Disney’s Carousel of Progress
Instead of spending time at one company or school, I had a choose-your-own-adventure style ‘gap year’ that echoed the name of Neil Patrick Harris’ autobiography. After studying personal branding, career development and digital marketing, I crammed several unique experiences into a challenging year that changed my perspective of the global economy. The ‘work hard, play hard’ mantra came to life and thankfully I reaped rewards along the way.
Just in time for my group’s class presentation about The Good Wife, CBS is embracing social media to connect with viewers next week, including The Good Wife fans.
Each show updated fans via Facebook and Twitter today to announce their plans for everyone’s favourite actors to share their own insights via the shows’ official social media accounts beginning Sunday night.
This is hardly the first time shows’ cast and crews are live-tweeting, but usually the official TV show account retweets their commentary, whereas next week CBS is letting its stars gain control over online interactions. I’m curious to see if the stars will use more shorthand or slang than usually seen in the accounts’ messages and I’m sure it’ll depend on which actors are composing the tweets.
Viewers who watch the shows live during their scheduled timeslots (and aren’t distracted by a phone or computer) may have noticed that some shows have a watermark during the first scene featuring a hashtag, such as #HIMYM for How I Met Your Mother.
Bravo’s Lisa Hsia shared with Mashable that “getting talent actively involved with a social media strategy is essential to building greater community engagement,” so this is clearly a calculated attempt to heighten viewer engagement.
I suspect that the initiative will increase check-ins amongst GetGlue users who will be eager to join the live conversation. Personally, I suggest CBS support their initiative with more stickers for GetGlue fans as a token of appreciation.
As for The Good Wife, I’d like to see what Matt Czuchry has to say about Cary’s new promotion in his own words – not just reiterated by a reporter. That was quite a fabulously dramatic ending in last week’s episode and I’m excited to see what happens next this Sunday.
To save space here, you can peek at the network’s full live-tweeting schedule courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter.
After hearing great hype about tonight’s How I Met Your Mother episode, I was curious what sorts of hilarity the show would entail. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of Canadian humour, though I didn’t quite understand why Robyn chose to dress up as a hockey player from Vancouver of all places, but maybe that’s just due to my lack of NHL knowledge. Speaking of comparisons between the States and Canada, I wonder if Dunkin Donuts in the States sells as many pumpkin flavoured treats as Tim Horton’s.
I thoroughly enjoyed how Katie Holmes’ Slutty Pumpkin character knew Barenaked Ladies’ songs by heart, especially because it served as a throwback to a time when Steven Page was still with the band. Though I consider myself a loyal fan of Dawson’s Creek, I much preferred Britney Spears and Rachel Bilson’s guest appearances on HIMYM to Katie Holmes’ stint tonight.
As I watched Ted and his friends at the rooftop party, I noticed that there were far too many store bought packaged costumes that exhibited far too little creativity for a show that’s known for its original concepts like “pregnancy brain” and the “hot-crazy scale.” Barney made an amusing entrance as per usual and it was nice to see a change in his wardrobe this season from the yellow duck tie he’s been sporting since September.
I’m looking forward to seeing what other terms CBS will introduce to our lingo this season. In the meantime, whether you’re tricking friends, enjoying treats or merely tweeting, Happy Halloween!
J.J.: I got a paper route.
Barney Stinson: Bah! Good time to get into print media, right Dad?
The following is inspired by a Microsoft commercial (see post below) and recaps some lessons learned in MIT.
Hey there, you may know me as Prince. I loved this past New Years Eve because who doesn’t like partying like it’s 20Ten and playing with meaning? That’s what Derrida promoted back in his day and I can see why. It’s exactly why I released some songs through a newspaper this past summer, as I like to do things differently.
People in this world need to be courageous and creative. Being a follower won’t get you anywhere but being called a copycat and I don’t want a CC of anyone else’s ideas. I prefer to spread my own ideas and I love how Web 2.0 lets me do just that.
That’s why I turn to the blogosphere to rant about whatever I feel like. Democratic communication is a beautiful thing and I think more people should recognize how they can use it for progressive social change. So many opportunities, yet so little time, but we got to stop procrastinating already and put an end to all this marginalization. There are simply way too many stereotypes circulating the WWW and it’s time that somebody does something about it!
It’s great that Kylie has the tools to capture, edit and share her photos, but let’s not forget that her distant relatives aren’t all as lucky. There’s some major social injustice in this world; someone’s got to fix that digital divide. When there are journalists who think a university campus could be ‘too Asian’, it seems impossible for everyone to be like one happy family in a global village. Kylie seems optimistic though. Hopefully her online habits won’t make her become the sad caricature of the computer enthusiast (you’re the man, Vincent Mosco).
The keyboard is like a sword sometimes; Kylie should be careful what she does with those little fingers. As Alan Turing says, communication is war continued by other means. So whether it’s for employment purposes, personal branding, or just an attempt to get a date on Saturday night, people should be careful what they say.
By creating a whole campaign based on binaries, Apple makes it seem like every day is national suit up day in uptight Seattle. You know what Microsoft should really do? Develop an app or add a feature to MS Word that helps people develop their craft in spoken word. It’s such a cool art form, yet many people don’t recognize that. It must be because they’re spending too much time fooling around with their shiny iTouch screens.
I’m thinking about booking a trip to Mexico so I can strengthen my muscles in one of Madonna’s new gyms. What a material girl, trying to put her name on everything. She’s always touring the world to reinvent herself. Well, wish me luck on my upcoming globe-trotting adventures (and come see the show if you can).
That white kid Bieber thinks he can take my place? He can try, but he can’t replace me or the king of pop, may he RIP. Michael was a fabulous performer. Plus, he practically named his son after me. Everything’s so pre-digested these days. We need more originality. Come on, you indie musicians, let’s hear it. Put your cultural capital to good use. You’ve got your freedom and I don’t see anyone handing you death threats, so get to it! I’m curious to see what bricolage budding musicians will mash-up next.
Here’s to making great cultural texts,
Cheers!