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Did the upset election of 2016 mark the death knell of journalism? From telegraph to television, newspapers to newscasters, telegraph cables to cable news, how Morse Code was the binary code that started the first Information Age, and why cable TV news might be the end.
As I begin writing, it’s Sunday, Sept. 26, 2016, and Vin Scully is calling his last game at Dodger Stadium. It’s been a long goodbye between Vin and MLB all season long as the Dodgers go from city to city…
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On the very first episode of the TV ROOM podcast, we discuss: What exactly is the Age of Television? What are its origins? How did it change us? When will we know it’s over?
PROLOGUE I’m hardly the first guy to ponder the end of television, merely the last. The epiphany came at a Berkeley cafe in Fall 2011, when I overheard one college freshman say to another, “I can’t wait to go…
You never know what’s going to happen from one week to the next on Mad Men. The only rule that seems to be holding true is that the show is staying strictly within the chronological confines of the 1960s from…
(In Part 1 of this essay we explored the rise of the rock star in popular culture as a function of television. Part 2 touched on the ascendance of album rock. In the third and final installation, we look at…
As you are being made aware by the media, this week marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Fifty years is an eternity in politics, especially American politics, and yet the Kennedy assassination continues to resonate…
(In Part I of this essay, the origins of the rock star figure in Western culture were examined, beginning with Elvis and leaving off with the Beatles’ triumphal debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.) To be sure, America’s youth…
Rock stars. Is there even such a thing anymore? The answer seems to be no, at least not in the traditional sense. There are YouTube sensations and American Idol winners, but they’re more like karaoke performers with choreography. Beyond that,…