| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Ameena Matthews | ||||
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"We're thrilled to announce the six projects selected for the inaugural year of the TFI New Media Fund, a diverse collection of nonfiction transmedia works exploring everything from the Egyptian Revolution to global health to the "friendly fire" death in Afghanistan of American serviceman Pat Tillman. These grantees will receive $50,000 and $100,000 apiece, with funding effective immediately."I'm really honored to be a Jury Member for the Tribeca Film Institute New Media Fund, check out all the recipients here.
Digital technology is changing documentary filmmaking. This month the focus is on docs with digital offspring and a great social strategy.
With millions of people active on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, social media has become a new ally during the research and production of a film, and it can keep a project active online long after its launch. The emergence of additional platforms for cross-media storytelling – the Internet, games, mobile TV — is allowing filmmakers to extend their narratives and create completely new ones.
This panel will explore the potential of all this new technology. We’ll hear how producers harness crowdsourcing techniques (the power of the online crowd) to create innovative projects that deepen documentary storytelling and build social experiences.
"In short, you're asked to forget that Samus has spent the last 10-15 years on solitary missions ridding the galaxy of Space Pirates, saving the universe and surviving on her own as a bounty hunter. Instead, Other M expects you to accept her as a submissive, child-like and self-doubting little girl that cannot possibly wield the amount of power she possesses unless directed to by a man."Abbie Heppe's controversial review of the new Metroid game and its main character, Samus can be found here at G4. One of many compelling responses to her article here at the brainy gamer.
"...My research suggests that it is possible to create distinctive and unique characters that have a generally broad appeal among different ages, genders, and gamer types. The characters I created have body types, features, and ages that do not follow the ideal of what is typically marketed in the video game industry, yet they were well received by the majority of people who have reviewed them. My feedback also suggests that there is a desire among many gamers to see more varied female characters in games, and perhaps when more of such characters are introduced into mainstream games, the perception and role of females may become less limited. This is an area of study that is very relevant to modern gaming, as female characters are found in nearly every game, and they are found by many people, both male and female to be lacking of interest and personality. For further research, I would like to see similar tests by myself and other artists, with characters designed to fit and explore a variety of video games in a variety of genres and styles..."
Check out my most recent article on The Social Robot. 
Check Out this article at Beautyschooled:I just spent 20 minutes trying to figure out the gender wage gap for salon workers, and the best I can find is a Bureau of Labor Statistics chart that says 268,000 female “hairdressers, hair stylists and cosmetologists” earned a median income of $413 per week (just under $22,000 per year) in 2009, but that data was not recorded for their male counterparts because there are less than 50,000 male hair stylists in the country (and BLS doesn’t track data on occupation segments that small). This fact does not surprise me because there is not one male student currently enrolled in all of Beauty U...
...And there’s another, more insidious and more widespread way that the beauty industry contributes to the wage gap: What Naomi Wolf calls “the professional beauty qualification” or PBQ, where all manner of jobs require women to look and dress a certain way in order to maintain their employment.
From The Beauty Myth, pages 52-53:
Help strengthen regulations to prevent discriminatory pay practices and discrimination of all types:Urban professional women are devoting up to a third of their income to “beauty maintenance” and considering it a necessary investment. [...] The few women who are finally earning as much as men are forced, through the PBQ, to pay themselves significantly less than their male counterparts take home. It has engineered do-it-yourself income discrimination.
Support the Paycheck Fairness Act!H.R. 12, S. 182 (111th Congress)
The Paycheck Fairness Act, introduced in both the House (H.R. 12) and the Senate (S. 182) and passed by the House on Jan. 9, 2009, would update and strengthen the Equal Pay Act (EPA) of 1963. The Act would deter wage discrimination by closing loopholes in the EPA and barring retaliation against workers who disclose their wages. The bill also allows women to receive the same remedies for sex-based pay discrimination that are currently available to those subject to discrimination based on race and national origin.
