Laguna Beach Avatars

Ewww....

As if it weren't bad enough that I am completely engrossed in the lives of perfect, blonde, tan, wealthy, vapid, BMW driving teenagers on the other side of the country, now I can also pretend to be them via online Avatars... Sweet! In case you couldn't pick up on my sarcasm, I am so incredibly appalled by MTV's newest and completely unshocking gimmick that I just lost my appetitie for lunch.

Sure we've all become accustomed to the fact that people can spring board into at least short lived super stardom by playing themselves in primetime TV's latest gag fest, but now they can also be played by teenagers and creepy 40 year old men all over the world.

According to the New York Times, "This week, MTV will introduce Virtual Laguna Beach, an online service in which fans of the program can immerse themselves — or at least can immerse digitized, three-dimensional characters, called avatars, that they control — in virtual versions of the show’s familiar seaside hangouts." Because I didn't feel bad enough about the fact that I will never be as wealthy, thin, or popular as the show's 16-year-old stars, now MTV has created even less life-like virtual versions for young women to pattern themselves off of. Now not only will Kristin Cavallari sound like a spoiled, scheming, vapid brat, but she can do it in acronyms.

The Times says that this is the first of three online worlds that MTV will launch this year. The next one is called VMTV, and "is a music destination where visitors can club-hop among hip neighborhoods, buy music, watch videos, sing karaoke or even start their own bands." My question about this is, can't you do all of those things in real life?

Ah, and what is in this for MTV, other than bringing back some of the stray teens that they have lost in recent years to MySpace and YouTube?
"One of the appeals of virtual worlds for MTV is the possibility that advertising can spill over into the real one. Visitors might buy a digital outfit for parties using currency they earned watching an infomercial or checking out a new product for an MTV advertiser. Then, they might decide that they would like to buy the same outfit for their offline selves, and, with a few clicks of the mouse and some real dollars, have one shipped to their home. In trial form, Virtual Laguna Beach has advertising relationships with brands including Cingular, Pepsi-Cola, Secret and another Viacom company, Paramount."

The young people of America, myself not withstanding, seem to be on the right track, but not quite there yet. Yes, we have figured out that we like interactive media better than one-way communication that just plays in front of us. If we can just get to the next step, where we figure out that we also want to do something with that media, instead of just pretend to live our lives, then we might be on to something. Unfortunately, we are a generation who has grown up with the instant media gratification of a polaroid camera, from social networking sites to viral video, I cannot argue with MTV Networks' Executive President Judy McGrath when she says, "MTV speaks uniquely to a group of people who are endlessly fascinated with watching themselves." Hopefully we start seeing ourselves doing something more productive with our time soon.

Local Media Consolidation

Yesterday the Metro reported that the Flordia based owner of WLVI (Boston's WB... which will be switching in the coming weeks to CW programming) has sold the local affiliate to the Chicago based owner of WCVB (Boston's ABC affiliate). This comes only days after a report that Michael Powell, former FCC chair apparently ordered to be destroyed was leaked to a Democratic Congresswoman who has challenged the current FCC chair.

The report was commissioned two years ago by Powell (Yes, Colin's son), to prove that local ownership does not affect news content and the focus on localism. The intent of the report was to fuel further de-regulation to allow for companies to own even more outlets in each region than they currently are under the Clinton administration's 1996 de-regulation act. When the report proved, instead, to show empirically that local owners do in fact show nearly 33 hours more per year of local interest stories, Powell ordered all evidence of the report destroyed.

As for Boston's CW network, WLVI, the owners of WCVB say that they plan to replace the current evening news with a news program aimed at younger viewers. It will still air at 10pm, followed on WCVB by the regular 11pm news, which is obviously not for young people (what?). With our mainstream media's idea of what targeting a young demographic is, I cringe to think about what this news program will look like. Yo! MTV raps graphics? Reporters in Sean John and Enyce? Maybe live Saturday night entertainment reports from The Rack at Faneiul Hall.

In any case, their other programming will remain basically untouched, with the new CW network keeping most of the WB programs, with four exceptions: Tyra Banks' America's Next Top Model (airing at 8pm on Thursdays against Must See TV on NBC), Veronica Mars (paired on Tuesdays with Gilmore Girls), Everybody Hates Chris (moved to the ridiculous time slot of 7:30pm on Sundays), and Girlfriends (right after Everybody Hates Chris on Sundays). The rest of the slots that are not WB shows will be new shows. It still remains to be seen whether or not any of these will feature diverse casts or any young people of color at all. With One Tree Hill, Gilmore Girls, Supernatural, and a miraculously revived 7th Heaven dominating the top time slots, I hope that the new CW network at least makes a feeble attempt at keeping the identity of the UPN's demographics in mind as they make the switch. Look out this fall for Real Women Have Curves star America Ferara in her first TV show on ABC called Ugly Betty.

On a personal note, I am very sad that ABC has decided to put Grey's Anatomy on the same time as My Name is Earl and the Office. What is a girl supposed to do without Tevo?

More Good Media News

Google feeds are a plethora of good stories of media victories today. Yay! So the producers of "Girls Gone Wild" have been fined 2.5 MILLION bucks for not keeping records of the ages of the women they are exploiting... sure it's not shutting 'em down or anything, but it's a step in the right direction. Personally, I am a firm believer of changing the game instead of hating on the players, but sometimes you need to kick the players that are messing up the game. So I am glad to read this.

From Terry Frieden
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The entertainment company that produces the "Girls Gone Wild" films and its founder pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges they failed to document the ages of female performers in sexually oriented productions.

Mantra Films of Santa Monica, California, entered a plea agreement in a federal court in Panama City, Florida, the Justice Department said.

Authorities said Joseph Francis, founder of Mantra Films and a related company, MRA Holdings, also agreed to plead guilty to charges to be filed later in Los Angeles, and to pay fines and restitution totaling $2.1 million.

The "Girls Gone Wild" videotapes -- often featuring young women heavily partying and baring their breasts -- are widely advertised on some cable television channels.

Mantra Films specifically pleaded guilty in Florida to charges that it failed to create and maintain age and identity documents for performers. The company also admitted it failed to label its videotapes and DVDs as required by federal law.

Court documents say the alleged violations occurred during productions titled "Ultimate Spring Break," "Girls Gone Wild on Campus Uncensored," "Totally Exposed Uncensored and Beyond," and "Girls Gone Wild College Girls Exposed/Sexy Sorority Sweethearts."

The Justice Department said the case is the first filed under a law designed to prevent the sexual exploitation of children.

The law, which prosecutors call Section 2257 -- is intended to protect minors by requiring producers to create and maintain age and identity records for every performer in sexually explicit movies and other media.

Distributors also must label their tapes and discs with the name of the custodian of the records and their location, prosecutors said.

"Today's agreements ensure that Girls Gone Wild will comply with an important law designed to prevent the sexual exploitation of minors and puts other producers on notice that they must be in compliance as well," said Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher.

Officials said Francis will pay $500,000 and his firms, Mantra and MRA Holdings, will together pay $1.6 million.

An attorney for Mantra, Aaron Dyer, told The Associated Press that the company would clean up its record keeping.

The charges involved "serious record-keeping issues that occurred several years ago," he told the wire service. "Mantra takes these issues very seriously and has done everything it can to make sure this never occurs again."

The case does not shut down "Girls Gone Wild."

Under terms of the deal, the Los Angeles charges against MRA will be dismissed after three years if the company fully complies with the record-keeping laws and fully pays the fines.

Check out the Agreement here:

Madrid Fashion Week

Madrid's fashion week announced that they would not allow models in the show that were "underweight," in order to project a more healthy image of beauty. Very exciting news, and the female mayor of Milan has promised to begin the process for her fashion show to follow that progressive lead. Check out the text of the article from Reuter's:

By Andrew Hay

MADRID (Reuters) - The world's first ban on overly thin models at a top-level fashion show in Madrid has caused outrage among modeling agencies and raised the prospect of restrictions at other venues.

Madrid's fashion week has turned away underweight models after protests that girls and young women were trying to copy their rail-thin looks and developing eating disorders.

Organizers say they want to project an image of beauty and health, rather than a waif-like, or heroin chic look.

But Cathy Gould, of New York's Elite modeling agency, said the fashion industry was being used as a scapegoat for illnesses like anorexia and bulimia.

"I think its outrageous, I understand they want to set this tone of healthy beautiful women, but what about discrimination against the model and what about the freedom of the designer," said Gould, Elite's North America director, adding that the move could harm careers of naturally "gazelle-like" models.

Madrid's regional government, which sponsors the show and imposed restrictions, said it did not blame designers and models for anorexia. It said the fashion industry had a responsibility to portray healthy body images.

"Fashion is a mirror and many teenagers imitate what they see on the catwalk," said regional official Concha Guerra.

The mayor of Milan, Italy, Letizia Moratti, told an Italian newspaper this week she would seek a similar ban for her city's show unless it could find a solution to "sick" looking models.

The Madrid show is using the body mass index or BMI -- based on weight and height -- to measure models. It has turned away 30 percent of women who took part in the previous event. Medics will be on hand at the September 18-22 show to check models.

"The restrictions could be quite a shock to the fashion world at the beginning, but I'm sure it's important as far as health is concerned," said Leonor Perez Pita, director of Madrid's show, also known as the Pasarela Cibeles.

A spokeswoman for the Association of Fashion Designers of Spain, which represents those at Madrid fashion week, said the group supported restrictions and its concern was the quality of collections, not the size of models.

Eating disorder activists said many Spanish model agencies and designers oppose the ban and they had doubts whether the new rules would be followed.

"If they don't go along with it the next step is to seek legislation, just like with tobacco," said Carmen Gonzalez of Spain's Association in Defense of Attention for Anorexia and Bulimia, which has campaigned for restrictions since the 1990s.

Soul Survivor

I was absolutely appalled when I opened up the Metro to the headline "Segregated Survivor." While I was disturbed by host Jeff Probst's claim that the show's racial segregation is a means of making the show more diverse, I was just as taken aback by the Metro's laissez-faire coverage of the controversial move. Survivor has in the past pitted men against women, and young against old in the pursuit of the million dollar cash prize and fifteen minutes of fame.

In a society like ours, where segregation still reigns, glorifying a televised war of all races is not only irresponsible; it is dangerous to our collective psyche. Nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina’s coastal devastation brought racial injustice to the country’s spotlight for a brief moment, we have quickly forgotten about how this administration’s priorities so heavily favor the supposed majority. Instead of finding ways to openly discuss different backgrounds of privilege and disadvantages to build a more just and sustainable future, the entertainment media has chosen once again to focus on the small divisions and drive a wedge further between those of us who continue to struggle for our piece of the pie.

In 1712, British Slave Owner, William Lynch delivered these words on how to control slaves, “Don't forget you must pitch the old black Male vs. the young black Male, and the young black Male against the old black male. You must use the dark skin slaves vs. the light skin slaves, and the light skin slaves vs. the dark skin slaves. You must use the female vs. the male. And the male vs. the female.” Lynch proposed that these methods would be successful for up to 300 years, but with major networks like CBS still doing the dirty work and perpetuating the cycle adding new groups to play against one another, I have a feeling that it will continue far beyond 2012.

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