorian, with a 3.98 GPA and in recognition of her community service and leadership skills. She is graduating with a major in biomedical engineering and a minor in resistance to genocide.

But on Monday, USC canceled the speech. In an announcement dated Monday, Provost Andrew Guzman said the “intensity of feelings, fueled by both social media and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East” has “created substantial risks relating to security and disruption at commencement.” “After careful consideration, we have decided that our student valedictorian will not deliver a speech at commencement. While this is disappointing, tradition must give way to safety,” he wrote. “This decision has nothing to do with freedom of speech. There is no free-speech entitlement to speak at a commencement. The issue here is how best to maintain campus security and safety, period.” The school did not elaborate further. Reached for comment, the provost’s office directed HuffPost to Guzman’s statement.

Tabassum, in an interview with HuffPost, questioned the university’s reasoning and told HuffPost she felt disappointed and let down by USC. “I am surprised that my own university – my home for four years – has abandoned me,” she said. In a statement published on Monday, Tabassum said that she was not aware of any specific threats against her or the university, and that during a meeting last Sunday, administrators told her that “the University had the resources to take appropriate safety measures for my valedictory speech, but that they would not be doing so since increased security protections is not what the University wants to ’present as an image.’” “Security and safety is also my concern. That’s consistent with my commitment to human equality and human rights. I don’t think that they’re mutually exclusive at all,” Tabassum told HuffPost. She noted that notable figures including former President Barack Obama, rap star Travis Scott and right-wing speaker Milo Yiannopoulos have all been able to visit campus grounds. [...]

A slew of universities have struggled to address students’ protests of the bombing campaign by Israeli forces in Gaza that has killed more than 33,000. In the last few months, schools have dealt with rising cases of antisemitism and Islamophobia, the deactivation of student-activist groups, suspension of staff, cases of doxxing and harassment and even reports of physical violence. This week, Columbia University’s president is set to testify at a congressional hearing about campus safety, four months after a similar hearing resulted in the resignation of two Ivy League presidents. And the Department of Education launched a series of investigations last November into several universities where students have reported antisemitic or Islamophobic incidents. Tabassum said she was denied a chance to let others see someone like her give a high-profile speech ― a South Asian hijab-wearing Muslim, someone “representative of communities and of the masses of people who never saw the institution made for them,” she told HuffPost. “I wanted to offer the hope that ... we can succeed [at] institutions like USC.”

[...] According to USC’s Annenberg Media, some students and alumni said Tabassum’s social media activity ― which includes a link to a pro-Palestinian page ― was antisemitic. Guzman, however, wrote that this decision was made “based on various criteria ― which did not include social media presence.” Since the university’s decision, Tabassum said she’s been overwhelmed by messages of both support and hate. People from her elementary school who she hasn’t spoken to in a decade reached out. Others have taken to Instagram to speculate about her ethnic background and her political views, and to applauded the university’s decision to revoke her invitation.

The USC's asinine decision rescinding Valedictorian Asna Tabassum's chance to make a speech is craven cowardice to Islamophobia and Israel Apartheid apologia all because of her support for Palestine.

See Also:

The Guardian: Backlash as USC cancels valedictorian’s speech over support for Palestine

[codename-adler]

YOUR TROJAN TEAM?!?!?! flabbergasted. sooooo many lil guys u got there!!!

mayhaps some info on #21, Levi Romanov? love the name, very intriguing <3 or any of your choice, really, whichever you feel like sharing the most!!

oh boy. oh god. Levi's such a big file. u really know how to pick 'em Roo 😂 prepare to be sick of me...... (also ty sm for being chatty n enabling <3) //official unofficial USC Trojans OCs list here//

21: Levi Romanov (22) USC Trojans Backliner

[ face subject to change]

aight let's bullet point this:

born in USA (Alaska); child of immigrants (Belarusian father (born Alaska, parents 1st gen immigrant), Dutch mother (1st gen immigrant))

5'6½" (the half inch is important)(to Levi)(not the Trojans tho)(esp. not Jeremy)

BA: Communication (USC Annenberg)

goes Pro after college

bffs: Nikita & Angie

brother-from-another-mother w/ Nikita Bailey (their mothers are bff, grew up together in Alaska); Nikita is his bff/older brother figure/idol so he joins him in playing Exy (v popular in Alaska) and follows him to USC when he graduates HS

now for the love & tragedy chaos...................

both he and Nikita have a steady relationship with their longtime girlfriends, so much so that Levi talks to Nikita about proposing to his gf after graduation

one day though the 4 of them get into a car/boating accident that kills Levi's girlfriend and seriously injures Nikita's; Levi and Nikita are somehow miraculously the least damaged

it's a rough fucking patch for Levi (and Nikita, but that's a story for another day!)

enter Angie Pullman, Trojans recruit (ask!!! me!!!)

both men are immediately drawn to her, and inevitably it ends up in a big fight that creates a (temporary) rift between Levi and Nikita

luckily it ends up being an Adam/Gansey/Blue/Ronan situation (do you see where i'm going with this?)

because the thing is, there's this guy, Anderson [subject to change] Atwell

the assistant coach

ohohoho yes

Anderson’s really been there for Levi after the accident, bc he's been much more of a confidant to Levi than any of the team's therapists, probably because he's not a therapist; and then the shit with Angie and Nikita really isolates Levi, and slowly Anderson can't help but wanting to help Levi as much as he can, more than assistant coaches probably normally feel...

so Levi's not as straight as he thought, not in love with Angie like that like he thought, much more in love with Nikita than he always thought, and definitely, definitely super hard in love with his assistant coach (you see the Adam/Blue/Gansey/Ronan pattern?) (except there is nothing whatsoever between Nikita and Anderson. in fact Nikita probably hates him a little bit actually. fr fr.)

also before anyone sends me anon hate about my own OCs, the Levi-Anderson age gap is 22-30, so calm downnnn

so yeah Levi & Anderson, once they're all in and go all out, are disgustingly happy; but the hurdles are many and exhausting (i have another ask incoming for Coach Rhemann, which will coincidentally explain really well said obstacles)

i would say, apart from Jean Moreau himself obv and Adèle Moreau, Levi is the most tragic Trojan :(

especially because he used to be such a goofy ass mf, and so hyped about Exy on and off the court, before the accident, and nowadays he's much more a shell of himself, doesn't care much about Exy outside the court, always plays his very best but his heart's not into it, feels disconnected from his team and teammates, etc.

Anderson's the one to lead him back to his love for the sport <3

Jeremy did try very hard as his captain to reignite the flame inside Levi, of course, but let's say he had a little less incentive than with the Frenchman... if ya know what i mean... but Levi's just glad even his captain never gave up on him

birthday's June 1st //lmao beginning of pride month and i didn't even do that on purpose//

originally Levi was named Reuben Muller and he was German-American? but i decided to split the character in 2 and thus Levi & Nikita were born!

his bestfriend, apart from Nikita who has known since birth almost, is Jack Driver; they hit it off instantly the first time they practice together on the court (it also helps that Jack is both a moron and a wise man. very in touch with his feelings. it just depends if his brain cells are activated or taking a nap…)

once the drama settles down Angie also becomes one of his close friends

he’s an only child [pitiful]

did i mention his ADHD? oh he has big big big ADHD… he often forgets his meds, and he’s prone to lash out (mostly at himself) or zone out, but Exy really helps a lot with both his bottomless restless energy and his self-worth <3

on the meds thing: that was such a battle. for everyone involved. Levi, the doctors, his gf, his parents, Nikita... it was just barely starting to go well when the accident happened, and well. the step from ADHD to depression is already so small, Levi had no chance. but he's climbing up the hill again now :)

so Levi's kind of the dark version of Jeremy, or like a past younger iteration of Jeremy before he got to be the Captain Sunshine we know and love (and that's partly why Jeremy has trouble connecting w him, befriend him, even look at him sometimes); he doesn't talk much anymore, except to fight and curse, but then he turns around and drops by with a pan of brownies for the new girl because he saw her eating one all alone and sad in the athletes' hall, you know? he's very hard to pin down, even more so now that the constants in his life have been taken away or flipped :/ but he's a precious dude, trust me!

[lets-steal-an-archive]

Ben Collins: It’s time for journalists to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard

“Triumphs of the truth are not accidents. They are times the American media — including and especially those outside of the disinformation beat — did not equivocate and did not give an inch to lies and the liars who tell them.”

By BEN COLLINS June 13, 2023, 12:16 p.m.

Editor’s note: NBC News reporter Ben Collins was one of the winners of the 2023 Walter Cronkite Awards for Excellence in Television Political Journalism, given by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. This year’s awards focused on “best practices of TV journalism aimed at combating disinformation and defending democracy.” Collins included this memo to the judges, along with a compilation of TV news reports.

An update on the information war, for the 2023 Walter Cronkite Awards

We’re losing.

I’m hesitant to start off this memo on such a grim note, but it’s true: The people putting out the truth are under siege in the information war, and we’re not doing so great. That’s, in part, because a lot of those people aren’t even aware they’re in an information war to begin with.

There is good news: We can still win. It will take a change in tack, and a little bit of courage.

But first, since I’m doubling down on bad ideas right out of the gate, I’m going to do something else that’s probably ill advised. I’m about to quote Edward R. Murrow, who, I’ve been told by a bunch of books, was not a pal of Mr. Cronkite. They both wound up at the same place — the facts — and they took two separate ways to get there. They were in the trenches and were too deep in it to see they were on the same side. I get it. We’ve all been there. A lot of us are there right now.

Murrow, famously, said this:

This instrument can teach. It can illuminate. Yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it’s nothing but wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.

Stonewall Jackson, who is generally believed to have known something about weapons, is reported to have said, “When war comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard.” The trouble with television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival.

We’re back in that very same battle right now, and it’s against the same enemy: ignorance, intolerance, indifference. The box is smaller now. It’s in your pocket. It’s brighter and faster and it vibrates and dings and brings you horror and joy and knows what makes you feel better and sure as hell knows what makes you feel worse. Then it assigns those bad feelings to a political enemy, and the good feelings to anybody trying to get rid of those people.

That’s what you’ll see in the stories I’ve covered in the last year. Fear and panic and paranoia and lies and deceit that led to terror, death and the attempted disenfranchisement of American voters.

You’ll see that first with my coverage of the Buffalo shooting, a terror attack perpetrated by a white supremacist obsessed with the “Great Replacement Theory” lie that has pervaded extremist spaces online. The shooter posted his own tranche of racist lies on the internet in his manifesto for 4chan and 8chan users, which I had to convey to our viewers without further spreading his hate.

You’ll see midterm election night coverage of the attempts to shoo away voters from early voting ballot drop boxes by “mule watchers,” the conspiracy theorists obsessed with the lie that “2,000 ballot mules” had stolen the election from Donald Trump.

You’ll see the hate campaign targeted at America’s trans youth that continues to make some of the most persecuted Americans fear for their lives to this day.

But you’ll also see interspersed moments of justice and relief. You’ll see my reporting on a day I thought would never come: October 12th, the afternoon Alex Jones was forced to reckon with his decades of lies and pay almost $1 billion to the families of children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. You’ll see how Russia’s global information war fell apart as its military began to invade Ukraine, and how Vladimir Putin’s propaganda arm scrambled to adopt lies first spread by American anti-vaccine groups.

I hope you notice something specific while reviewing my coverage of the last year of hate, and how hate loses. Triumphs of the truth are not accidents. They are times the American media — including and especially those outside of the disinformation beat — did not equivocate and did not give an inch to lies and the liars who tell them. No one attempted to falsely humanize the inhumane — like the horrors of Vladimir Putin. No one tried to bend over backwards to provide positive framing to intentional cruelty — like the lies of Alex Jones — even, or especially, if it was politically inconvenient at the moment.

When media manipulators were met with a unified opposition armed with clear facts — when that unified opposition stood firmly alongside those who were constantly attacked by men with powerful and profitable propaganda machines — that opposition won. We won. The news won.

But it takes unity, and not capitulation, in these moments. There is no meeting liars halfway, because the truth then becomes one-half lie. We must simply be louder, and clearer, with the truth.

The wires and lights in the box aren’t quite so simple now that they’re in our pockets. Some of them are keeping your kid up at night, telling your teenager fantastical tales about the Illuminati on TikTok. (And some of them are keeping your parents up at night, too, telling equally fantastical tales about the nightly gunfight that is actually just fireworks on NextDoor.) The people spreading those Illuminati lies are not playing by the rules, nor are they particularly interested in the truth. They are interested in money and power, and they have been gaming our algorithms to gin up fear and sell a balm for it.

I have been covering this stuff for too long now, and I can assure you that they are not going to stop. So we have no choice: We simply have to tell better stories than them. We have to be better at extolling truth — based in empathy, democracy, and human rights — than fearmongers have become at selling profitable lies.

We can win, but we have to be more unified, and we have to be more human. We’ve faced this before and we’re facing it again. “There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference.”

Look down at your phone. The lights and wires in that box are smaller, but they contain exponentially more ways to do harm. If you want your vote to count, or if you were born in any way different, I’m certain you’d agree.

“When the war comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard.” I’m confident I threw away my scabbard.

—

Ben Collins covers disinformation, extremism and the internet for NBC News.

[hellomynameisbisexual]

"For bisexuals specifically, media representation has a long history of portraying us negatively," said Dr. Nora Madison, a media professor at Chestnut Hill College, told CBS News. "The most common stereotype is that bisexuals cannot be fully satisfied with only one partner because half of their desires must then obviously be denied. This is problematic on so many levels, but it begins with the definition of bisexuals as being attracted to both men and women, but with assumptions that bisexuals are only attracted to men and women, and are always equally attracted to men and women at the same time."

"Both of these assumptions are incorrect. The far more accepted definition is one made popular by Robyn Ochs, a prominent bisexual educator and author, who said that bisexuality is the potential to be attracted – romantically and/or sexually – to people of more than one gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree."

Bisexual individuals make up almost 50% of people who identify as part of the LGBT community, according to research from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. Nearly 3.5% of adults in the U.S. identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, which translates to approximately 9 million LGBTQ+ Americans. However, accurate media portrayal of bisexuality has long dragged behind data.

Gay, lesbian, or bisexual characters make up almost 8% of television characters, according to GLAAD's "Where We Are On TV" report from 2019. However, representation for bisexual people becomes far less likely in the breakdown. Not only do bisexual characters make up less than 26% of all LGBTQ+ characters, but there has been a steady decrease in representation since 2016. According to the Annenberg Report from USC, there were eight bisexual characters in the top 1,200 films of 2018 and only three in the top films of 2019, far less than what appears on television screens.

"Alongside these persistent connotations with excess and perversity, another factor challenging bisexual representation is that, unless a character explicitly identifies as bisexual, we tend to assume someone is straight or gay based on their current partner, something real life bisexuals also contend with," said Maria San Filippo, an associate professor and author of The B Word. "Television offers bisexuality more potential for representational legibility in this regard, I find, because its serial form allows for more expansive, ongoing narratives."

A year fraught with tropes that characterized bisexual people as flighty, unwilling to choose, in a phase, or worse, killed for the plot of the straight protagonist, 2016 marked a turning point in LGBTQ+ characters. It wasn't just enough to have them, consumers wanted them to be accurate. In the past four years, series like "Sex Education," "The Politician," "Stumptown," "Greys Anatomy," "Brooklyn 99" have all been praised for their accurate portrayal of bisexual characters, films like "Call Me By Your Name," "Colette," "Atomic Blonde," and "Booksmart" have featured explicitly bisexual characters.

For bisexual individuals unsure of their sexuality, experts say the representation they see on screen could make the world of difference. Bisexual people are more likely to have depression, anxiety, or other mental illnesses, according to a study from the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. Another Human Rights Campaign health brief found that bisexual people were more likely to commit substance abuse, have less emotional support and hide their sexual identity. The reason? One researcher points to minority stress theory, a model that says multiple public stressors and societal expectations can manifest negative reactions in minorities.

"I think (more accurate representation) is a big improvement because it's part of a larger move in more recent television which tolerates non-binary identities," said Katherine Sender, a professor with Cornell University's Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program. "I see it as part of that bigger idea. In the past, being trans or being bisexual was extremely problematic within those binary categories. One of the things that's happened, particularly in the rise of original programming on streaming services, like Netflix and Amazon, is there's a much greater tolerance or acceptance of people being on spectrums and not having to fit into one or another end of a binary."

Streaming programs have produced more bisexual characters than ever, but cable programs are still the most likely to show the most bisexual characters, according to the GLAAD report. The inconsistency can most likely be attributed to the more common nature of bisexuality on screen. Shows on original streaming services are more likely to portray more than one LGBTQ+ character, while cable shows, which portraying more LGBTQ+ characters overall, are more likely to feature one character per show, the report said. In all, representation, just like bisexuality, is a fluid spectrum. The decision to feature bisexuality, accurately or not, comes down to a myriad of factors, including writers, actors, show-runners, and industry heads. And while television might not intrinsically cover real life, experts say positive representation does have positive impacts.

"Diverse representation is important for everyone," said Madison. "The more people are exposed to a variety of sexualities, especially in positive or affirming contexts, the more opportunities individuals have to figure their own identities out as well as broaden their viewpoints about others. Media content producers are products of the society they grow up in, and historically many were white, straight males. I don't think positive bisexual representation was a priority until more individuals started asking, demanding, and celebrating it."

[queenofglassbeliever]

Headcanons I have for Sarina Bhonsle.

She was born and raised in Southern California.

Bhonsle is pronounced bons-lee. (One of the DnD guys in "And some Dude Named Jeff" pronounced it bon-sel. But I think he'd only seen the name written and was using spelling pronunciation and not the correct pronunciation.)

In high school, she went through a western movie phase. She still has a small DVD collection of her favorite movies.

She was on her high school's yearbook committee.

She worked as a hostess during high school.

She attended USC Annenberg in Los Angeles. She got a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and minored in Justice, Voice, and Advocacy. She then got her Master's in Specialized Journalism (Arts and Culture)

She wrote for her college newsletter.

During college she worked at a photography store.

After college she continued living in LA.

She was an arts and culture journalist.

She fiddles with her rings when she's nervous

While doing a piece on a local art gallery, she uncovered that it was a front for an art forging and smuggling ring. After which she became an investigative reporter.

She moved to Portland, Oregon to write for The Oregonian.

She enjoys french press coffee.

She collects novelty mugs.

She saw the ley lines (supercharged by Prospero) which started her on the path to investigating magic.

She's a self taught hacker.

She's Indian-American with Pakistani heritage. Most of her family came from the Indian state Maharashtra.

She has a lotus tattoo on her sternum.

She's won five prizes in journalism. Three in arts and culture journalism and two in investigative journalism.

She was once a finalist for a Pulitzer.

Her parents died in a car crash when she was in college.

After getting fired from The Oregonian, Sarina began a blog to write about The Library, D.O.S.A, and her investigations into magic. After meeting Jake she takes down the blog.

She has trouble finding a new job after the team building camp shut down. She eventually gets a job at Portland Monthly Magazine and gets back in to arts and culture journalism.

She's claustrophobic.

She's fluent in French and she spent a semester abroad in Paris.

[rosewood-multifandom-writer]

I have high doubts about RE5 getting the remake treatment. Here’s why:

In an old article, according to many game journalist websites, RE5 is a “racist” game. Here’s why I put racist in quotes. If you think my opinion is wrong, feel free to either keep scrolling or block me, I won’t take it personally. This is just how I personally feel about RE5.

First and foremost, I am speaking about this subject as a black person who does want to see good black representation in Resident Evil like Hunnigan, Sheva Alomar, and Josh Stone as I felt like those were the only three black characters that were the best representation in gaming from my own experiences.

To me, the only mildly racist moment would be Sheva in her “tribal” alternate costume, which is just a bathing suit costume but decided to put war paint on her, plus I think the business and fairy tale outfits were better on her as well as her default, but by the end of the day, the “tribal” costume is a fanservice costume that you don’t have to put on her and the game doesn’t force the player to use it. And there is a theme of racism that you have to look deeper into ala, Albert Wesker’s goal and actions in RE5.

If we’re talking full on racism, I’d say put on a hazmat suit if you run into a Sheva Alomar hater in that toxic part of the fandom.

So according to the article I used and many others, because you take control of Chris Redfield, a white man from America and you’re shooting at the Majini, which are Plagas infected African villagers (keep that in mind) and there are a group of Majinis that kidnap a woman and infect her.

Because the African villagers are depicted as “savages” in the words of most articles, RE5 is racist. But RE4 gets the pass and a remake because and I’m quoting The Atlantic article I used here: “the Spanish don't have the baggage of being stereotyped as subhuman animals for the past two hundred years.”

Latino men have been stereotypically depicted as macho and aggressive in the past. And that is still the case to this day. A November article from The Guardian also showed that 46.2% of Latino representation were depicted as violent criminals. 40% were depicted with a bad temper. And of course, 31.1% were sexualized. The Spanish have had to deal with stereotypes even in the present day.

If we really want to dive into a subtle racism allegory, it would be Wesker’s goals and why he chose Africa out of all continents.

First things first, Albert Wesker is a blonde who used to have blue eyes. Wesker wanted Plagas to kill billions upon billions of people, and decided to start in an African village, knowing full well that like that Spanish village, a village in Africa is the most vulnerable. And of course, a tribe that was dying out named Ndipaya.

It’s funny that these articles focused on Chris Redfield shooting the infected villagers that are being controlled by a parasite that killed them and are using them as a host to try to kill Chris and Sheva rather than focusing on the fact that Albert Wesker caused the events of RE5 in the first place.

But here is why RE5 is not racist for killing the Majinis. When a host is infected with Type 2 Plagas, they turn in seconds as seen with the first Majini you encounter in RE5. In RE4, the Spanish villagers are no longer human, they are now infected hosts who are being mind controlled. In RE and Code Veronica, the T-Virus zombies are no longer human, they are zombies. There is no more humanity or life in them anymore. They’re dead.

And also, I think these articles that are basically saying that you’re only allowed to kill Spanish and Asian NPCs, just not black NPCs is more racist than RE5 as a whole. Isn’t it also more racist for a person to look at black NPCs in RE5 and the first word that pops up in their head is, “savages?”

With that said, I’m gonna use the logic of those articles on other RE games.

RE2MAKE and RE3MAKE are racist because they killed off the only black characters in the games. RE4MAKE shouldn’t have happened because it’s racist to the Latin American community. RE6 has Asian hate written all over it and shouldn’t be remade.

So by that logic, none of those games should have been made and are all racist.

But because of the atmosphere of gaming and the internet right now and the fact that Capcom has censored themselves to offend less people or whatever their weird argument was for punishing players who had any mods, I don’t think RE5MAKE won’t happen, nor do I think it’s going to get the same treatment RE4MAKE got.

And if RE5MAKE does happen, more articles like that will be spewed no matter what Capcom does. If the infected African Villager NPCs are replaced by white NPCs, the game will be labeled as racist for whitewashing. If the infected African Villager NPCs are kept in, the game will be labeled as racist for depicting the Plagas infected villagers (whose corpses are now being controlled like a puppet by a parasite mind you) as “savages.”

It’s a lose-lose situation for RE5MAKE if it does get made.

The only option would be for RE5MAKE to take place in a different continent. It would still need to be a village because villages tend to be the most vulnerable places for infestations. But then we wouldn’t have Sheva Alomar or Josh Stone, so that would mean having to replace those characters with other characters. Which would be labeled as racist because Sheva and Josh get replaced by non-black characters.

Scratch what I said about it being a lose-lose situation. It’s a lose-lose-lose situation.

So yeah, the TL;DR: I don’t have hopes for RE5MAKE because Capcom has censored themselves when it came to RE and mods, Capcom wants to offend less people so they have to sanitize specific aspects of their game and ban nude mods of a specific female character but keeping the nude mods of the male characters.

If sanitizing RE5MAKE does become the case, then Capcom will end up doing it for nothing because it will still be labeled as a racist game no matter how they approach it. The atmosphere of online spaces and gaming spaces have changed so much that Capcom will end up taking an L no matter how they approach this game.

My expectations for RE5MAKE are practically on the ground. That is how low they are.

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Li Zhou at Vox:

There’s long been outrage over the Grammys’ Beyoncé snubs for the awards show’s highest honor — omissions that have infuriated fans and prominent celebrities alike.

At the 2024 awards on February 4, Beyonce’s husband, Jay-Z, became the latest to call them out, castigating the show for its history of overlooking Black artists, including his superstar wife. “We want y’all to get it right — at least get it close to right,” Jay-Z said. “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year. So even by your own metrics that doesn’t work.” He became the latest of many prominent figures who’ve raised this point in some fashion, including the likes of Adele and, famously, Kanye West in the past. Increasingly, the references to Beyoncé being overlooked by institutions like the Grammys and the MTV Video Music Awards have become more common both because of how egregious they feel on the merits and also because of what they represent. Beyond serving as an insult to her undeniable talent, Beyoncé’s treatment and the specific awards she has and hasn’t won have become emblematic of the exclusion of Black art by the music establishment. They are often cited as some of the most prominent examples that capture this problem.

Why some awards matter more than others

As Jay-Z noted, Beyoncé has the most Grammys of any musical artist — 32 — but she hasn’t ever won the coveted Album of the Year award. AOTY is widely considered the most prestigious honor of the show, much like Best Directing or Best Picture is for the Oscars, and it’s often treated like the greatest recognition that the program has on offer. Beyoncé has been nominated for AOTY four times as a solo artist but has lost out each time. In 2010, she was nominated for I Am … Sasha Fierce, which lost to Taylor Swift’s Fearless. In 2015, she was nominated for Beyoncé, which lost to Beck’s Morning Phase. In 2017, she was nominated for Lemonade, which lost to Adele’s 25. And in 2023, she was nominated for Renaissance, which lost to Harry Styles’s Harry’s House.

In 2017, the year that Lemonade lost, Adele spoke about it explicitly in her AOTY acceptance speech and emphasized the cultural impact that Beyoncé’s record had had. “I can’t possibly accept this award. And I’m very humbled and I’m very grateful and gracious. But my artist of my life is Beyoncé. And this album to me, the Lemonade album, is just so monumental,” Adele said. As the most important honor of the show, AOTY sends a powerful signal regarding the cultural impact that an artist has had, making Beyoncé’s longstanding exclusion from a win in that category especially significant. Notably, despite winning 32 Grammys, she has only won one of what are known as the “Big Four” awards of the show: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. In 2010, she won Song of the Year for her hit song “Single Ladies.”

What the Beyoncé snubs represent

This history is ultimately indicative of the Grammys’ and other organizations’ much deeper problems with race. In addition to the Grammys, both the Oscars and the Golden Globes have been scrutinized for excluding Black artists. Beyoncé’s losses (and, in some cases, lack of recognition outright) in key categories underscore how Black artists have been overlooked for the most prestigious awards at the Grammys. Per a 2021 study from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, Black artists constituted 38 percent of all artists on Billboard’s Top 100 between 2012 to 2020 but just 26.7 percent of Grammy nominees for the Big Four awards in that timeframe. [...]

There are other reasons the Grammys have long had a credibility issue with the hip-hop community, as A.D. Carson, a professor of hip-hop at the University of Virginia, wrote for the Washington Post in 2022. Jay-Z alluded to some examples of this exclusion in his Sunday remarks, describing how DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith boycotted the Grammy Awards in 1989 when they won the first Grammy for best rap performance because the show wouldn’t televise the presentation of the new award. The Grammys’ history of confining Black artist nominations to certain categories, such as rap and hip-hop, has also drawn scrutiny, Carson writes. And there have been concerns that the list of Black artists the show has chosen to elevate underscores, in his words, a “trend of respected rap artists being overlooked in favor of those who crossed over into pop music and gained the most White fans.”

Jay-Z is right: Beyoncé has been unfairly snubbed at the Grammys for the highest honor awards like Album Of The Year.

[lenbryant]

(Long rePost) "Blood in the water"

How SAG-AFTRA strike will create global havoc for Hollywood - Los Angeles Times

SAG-AFTRA members picket outside Netflix in Hollywood on Friday, the first day of the union’s strike — and first such walkout in 43 years.

(Myung Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Hollywood top executives figured they could ride out a skirmish with screenwriters reeling from technology’s changes to the industry.

But few executives were prepared for — or wanted — a strike by the industry’s largest union, SAG-AFTRA, which represents 160,000 actors and other performers. 

After talks over a new contract collapsed last week, throngs of performers joined writers on picket lines — plunging Los Angeles’ signature industry into chaos and further complicating what some fear could become a long and devastating strike.

Movie shoots have ground to a halt. A-list stars have bailed on film and TV marketing campaigns. Matt Damon, Cillian Murphy and other actors walked outduring Thursday night’s London premiere of Universal Pictures’ highly anticipated “Oppenheimer.” 

The upcoming fall TV season could sputter, devoid of new scripted episodes of “Abbott Elementary,” “Law & Order: SVU” and “NCIS.” And media companies that were already struggling to compete in the streaming era could see their fortunes further sink.

“There’s going to be a lot of blood in the water,” Jonathan Taplin, director emeritus of USC’s Annenberg Innovation Lab, said. “This is not going to end well.”

Simultaneous strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — the first joint work stoppage since Ronald Reagan led SAG in 1960 — couldn’t come at a worse time for traditional entertainment companies.

Their businesses haven’t fully recovered from pandemic shutdowns. Walt Disney Co., Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery have been grappling with heavy debt loads due to mergers, and also from ordering dozens of shows to ramp up their streaming services. All the while, linear broadcast and cable TV networks have witnessed a precipitous slide in viewers to Netflix and other streaming services.

“The economics of the industry are very challenging — the worst that we’ve ever seen,” veteran media analyst Michael Nathanson said. “A prolonged strike will only make things worse.”

Amid a nationwide rise in labor activity, Hollywood’s discord has taken on the trappings of a larger cultural clash, ostensibly pitting everyday workers against top wage earners, America’s 1%. 

On picket lines and social media sites, richly compensated industry leaders, including Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger and Warner Bros. Discovery Chief David Zaslav, are being portrayed as cartoon villains.

Outside Disney’s Burbank headquarters on Friday, a striking worker hoisted a sign that depicted Iger’s face superimposed on a hand-drawn Marie Antoinette figure, holding a raspberry-colored confection under the words: “How about sharing some of that cake, Bob?” 

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, center, and SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, left, outside Netflix on Friday. 

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, best known for starring in the 1990s sitcom “The Nanny,” has been celebrated among striking workers after her rousing speech Thursday to announce her board’s unanimous vote to call a strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the organization that negotiates on behalf of the media companies.

Actors are seeking higher minimum pay, increased residuals and revenue sharing with the streamers. They’ve demanded protections against the use of artificial intelligence to simulate background actors, known as “extras.” Writers have made similar demands, saying since the rise of streaming, midlevel writers have struggled to make a living wage.

“The entire business model has been changed because of streaming, digital and AI,” Drescher said. “At some point, you have to say ‘no, we’re not going to take this anymore.’”

The AMPTP defended the offer the group had made to actors, including what it said was the highest percentage increase in pay minimums in 35 years and a “groundbreaking” proposal for AI protections. 

“A strike is certainly not the outcome we hoped for as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life,” the AMPTP said. “The union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.”

It’s not clear when bargaining sessions with the actors might resume. No talks are currently scheduled. 

AMPTP negotiators haven’t met with the WGA in more than two months.

Taplin, a former film producer who wrote a book about artificial intelligence, “The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires Are Selling Out Our Future,” said the threat posed by technology “for all artistic production is gigantic.”

“People worry, in the abstract, about AI replacing workers but here it is, it’s actually happening,” Taplin said. “They don’t want to have to pay for extras anymore, so they could have a scene that has 5,000 AI extras in the background.”

Technology also has upset Hollywood’s hierarchy. AMPTP’s shifting makeup now includes tech giants Amazon, Apple and Netflix — companies that don’t have a tradition of collective bargaining.

Veteran executives said the group, even in good economic times, formed an uneasy alliance. Member companies, including Disney, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Netflix, are more accustomed to battling one another for viewers and revenue. 

And some in Hollywood have wondered whether the AMPTP’s shifting makeup will stand in the way of a deal. 

When reached for comment, AMPTP spokesperson Scott Rowe said: “The companies remain completely united.”

But unlike past strikes, including the 100-day standoff between writers and studios in 2007-2008, no leading executive has emerged to help broker labor peace.

Director Steven Spielberg, left, Disney CEO Bob Iger and director James Cameron in January. 

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Wall Street already has placed its bets, punishing the stocks of legacy media companies. 

Since the writers’ strike began in May, Disney’s stock has fallen 13% to $88.62 a share. Paramount has dropped more than 30% to $15.96 a share, and Warner Bros. Discovery has declined nearly 7% to $12.40. 

Shares of WBD, which owns HBO and CNN, closed at $12.40 on Friday, down nearly 50% since April 2022 when the smaller Discovery absorbed WarnerMedia — a deal that saddled the company with more than $45 billion in debt. 

In contrast, Netflix shares have soared 36% to $441.91 since the writers’ strike began.

Netflix now boasts a higher market value — nearly $200 billion — than Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company, which is valued at $162 billion. 

“Investors are saying Netflix can weather the storm,” Nathanson said. “They make a lot of shows, and stack them up because of the binge-viewing model. They also have a lot more international production that they can import.” 

Disney’s boss, Iger, appeared on business channel CNBC last week from the annual media mogul conference in picturesque Sun Valley, Idaho. The executive, who returned to the company in November, acknowledged that he underestimated the challenges confronting his company — particularly in the traditional television business.

“The disruptive forces that have been preying on that business for a while are greater than I thought,” Iger said. “We have to come to grips with that.”

Disney already has slashed nearly 7,000 jobs this year in an effort to save $5.5 billion. And in a nod to the changing winds, Iger suggested Disney might consider shedding linear channels, perhaps even the ABC television network. 

The company, he said, also is open to taking on a strategic partner for ESPN. 

Disney’s sports empire remains lucrative, but it is plagued by the trend of consumers ditching cable and satellite subscriptions in favor of streaming apps. At some point, the company plans to offer ESPN directly to consumers — but Iger didn’t say when.

“We’re seeing accelerated cord cutting as people are dropping the cable bundle,” Nathanson said. “And advertisers are no longer supporting the networks as they have in the past.” 

Broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox — are expected to be hit hard by the twin strikes because they are most reliant on fresh programming. Late-night comedians, including ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and CBS’ Stephen Colbert, have been off the air since early May, when the writers’ strike began.

If the two walkouts are not resolved before October, there probably won’t be any new scripted shows produced until next year, according to company insiders. 

And that could be devastating at a time when traditional networks are struggling to hold on to viewers.

“The networks have sports and news but a lot of their constituents are there to watch the prime-time shows,” said Neil Begley, a senior vice president for Moody’s Investors Service. “Among those viewers, there’s an expectation that fall is the start of the new season. The networks are going to have to reach far and wide for content to fill those hours.”

Compounding matters, this year’s annual TV advertising market, when TV networks sell their commercial time for the new season, has been sluggish.

“Advertisers don’t know what type of programming they’re going to get with these strikes,” Begley said. “They’re saying: Why commit?”

Privately, company executives say their businesses won’t feel much financial pain for several months. Without widespread production, costs will be lower, which translates into higher profits — at least in the short term.

Studios also are expected to begin canceling TV writers’ overall deals to find more savings.

But eventually, networks and streamers will run low on original episodes and media executives will be motivated to reach a detente.

“You can’t get by without actors,” Begley said. “The actors’ strike gave more leverage to the writers.”

Analysts and veteran executives said the market is straining to support all of the streaming services — and shows to stock them — launched in the last five or so years. Hollywood, they say, could look dramatically different after the strikes get resolved.

“Consolidation is going to happen,” predicted Nathanson. “Perhaps the strike will accelerate those moves as the weakness sets in. Some of these players are going to get weaker.”

Times staff writers Richard Verrier, Yvonne Villarreal, Ryan Faughnder, Stephen Battaglio and Anousha Sakoui contributed to this report.

[bunsakashitaamericapaintings]

After $16 entrance fee and $15 parking, I thought I needed to get a few sketches done to make it worthwhile the trip to the history museum. Inspired by @amandahappy365 's recent sketch of USC I walked across the street and quickly found the right spot for another piece. Wallis Annenberg Hall University of Southern California Los Angeles Fountain Pen and Watercolor on A4x2 hotpress watercolor sketchbook Saturday January 27 2024

[larrywilmore]

Sentinel Awards

I’m thrilled to be hosting the 2023 Sentinel Awards For Hollywood, Health & Society — presented by The Lear Center at USC Annenberg — at the Writer’s Guild Theater in Beverly Hills on 12/6!

[bighermie]

The report shows how Hollywood encourages writers and directors to manipulate public opinion on topics they hold dear, including gun-control. The guide shares, “But film and television have the power to shape public perception, normalize habits, and even effect policy, which is why the way we talk about and depict guns and gun violence matters so much.”

[meangirlcoded]

"I am looking for people (specifically women ages 20-30) who are willing to be a part of a focus group that focuses on action film franchises."

[popculturebrain]

Netflix, USC Annenberg Content Study Reveals More Than Half of Streamer’s Film, TV Series Are Led by Women

The second USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report on the streamer's scripted content also found that while non-white leading characters onscreen and underrepresented creatives offscreen are increasing, women of color and characters with disabilities are still "invisible" in scripted film and TV.

Subscribe to the Pop Culture Brain Daily newsletter for more stories like this!

[audioberry]

places that have employed me (basically just my resume)

oh hey – you can also find my resume here.

january - june 2024

i was the Associate Producer/Assistant Editor at Best Case Studios, a boutique production company that did primarily fiction and narrative storytelling. here's what i contributed there:

i helped them pilot a weekly show and dabbled in pre-production, research, prep and scoring.

i cut together hours of audio for their fiction programming (unreleased... so far).

i also provided production support on the narrative true-crime journalistic noir Fallen Angels, an iHeart co-production that has over a million downloads and counting.

september 2022 - november 2023

i was an Associate Producer at Pushkin Industries, where I learned pretty much everything i know about taking a podcast from pilot to post. the top-line:

i pitched, produced, scored, mixed and delivered episodes for daily, weekly and narrative shows.

i built out research documents for hosts and clients, and helped with booking and core production logistics.

i was on the production team for the launch of three shows & scored + sound designed a podcast pilot with high-profile talent.

here are some of the shows i produced there:

Story of The Week, Against the Rules, Broken Record, and The Redemption of Jar Jar Binks.

june 2022 - august 2022

npr

june 2021 - june 2022

kcrw

december 2021 - may 2022

ee at annenberg media

... and miscellaneous internships and part-time gigs that run the gamut of –

deep dive data journalism;

investigative reporting on immigration;

core social for a national news organization (where I made my TikTok debut and also fell in love with audio);

& executive producing live TV news (or as live as it can get during a global pandemic), providing need-to-know info to an audience of thousands of USC students.

aaaandddd... scene!