Edit Entry — Media Tracker

Summary

Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/donateidea

Why were Rio and the election so far so MEME-less?

Tweet us! http://bit.ly/pbsideachanneltwitter
Idea Channel Facebook! http://bit.ly/pbsideachannelfacebook
Talk about this episode on reddit! http://bit.ly/pbsideachannelreddit
Idea Channel IRC! http://bit.ly/pbsideachannelirc
Email us! pbsideachannel [at] gmail [dot] com

Four WHOLE years ago, in August and November of 2012 respectively, we made episodes about the “cultural singularity”, and the Olympics’ role in it, and the effect of Animated ZHAIFS on the US Presidential election. We made some predictions. Being in the midst of both of those global events yet again, we thought it may be nice to check in and see where we’re at. In the cultural singularity episode, we argued that in response to major global events, the Internet Content Machine would generate endless may-mays in a practically “automatic” process, one divorced from specific humans acting as “authors”. The 2012 Olympics were used as an example. And in the presidential election episode, we discussed whether or not the animated zhaif could be an honest-to-goodness source of “political news”, specifically as it relates to the marriage of talking points and the actual physical presence of candidates, a thing which has been important since the 60s. So, after 4 years, how have these predictions held up? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

---CHECK OUT OUR MERCH!---
http://bit.ly/1U8fS1B

T-Shirts Designed by:
http://artsparrow.com/

---FURTHER READING---
Chinese Memes
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/china-meme-face-a-biaoqing-field-guide

The Hype Cycle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle

Olympic Viewership dipping?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nbcs-ratings-for-rio-olympics-fall-behind-london-1471185907
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-olympic-ratings-20160812-snap-story.html

--Atlas Obscura event--
http://www.atlasobscura.com/events/ny-atlas-obscura-live-rivals

--BOOK CLUB--
https://www.reddit.com/r/pbsideachannel/comments/4x8r9c/idea_channel_book_club_borges/

---TWEET OF THE WEEK---
https://twitter.com/macloo/status/766752517359370241

---ASSET LINKS---

0:17 Are Memes & Internet Culture Creating a Singularity? 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNBOkp346G8

0:21 How Will The Animated GIF Affect The Presidential Election? 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2amSQyhP0Mg

1:28 Kennedy vs. Nixon - 1st 1960 Debate 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QazmVHAO0os

2:50 A Field Guide to China's Most Indispensible Meme
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/china-meme-face-a-biaoqing-field-guide

4:43 The Hype Cycle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle
http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp

5:24 NEW The Best Vines of August 2016 Week 3 - Funny Vine Compilation 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of1C7Q8RCB4

5:51 How Donald Trump Answers A Question
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aFo_BV-UzI

6:21 Media Matters
https://mediamatters.org/

6:23 Skunk Bear
http://skunkbear.tumblr.com/

6:34 The Age of American Unreason
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/books/11kaku.html?_r=0

7:48 USA Win 4x400m Relay Gold - London 2012 Olympics 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOORz_fRtRY

7:55 ioc is cracking down on olympic gifs
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/08/05/the-ioc-is-cracking-down-on-olympic-gifs-but-how-effective-can-they-be/

7:59 Katie Ledecky NYT info GIF
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/12/sports/olympics/katie-ledecky-winning-swims.html

8:10 The IOC Took Down the Best Olympic Tweet Yet, But Not Before It Went Viral
http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/08/the-ioc-took-down-the-best-olympic-tweet-yet.html

8:51 Phelps Face from hehateme2012 on Twitter
https://twitter.com/hehateme2012/status/762851647051567104

8:56 This how ya girl walks in when she catches you in a lie and her best friend help her solve the case.
https://twitter.com/xlnb/status/764942813310050304

---MUSIC---
https://soundcloud.com/montone-2/minimalist

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Written and hosted by Mike Rugnetta (@mikerugnetta)
(who also has a podcast! Reasonably Sound: http://bit.ly/1sCn0BF)

Made by Kornhaber Brown (http://www.kornhaberbrown.com)

Edit

Image