Contenidos – Medios mejores que ganen más

May 1 2014 by Blanca de Lizaur, PhD, MA, BA No Comments

In reply to a reader’s letter: <em>TVyNovelas’</em> print-runs, and when to invest in media companies

In reply to a reader’s letter: TVyNovelas’ print-runs, and when to invest in media companies

I eagerly read Edgar Santoyo (a member of the FCPS: School of Social and Political Sciences, UNAM)'s article, about “Espacio 2002”, a yearly event organized by Televisa to connect with Communications students throughout Mexico, and to improve its public image [Humanidades # 232]. I agree with him that, unfortunately, the majority of professors and researchers in the field of Communications in our country, have never had the opportunity to work in media, with all the consequences this entails: Inexperience and resentment in many of them –true, ...and in many media, a “mafia-gang” style of choosing and developing new hires. I also agree that many intellectuals and researchers automatically belittle everything mainstream mass-media disseminate, as if you could exert any intellectual le...

Mar 2 2013 by Blanca de Lizaur, PhD, MA, BA No Comments

The media and their many problems: KIOSKS SLOW DEATH

For everybody, Para:, Magazine

We find some foreign cities both amazing and disappointing. Their broad boulevards, mile-long blocks, mirrored buildings, cleanliness and order, amaze us. Their barren sidewalks, cold coffee shops (literally freezing, since the air conditioning is used to “drive” people out, so other customers can occupy the tables quickly), and the lack of the bustle and chatter of people are ...disenchanting. Seeing somebody else on the street, in fact, doesn't make one feel safer; it may even scare you. Our cities have “life” because there are people out walking, musicians, street markets, people at their windows, human groups of all ages chatting excitedly ─or just playing─, newsstands, touts, con artists everywhere…; and coffee shops or food stalls along the sidewalks and in the squares, with temperat...

Dec 8 2012 by Blanca de Lizaur, PhD, MA, BA 8 Comments

No transaction without TRUST; <em>no trust without evidence of VALUES</em> –But WHOSE values…?

No transaction without TRUST; no trust without evidence of VALUES –But WHOSE values…?

Multimedia, For media people, Para:, Videos

1. The 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer [summary regarding Spain] [global summary in English] , the conclusions of which are presented in this video, shows a major drop in credibility and trust, towards almost all institutions, in practically all of the countries included in the study. That said, what's new…? Let us examine a few press headlines from the last three years, chosen at random, to understand what set off this crisis in trust, and the way it is affecting the media: “MGM Studio Files Bankruptcy; Eyes Lender Takeover” [MGM Studios, producers of the James Bond franchise, declare bankruptcy in court]; Jonathan Stempel; Gerald E. McCormick & Dave Zimmerman, eds.; El Economista.es; Nov. / 3 / 2010. “The Music Industry is Dying a Slow Death. Not just because of illegal downloa...

Feb 20 2012 by Blanca de Lizaur, PhD, MA, BA 1 Comment

WHEN EVEN THE MOST COURAGEOUS CRY…

Specialized, For media people, Para:

PAPER PRESENTED AT THE CONFERENCE: "VIEJAS IDEAS, NUEVAS CREENCIAS: MÉXICO HACIA EL SIGLO XXI: LA LITERATURA COMO TRANSGRESORA DE LAS FRONTERAS DE IDENTIDAD" ["OLD IDEAS, NEW BELIEFS: MEXICO TOWARDS THE XXI CENTURY: LITERATURE AND ITS TRANSGRESSION OF IDENTITY BORDERS"], ORGANIZED BY UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA METROPOLITANA (U.A.M., MÉXICO) AND THE UNIV. OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY (U.S.A.), IN JULY, 1995, IN THE BUILDING THAT HOUSED THE FIRST PRINTING PRESS IN THE AMERICAS, MEXICO CITY, D.F. . VERSION CORRECTED BY AUTHOR: ╺ ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╸ . THE "IMAGO MUNDI" OF WHEN THE COURAGEOUS WEEP. . “──This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights:He will take your sons and make them serve with his c...

Jan 20 2012 by Blanca de Lizaur, PhD, MA, BA No Comments

THE POWER OF SOUND –…by its effects you shall know it; talk by Julian Treasure

Multimedia, For everybody, Para:, Videos

When one of us wants to communicate with others, we figure out how we can make use of the resources at our disposal, to do so. This means that for purposes of communication, a series of processes aimed ultimately at the expression of our message are deployed –causing it to reach the person we want to receive it–. We have many ways to achieve this. For example: We can express ourselves using sounds, voice, gestures, actions, and by illustration (through the use of images, alphabets, ideograms or codes); as well as through dramatizations… And regardless of whether this is achieved using natural or artifical means (or methods, or technologies), new or old ones –like electronic media and mobile devices–. What matters here, is not so much which means we choose, as what message we are e...

Jan 10 2012 by Blanca de Lizaur, PhD, MA, BA 1 Comment

Have you ever wondered WHAT “MORBID” CONTENTS ARE?

For media people, Para:, Magazine

In our language, and according to the “Diccionario de la Real Academia Española” (Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy), morbid means “a change in health [...], illness”. We may deduce that something is morbid when: 1) “it causes illness”, or 2), “causes unhealthy mental [...] reactions”. In English, and according to the Oxford Dictionary, “morbid” refers to someone “ …characterized by an abnormal and unhealthy interest in disturbing and unpleasant subjects, especially death and disease…”. In literary terminology, a morbid device is used to attract people's attention; it's a “hook”. In previous articles we established that works with family-oriented contents, “cleaner”/"more wholesome" ones (that is: those that least violate the values, ideas and beliefs of their target public), t...

Dec 31 2011 by Blanca de Lizaur, PhD, MA, BA No Comments

Little by little, you can grow ACCUSTOMED TO (ALMOST) EVERYTHING!

For media people, Para:, Magazine

There are internationally recognized scientists and thinkers in Mexico. One of them –and a graduate of our University (UNAM), invented an intravenous serum known as the Sodi polarizing solution, which is commonly used in hospitals all around the world. I am obviously speaking about Dr. Demetrio Sodi Pallares –may he rest in peace. And all of his research, theories and therapeutic successes arise from a common seminal idea: The certainty that, with respect to our metabolism, an excess of intracellular sodium ions reduces the body’s ability to react adequately to illness. To state this more clearly: The amount of salt we are used to consume, is bad for our health. A case in point: Western medicine arrived in Kenya long before the Western diet did. Thanks to this, medical records ha...

Nov 21 2011 by Blanca de Lizaur, PhD, MA, BA 4 Comments

THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE MISSING SPECTATOR has little to do with the Digital Revolution

For everybody, Para:, Magazine

An important producer mentioned his concern that film –as in the complete experience of going to the cinema– was dying. There has been a progressive, constant and noteworthy decline in the number of spectators going to the movies over the last 30 years (not necessarily in the amount of money generated by these spectators, as box office prices have raised enormously during the same period). In part, he blamed the economic crisis; but more importantly –and along with many others in the business, he blamed “videos” for the audience decline. Who would want to go out to the movie theater when you can enjoy the film right at home, for free or for little? Of course this sounds both logical and reasonable; however it lacks appropriate contextualization. Why? If “videos” were the only culpri...

Nov 14 2011 by Blanca de Lizaur, PhD, MA, BA No Comments

A test about media, YOU JUST WILL LOVE TO ANSWER!

For media people, Para:, Magazine

In “The mysterious case of the missing spectator”, I made a brief reference to popular, low-end, or low-brow literature as the one that characteristically employs a collective aesthetic. What does this really mean? To clarify the explanation, I’m going to ask you to respond to a few questions regarding various types of works and characters that most of us know and like… . Complete the following sentences, filling the empty spaces with the missing word/s: 1) In a “cops and robbers” story, the “good guy” and the “bad guy” find themselves standing face to face, and one of them yells: “Drop it, buddy, or I’ll blow ___________________!” 2) At the most exciting moment of a romantic story, one of the main characters exclaims: “I’ll never leave you, my darling; nothing and nobody will ...

Oct 24 2011 by Blanca de Lizaur, PhD, MA, BA No Comments

O, YEE PROUD PRINTED LETTER…!, or How we have come to forget the worth and value of orality and “normality” in the last 100 years.

For everybody, Para:, Magazine

. An incredible but true story... - I - I once was told that many years ago, the Mexican Ministry of Education undertook an important mission: That of measuring the I.Q. (Intellectual Quotient) of our indigenous peoples, in order to adequate our school system’s curricula and conditions to their real needs. A large number of teachers, psychologists and pedagogues armed themselves with batteries of written tests, and set themselves to the task. The results, however, couldn’t have been more disheartening: Most communities sampled –according to the experts, scored so low, that we should consider our “Mexican Indians” to be intellectually disabled...! The project and its results were quickly silenced and buried. No-one dared to publish its “discoveries”, yet no-one could tell ...

Oct 3 2011 by Blanca de Lizaur, PhD, MA, BA No Comments

NO RETURN ADDRESS? Then how can we tell your message is trustworthy…

For everybody, Para:, Magazine

Anonymous messages… –most of us distrust them. When we talk about letters, we are suspicious of those that reach us without a signature and a return-address. When we talk about general information, we tend to distrust rumours, because we don’t know who started them and what they are expecting to obtain through them. And anonymity constitutes, as well, the main difference between a pamphlet and a legally distributed magazine –magazines are required by law to include information about who publishes them, and where these persons can be located, so that both you and the authorities can reach them if necessary. This proves particularly important when you talk about electronic media, because of their massive and indiscriminate reach. In regards to tradit...

Aug 8 2011 by Blanca de Lizaur, PhD, MA, BA No Comments

FOR AUDIENCES WHO LONG TO HAVE FUN WITHOUT SUFFERING (including parents, teachers and all kinds of consumers)

For audiences

This web is the result of a seminal discovery, expressed by an uncountable number of impartial consumer and scientific studies: That both because of personal and social reasons, the majority of us want and need fun contents in media --that is: to have an appropriate amount of fun, in a way and amount that seems healthy to our plurisecular cultures. That is why we will gather those of our articles that may interest consumers more, in the "For audiences (parents, teachers...)" section of this web. We hope you will like them. We also hope you will soon start sharing with us your experiences, projects, ideas and material --we'll do our best to accomodate them here, as long as their reproduction is possible, relevant and legal. Welcome home! Better and more profitable media ...