Watching TV shows can bring on some bad habits

A new study suggests that watching The Simpsons may induce viewers to want to smoke, as reported in the Saturday Star. Australian Researcher Guy Estlick, a public health specialist from the Univesrity of Sydney watched all 18 seasons of The Simpsons in order to determine how smoking is depicted in the cartoon show. Of the [...]

Nando’s cocky commercial

 
I’m sure everyone has seen, or at least heard about, Nando’s TV commercial featuring a puppet parodying ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leader, Julius Malema. The commercial was not received well by the ANCYL and after talks between the fast food brand and the ANCYL, Nando’s agreed to take into consideration the concerns raised, while at [...]

Susan Boyle “dreamed a dream” and it came true

At the beginning of the week, I was asked if I’d heard about Susan Boyle, a contestant on the new season of British reality TV program, Britain’s Got Talent. Being slightly obsessed with all things reality TV-related, I decided to find out about this woman who seemed to have captured everyone’s attention.
Boyle is a 47-year-old, [...]

Children of the Web

The relationship between children and information is highly significant – something Neil Postman pointed out in his book The Disappearance of Childhood. The main point Postman makes is that Childhood and Adulthood are defined by the access (or lack thereof) to information, and that the boundaries between the two notions have blurred since the advent of TV.