I live in White House, TN, and we are served by the Tennessean, a newspaper produced by Gannett and published out of Nashville, TN. The Tennessean serves the Middle Tennessee area and has a circulation of about 101,000 during the week and 228,000 on Sunday as of March 2013. The circulation has declined over the past few years; in November 2005, circulation was approximately 178,000 on weekdays and 251,000 on Sunday. The decline is due to the general decline in newspapers.
The Tennessean's target audience tends to be more affluent and educated than average. 53 percent of readers have an annual income of over $50,000, and 78 percent own their own home. College graduates are 13 percent more likely to read the Tennessean than the general population.
The Tennessean launched its online presence in September 1998, a year after its now closed competitor, the Nashville Banner. The online Tennessean does well, but overall, the publication is declining. It is likely not going anywhere soon, though.
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Books, Movies, and their Influences on One Another
Here are the top 20 grossing movies of 2015 (as of mid August)
1. Jurassic World - series is book-based
2. Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron - comic-based
3. Furious 7
4. Inside Out
5.Minions
6. Cinderella - fairytale-based
7. Pitch Perfect 2 - original movie adapted from a book
8. Home
9. Fifty Shades of Grey - book-based
10. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
11. San Andreas
12. Mad Max: Fury Road - comic book based on movie
13. Ant-Man - comic-based
14. Insurgent - book-based
15. Spy
16. Tomorrowland
17. Get Hard
18. Terminator Genisys
19. Trainwreck
20. Ted 2
Source: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls073655785/
The movie industry is a hit-driven business, so filmmakers are constantly looking for new ideas that they think will make the next blockbuster film. What works well under one form of media frequently translates well into another, so it's no surprise that popular books often make popular movies.
That's the case with many of this year's popular movies. Jurassic World, for instance, is this year's highest grossing movie so far and is the fastest movie ever to break $1 billion box office, achieving this feat in only 13 days. Jurassic World is the fourth movie of the Jurassic Park series. This series began as the novel Jurassic Park, written by Michael Crichton and published in 1990. The movie adaptation was released three years later, beginning the series. Although the third and fourth Jurassic Park series movies are not directly based on a novel, they draw heavily from the novels and continue the movie series that began as a novel adaptation.
Two movies, Fifty Shades of Gray and Insurgent, were directly based on books. Pitch Perfect 2 is the sequel to Pitch Perfect, a movie which was loosely based on a book. Two more movies owe their base to comic books, and one to a fairytale. In total, 7 of 20 movies - 35 percent - owe some of their pedigree to printed media. One additional movie inspired a comic book.
Most book based movies that are made by major studios were already popular; for instance, Fifty Shades of Gray has been a best-seller, while Insurgent has also enjoyed strong sales. But the movie does help the book along greatly in many cases. The Jurassic Park novel enjoyed increased fame and sales following the release of the 1993 movie.
A movie adaptation can greatly increase awareness and sales of a book, but typically the studios stick to the tried-and-true. While it seems that movies are more popular than books, they don't "overshadow" them, as evidenced by the great number of popular novels today, most of which never see a movie adaptation.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
12 Hours Disconnected
Like most 22 year olds, I use media on a near-constant basis. I use the Internet for hours a day, spend time on my iPhone's internet before I go to sleep and as I wake up, and keep my TV tuned to a weather channel. Media surrounds me nearly 24/7.
Except from noon to midnight on Friday, August 28, 2015. For an assignment, I went 12 hours without the use of media. From the start, I knew this was going to be a very hard task. It was difficult, to say the least, and forced me to muster up every ounce of my self discipline. Until this exercise, I never realized how unconsciously I use media.
At noon, the twelve hours started. Soon thereafter, my last class of the day ended, and I drove the 44 miles from WKU to my home in White House, TN. Normally, I turn the satellite radio on during this long drive, but today I couldn't, and had to drive in total silence. I began to take stock of what I could do to pass these 12 hours.
I paid my mom's parents a visit, something I do about twice a week on average. While there, I talked to them, swung on their porch swing, and had dinner. I then headed home in the late afternoon.
By around 4 pm, the lack of media was getting very tiring. I was tempted to - and did - pull out my iPhone a lot, only to realize that it was only useful as a clock in this media blackout. The whole afternoon had become a constant battle not to use media, as I had to stop myself numerous times from using the Internet and force myself not to watch the evening news. I began to do a countdown every time I looked at a clock, and took stock of the percentage of the way done I was.
Once I got home, I did the dishes and began talking to my parents. We had an interesting chat for a while, as I recapped how my week went and talked to them about various subjects and current events. All the while I was looking at the clock frequently. My mood had become worse, but I wouldn't call it "bad". Still, after 9 or so hours without media, I had to force myself to stay in a good mood as well.
The last hour was the hardest. My parents went to bed, and I didn't have much to do. Finally midnight came, and despite having awakened at 6 am that morning, I couldn't sleep. I had to check my Facebook, watch YouTube videos, check all of my favorite sites. I was ravenous for the Internet. I don't think I've awaited a certain time that eagerly for a while.
For me, it was the lack of Internet that was the hardest. I found that I could stay away from television or radio easily for twelve hours, but the wealth of information and entertainment available on the Internet is unparalleled. I was born in 1992, at a time when the Internet was extremely limited and rare - basically a pre-Internet time. The thought that a medium that became big in my lifetime could be such a great part of it is sobering.
Except from noon to midnight on Friday, August 28, 2015. For an assignment, I went 12 hours without the use of media. From the start, I knew this was going to be a very hard task. It was difficult, to say the least, and forced me to muster up every ounce of my self discipline. Until this exercise, I never realized how unconsciously I use media.
At noon, the twelve hours started. Soon thereafter, my last class of the day ended, and I drove the 44 miles from WKU to my home in White House, TN. Normally, I turn the satellite radio on during this long drive, but today I couldn't, and had to drive in total silence. I began to take stock of what I could do to pass these 12 hours.
I paid my mom's parents a visit, something I do about twice a week on average. While there, I talked to them, swung on their porch swing, and had dinner. I then headed home in the late afternoon.
By around 4 pm, the lack of media was getting very tiring. I was tempted to - and did - pull out my iPhone a lot, only to realize that it was only useful as a clock in this media blackout. The whole afternoon had become a constant battle not to use media, as I had to stop myself numerous times from using the Internet and force myself not to watch the evening news. I began to do a countdown every time I looked at a clock, and took stock of the percentage of the way done I was.
Once I got home, I did the dishes and began talking to my parents. We had an interesting chat for a while, as I recapped how my week went and talked to them about various subjects and current events. All the while I was looking at the clock frequently. My mood had become worse, but I wouldn't call it "bad". Still, after 9 or so hours without media, I had to force myself to stay in a good mood as well.
The last hour was the hardest. My parents went to bed, and I didn't have much to do. Finally midnight came, and despite having awakened at 6 am that morning, I couldn't sleep. I had to check my Facebook, watch YouTube videos, check all of my favorite sites. I was ravenous for the Internet. I don't think I've awaited a certain time that eagerly for a while.
For me, it was the lack of Internet that was the hardest. I found that I could stay away from television or radio easily for twelve hours, but the wealth of information and entertainment available on the Internet is unparalleled. I was born in 1992, at a time when the Internet was extremely limited and rare - basically a pre-Internet time. The thought that a medium that became big in my lifetime could be such a great part of it is sobering.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)