Media

Social media developers can take steps to foster constructive disagreements online through design. But our findings suggest that they also will need to consider how their interventions might backfire. – The Conversation

Amazon has shat out science-fiction programming for years, and it ranges, on the smell-o-meter, from the merely obnoxious to the just plain noxious—a flatulence that fluctuates. – Wired

Despite the famously long hours and low pay, aspiring TV writers compete madly for these jobs, hoping to get a foot in the door and onto the career ladder. But, as one assistant puts it, “the ladder has been disappearing.” – Fast Company

The industry that produced Andrzej Wajda and Agnieszka Holland never anticipated that a trashy softcore flick would become its most-watched product, the world’s lockdown guilty pleasure. Fortunately, Netflix has been putting a lot of resources into more (and more respectable) projects in Poland. – The Hollywood Reporter

Netflix is the Kleenex of streaming, a brand so dominant it can stand for the whole of the market. (It’s not “Hulu and chill,” after all.) There are signs that this synecdochal power is waning, though. – Wired

“When we were working on the story, it didn’t occur to us in our wildest dreams that not only would NBC pull the show, but Tom Cruise would return his Golden Globes.” – The Postscript

“[AMC’s] ‘Can We Talk About This?’ video initiative … is designed to acknowledge what may have been acceptable at one point in history is not now and perhaps never should have been. … This way, the networks don’t lose programming, but rather get a chance to recontextualize it.” – Variety

Statistically, the 2021 class is comprised of 46 percent women, 39 percent underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 53 international members from 49 countries outside of the United States. – IndieWire

Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy “have compiled a heady mix of A-list directors and compelling material they hope hearkens back to the days when Fred Astaire and Judy Garland roamed the [studio]. The next six months will show if their strategy pays off.” – The New York Times

Early in his career, he helmed episodes of many of the most iconic TV series of the ’60s, then he went on to direct The Omen, Superman, The Goonies, Scrooged, and the Lethal Weapon franchise. – Variety

Rather than 60-second video limit, TikTokkers will have three minutes. Will that make them more or less creative? – The Hollywood Reporter

Fireman’s Fund gives the example of a nonessential crewmember having face-to-face contact with a movie director and then reporting infection, requiring a costly shutdown for 14 days. Who pays? – The Hollywood Reporter

The Malayalam-language cinema, based in India’s best-educated state, Kerala, has managed to produce compelling dramas dealing with the pandemic — from a two-hander shot entirely inside a car to a loose adaptation of Macbeth set on a rubber plantation — despite lockdowns and cash crunches. – The Guardian

What makes a good greensperson? The best of them know how and where to get things, no matter how rare or obscure or out of season. – The New York Times

She doesn’t get the respect for her pioneering role that, for instance, Ida Lupino does — because her characters and stories were comic, and because she didn’t direct her films. But she did write them, and she often adapted them from stage plays she did direct as well as write and star in. – The New York Times

The settlement with the city’s Commission on Human Rights is for “a pattern of violating of the NYC Human Rights Law” — that is, the culture of sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation for complaints that developed under the network’s late founder and chairman, Roger Ailes. – The Daily Beast

“Your boundaries can change given the person, given who’s in the room, given I’m on a sofa not a bed, that changes how I feel about how we’re shooting this scene. Consent is very specific to the context and the moment, and if anything changes, that can change consent level.” (podcast plus transcript) – Slate

The judge eviscerated one of the federal government’s core arguments, that Facebook holds a monopoly over social networking, saying prosecutors had failed to provide enough facts to back up that claim. – The New York Times

Once upon a time, kids, NPR was to have taken its place among other national broadcasters around the world to become the standard for music, and yeah, news. But, to paraphrase, stuff happens. – Current

Dysfunction is baked into the video game production process, as it currently exists. The big-budget games industry is dominated by a few large companies, the publishers. – The New Republic

If the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences wants to avoid a Hollywood Foreign Press Association-style meltdown, it really has to prove itself with these nominations. NPR’s Eric Duggans offers some institution-saving suggestions for the voters – and for the rest of us. – NPR