This post is a collection of links and thoughts about media and statistics.
Marc Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, posts about the recent TV rating records across all major sports leagues:
“The internet has trained us. It has trained us to assign two distinct values to content that is available to us, regardless of media. The 1st variable is participation value. The 2nd variable is shelf life. The two variables go hand in hand.”
Read the post but to be honest I often find Marc’s written logic confusing. I will try my spin on it. People essentially are social creatures. We want to talk and tell stories and sports became a common conversational thread, something we can safely talk about without offending anyone’s feelings. A perfect metaphor of struggle, hope and defeat, the mirror of the society divided into super rich and poor and the byproduct of this culture – the obsession with celebrities. To illustrate this I noticed something during my walks around the Cleveland Circle Reservoirs in Chestnut Hill where a Blue Heron took a permanent residence. People who linger to look at the Heron are couples or groups of friends, while single walkers or runners just pass it by. My conclusion is the people don’t just want to stare at the bird; they want to talk about it. Blue Heron is interesting only as a subject of conversation, a story.
And this brings me to the new obsessive radio talk channel in Boston on 98.5 FM. The anchors Felger & Massarotti zeroed in on the question of the high ratings for the Yankees playoff baseball games in Boston – “do people watch baseball because they hate Yankees and hope to see them lose?” And the overwhelming response to the radio station- indeed people hate Yankees more than they love Red Sox and it seems that as much as people would like Red Sox to win they would be equally excited to see Yankees lose [sorry, not this year]. Again this seems like a familiar metaphor.
Next is the wake Up Call: CNN’s Election Coverage Finishes Fourth. So I am thinking people often have an explanation that seems perfectly plausible for years or more. Everyone, even at the CNN was convinced that Fox’s superior rating during the eight years of the Bush administration could be explained by the access to the ruling party. In other words the ratings had nothing to do with the actual broadcasts. Fore years the producers and the fans had a perfect excuse.
Finally there is a new research showing that 8% of Internet Users Account for 85% of all [ads] Clicks. Across all media products there are your core users, inevitably and surprisingly, the number lingers only around 5%. These are your blog commentators, your regular readers, people who actually buy after they walk into a store. There is always a tiny minority that actually gets it.
And almost forgot about this. Jason Kotte links to the exchange between Michael Turner and Brian Joseph Davis – Books have stalled:
“[The book] is stalled out, in terms of technology, at 1500 AD, and sociologically at around 1930.”
Meaning:
“Literature in book form, and discussion around it, was the mark of education, of the gentry and petit bourgeois. Literature in book form never really found a place in mass produced, post WW2 middle class culture.” ["TV and radio took over as the cultural currency around then."]
Photo via flickr/stefbra. Poland, Lodz, Tramwajowa Street
Further reading: