GLAAD Where We Are on TV Report

GLAAD's (The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Where We Are on TV Report: 2010-2011 Season has just been released.

From the Report's Overview:

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) representations have increased for the third year in a row to a record percentage according to an analysis of the 2010-2011 scripted primetime broadcast television season conducted by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). The Where We Are on TV report forecasts the expected presence of LGBT characters in the upcoming 2010-2011 television schedule.

The study shows that LGBT representations will account for 3.9% of all scripted series regular characters in the 2010-2011 broadcast television schedule, up from 3% in 2009, 2.6% in 2008, and 1.1% in 2007. The number of regular LGBT characters on cable has also increased following a two year decline, up to 35 from a count of 25 last year.

Included in the Report are sections on Diversity on Scripted TV; LGBT Characters: Broadcast; LGBT Characters: Cable; Leading Roles; and Supporting Roles.

You can also access the four previous reports beginning in 2006-2007.

Snapshot of Television Use in the US (Nielsen)

Nielsen data comes at a high price for advertisers and academics alike. The former group can pay; the later group in most cases has to wait under the table for the crumbs to fall as general ratings and rankings are reported in secondary sources. Then there are the occasional reports Nielsen releases such as Snapshot of Television Use in the US (September 2010). It's not very big but there is some good info packed into it. Besides list of top ten shows for 2009-2010 which you can get a lot of places, you'll find comparisons of the size of the broadcast season audience over the last few years; viewing by genre; viewing by source (broadcast, public, ad-cable, premium cable, and other cable); and HD and DVR penetration.

Paley Center for Media database

This semester Penn Libraries is proud to be a test site for The Paley Center for Media's database of television and radio programming which they are in the process of making available to college libraries. The Paley Center's permanent media collection contains nearly 150,000 television and radio programs and advertisements, available both in New York and Los Angeles. It constitutes the largest single repository of American television programming in the world.

The online database offers synopses, along with production credits for the programs. For the first time, beginning with this trial, they are offering online access to 15,000+ digitized programs in their collection to selected universities. In addition to the digitized content, users will also have access to the metadata of the complete collection of over 150,000 programs.

The way it will work is like this. If you want to explore this resource at here at Annenberg you must access it at the work station in the Library right outside my office. You will first be asked to set up an account (simply provide your UPenn email address and give yourself a password). Once you do that you're in. You may also access the Paley database at Van Pelt.

Accessing the collection at Penn
By the terms of our contract with the Paley Center, the digital content will not be available for streaming directly to your computer. Instead, there will be specially designated PCs located at the following locations at the Van Pelt Library and the Annenberg Library.

I.Laptops (10)
10 laptops will circulate from Rosengarten Reserve Desk. Make sure you ask for a laptop configured with the Paley login.

II.Van Pelt Library Rooms (10)
A.Weigle Information Commons:
Room 124
Room 126
B.Class of 1955 Conference Room:
1 C55 CR
C.Ormandy Center:
1 Film Studies Classroom (Ormandy, Room 425)
5 Music & Media Rooms (Ormandy, Rooms 424.3-424.7)

III. Annenberg Library
Designated PC

Research Feature: Press coverage of Michael Vick

Here's a timely bit of research, at least for us folks here in the Philly area. In the Journal of Sports Media you can read Pamela C. Laucella's (Indiana University of Journalism-Indianapolis) findings on media coverage of the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal.

Michael Vick: An Analysis of Press Coverage on Federal Dogfighting Charges, Journal of Sport Media (Volume 5, Number 2, Fall 2010) pp. 35-79. Available at the ASC Library, also as e-journal from the Penn Library homepage.

Abstract: Michael Vick's superstar career as a quarterback in the National Football League seemingly came to an end when he pleaded guilty to dogfighting charges on August 20, 2007. This research studied press coverage of Vick's indictment, arraignment, and guilty plea in Richmond, Virginia by analyzing 243 primary documents from The New York Times, Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and USA Today. It offers a longitudinal examination of the scandal and elucidates the intersecting worlds of sport, media, race, and culture. This research adds to work on the cultural impact of media and sport, reinforces the criminal-athlete discourse, and elucidates the egregious practice of dogfighting.

American Radio Research Guide

There's a new entry on the Penn Libraries large menu of research guides, American Radio History Research Guide, which features the following categories: Sources for Streaming Radio Programs, American Radio Resources for Presidential and Political Topics, American Radio Music and Commercials Resources, American Radio Megasets on DVD, Primary Resources in American Radio, General Reference Works and American Radio E-Resources, and Archival Resources for American Radio.

If radio is your thing, this is a great little site to bookmark. Kudos to librarian colleagues Nick Okrent and Laureen Cantwell for putting this together for history and media history students alike.

September CommQuote

September's CommQuote is visual, brought to us by Salvador Dali whose late work is being featured at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta through January 9, 2011. Debris of an Automobile Giving Birth to a Blind Horse Biting a Telephone (1938) is featured in the exhibit and seems to fit nicely with what I look for in good, albeit pictorial, quotes for the blog.

Report on Media Freedom Indexes

The Center for International Media Assistance, CIMA, a media development organization, along with the Center for Global Communication Studies (at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School) have jointly published a report on media freedom indexes, Evaluating the Evaluators: Media Freedom Indexes and What They Measure. The Report "examines the strengths and shortcomings of existing media freedom indexes and offers recommendations to improve them" The author of the study is former Washington Post reporter and editor, John Burgess. The media freedom organizations that are evaluated are Freedom House, IREX and Reporters Without Borders.