Media
Disney's live-action Mulan: digital winner, cultural mess
Disney says it's "very pleased" with the special premium release of Mulan. But the cultural errors mean this can't be remembered as a 'success'.
Everyone dislikes Twitch's new mid-roll ad trial
Mega streaming platform Twitch has announced a trial where some viewers will experience mid-roll ads while watching streams.
Here's what armchair COVID experts are getting wrong
If we don’t analyse statistics for a living, it’s easy to be taken in by misinformation about COVID-19 statistics on social media, especially if we don’t have the right context.
Facebook only took most of a week to deal with its latest misinformation crisis
Facebook is finally removing false claims about Oregon wildfires, half a week after ridiculous claims spread on the social network.
Dark and full of terrors
Too many parents react swiftly to a few scary headlines but don’t actually do much to educate their kids or have conversations about being a savvy digital citizen.
That TikTok video
How do we deal with viral videos that can put "things you can never unseen" into the social media feeds of every user of a platform?
Twitch just became the best Watch Party tool around
Even if you don't care about trying to build an audience, this is a great tool for just sharing a show and hanging out with friends.
The value of uninformed consent
Everyone thought they were getting free services in exchange for ads. But if the depth of the tracking involved was truly known to make the ads so good, would we really have agreed at the start?
The End Of Infinite
Like the infinite scroll, every media form keeps chasing the ability to keep us in neverending flow of content.
Some friction is good for you
the hunt for 'frictionless' interactions and interfaces misses an important fact: some friction is essential to making things that matter.
Stifling aggregation
Market domination puts the rest of us in cultural hot water while the big players buy and sell the hot tub.
The Unsubscribe Experiment
Seamus has been unsubscribing from all his video streaming services... but he's still using them all exactly the way he always has. Huh? How's that work?
Don't let anyone pretend 8K matters
This week we discuss coronavirus (because that's mandatory right now), mobile games, classic games and the proof that 8K TV is utterly unnecessary.
Such a tool
It’s been 8 years since Douglas Rushkoff wrote Program Or Be Programmed, one of the clearest discussions of the whole question of the good/bad of technology in society today. Or rather, why that’s the wrong binary to consider. Rushkoff instead explores ten ‘commands’ we need to understand
Our Weirdly Mediated Mainstream
While reality TV shows get dissected in microscopic detail, game culture is relegated to the kids table regardless of how big it has become.
"Why Are You The Only One?"
My son is at that threshold where he wants to align his own opinions and fandom with his peers, and I’m one of the ‘weird’ parents who is telling him that some YouTubers are OK and others are not.
Amazon made our Simon Pegg / Nick Frost reunion dreams come true
Amazon has picked up a new TV series by Simon Pegg & Nick Frost. Do you need to hear anything else or are you already on your feet air punching with joy?
Deborah Ann Woll and Xander Jeanneret from Relics & Rarities
Seamus chats to Deborah Ann Woll and Xander Jeanneret, two great performers from the Relics & Rarities liveplay D&D show. Deborah is the DM and
Michal 'CARMAC' Blicharz: the biggest brain in esports on The Esports Moment
One of the smartest minds in all of esports sits down with The Esports Moment at Intel Extreme Masters Sydney.
LG's rollable OLED TV is a stunning update to how we think about televisions
It's been a long time since a TV appeared at CES that genuinely got anyone excited. We've seen some clever new bezels, even frames, added to change how TVs
